Sep 26, 2022

Luxembourg will pick former Pixar animator Carlo Vogelé-S debut feature-Icarus for the 2023 Oscar.

Luxembourg chose Carlo Vogelet's Icarus to represent the Grand Duchy in this year's Oscar race.

Icarus is Vogele's debut, but has an impressive resume as an animator who has worked for Pixar for over 8 years including Toy Story 3, Cars 2, and Brave.

The film was co・produced by Nicolas Style Iris Productions and Jean・Michel Ray Rezo Productions in Luxembourg, Belgium and France. Vogele co-wrote the screenplay with Isabelle Andrivet.

Set on the Mediterranean island of Crete, the film proposes a secret story from the childhood of Icarus, who works as an apprentice to his father Daedalus at a man's sculpture workshop in Knossos. While exploring one day, Icarus discovers a mysterious boy of his own age with the head of a bull that lives hidden in the royal palace of King Minos. The boy quickly becomes friends before Minos locks the "monster" in his maze. When the great warrior Prince Theseus arrives to kill the Minotaur, Icarus puts everything in line to save his friend.

In a statement, Luxembourg's National Oscar Selection Committee said they chose the animated feature:

not only for its artistic and aesthetic qualities, but also for its narration freely inspired by Greek mythology, which tells the story of a fiery young man who gets too close to the sun from the point of view of Icarus. It's a good idea. Through his eyes, the viewer discovers the injustice and cruelty of men with the main characters.The choice of this story allowed the director Carlo Vogel to develop a personal reading of myths.

Cartoon Brew debuted a concept trailer for The Icarus way in 2017, when the film was still in development. At the time, Vogele explained how the film adds a new twist to Greek mythology. "The idea is to imagine a young Icarus youth that is a part not mentioned in the myth as we know it," he said.