Abel Goldfarb’s award winning animation ‘Ian’ is based on a true story of a young boy battling bullying and disability loneliness

Abel Goldfarb’s award winning animation ‘Ian’ is based on a true story of a young boy battling bullying and disability loneliness

Winner of the Oscar qualifying prize at LA Shorts International Film Fest

Abel Goldfarb’s emotional animated short film shares a true story about a disabled boy called Ian. This award winning film took home the top prize at LA Shorts International Film Festival and was originally launched by the President of Argentina. The film was Executive Produced by Oscar winner Juan José Campanella.

Ian was born with cerebral palsy. All he wants is to make friends, although it seems impossible to achieve when discrimination and bullying keep him away from his beloved playground.  However, this young boy is determined and won’t give up easily.

The film is based on Ian, a young Argentinian boy who suffers from cerebral palsy. He can only talk with the help of a machine and was teased daily when he visited his rehabilitation center by children from a nearby school. His mother went to the school to tackle this issue and found the school had no tools to teach the children that bullying is wrong, so she wrote a book aimed at children, about a disabled boy. Penguin published this inspiring book, which is simply titled Ian.

Director Abel Goldfarb was born in Buenos Aires in 1979. He studied Film Direction at the prestigious University of Cinema (FUC) in BA. At the tender age of 17, he won his first screenplay contest. Since 2010 he has worked with Oscar winner Juan José Campanella and has been a lecturer since 2004.

Producer Gastón Gorali co-wrote and produced the award-winning animated film Underdogs distributed by Universal Pictures and The Weinstein Company. He has created, co-written, and produced TV shows for global networks like Fox and Discovery Kids. He is also the co-founder of Mundoloco CGI Animation Studios.

Latin-American filmmaker Juan José Campanella has written, directed and produced box-office hits, like The Son of the Bride, Metegol, and Academy Award winner The Secret in her Eyes. He is also a two-time EMMY award winner.

In October Ian can be seen at Edmonton International Film Festival, Warsaw International Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival, Chelsea Film Festival, Austin Film Festival and Naples International Film Festival.