Ion Popescu-Gopo

Born May 1, 1923, in Bucharest. Rumanian film director and artist. Honored Artist of the Socialist Republic of Rumania (1959).

Popescu-Gopo graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest in 1949 and in 1950 made his debut as a director. He has filmed a series of philosophically imbued animated cartoons, including Short History (1957), The Seven Arts (1958), Homo Sapiens (1960), and Hello! Hello! (1962). Among his feature films are They’ve Stolen the Bomb (1961), Steps to the Moon (1964), If I Were a White Negro (1965), and A Twentieth-Century Faust (1966). The short story “My City” was interpreted in Vopescu-Gopo’s film Bucharest Through the Eyes of… (1967); he has also made a cycle of short illustrated films, Pills.

A founder of the Animafilm cartoon studio (1950, Bucharest), Popescu-Gopo was awarded the State Prize of the Socialist Republic of Rumania (1952). Most of his works have been awarded prizes at international film festivals in Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Cannes, Bordighera, Edinburgh, Damascus, and other cities.