Ion Popescu-Gopo was born on May 1, 1923 in Bucharest, Romania. He was a director and writer, known for If I Were Harap Alb (1965), A Bomb Was Stolen (1962) and Comedie fantastica (1975). He died on November 29, 1989 in Bucharest, Romania.
Attended the Academy of Fine Arts [today the National University of Arts] in Bucharest, but didn’t graduate.
In 1969 he was appointed as Head of the Cinema and Television section of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
[1958] Won the Grand Prize for Sapte arte (1958) as ‘Best Animation Film’ at the Tours Film Festival (France).
[1969] Member of the jury at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival. [1977] Member of the jury at the 10th Moscow International Film Festival. [1983] Member of the jury at the 13th Moscow International Film Festival.
[1960] Won the Golden Gate Award for Homo sapiens (1960) as ‘Best Animated Short’ at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
The Gopo Awards (Romanian: Premiile Gopo) were established in 2007 and named in honor of film director Ion Popescu-Gopo, also celebrating the 50th anniversary of his classic animation film A Brief History (1957) winning a prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957. The Gopo Awards honor the best Romanian (and foreign) cinematic achievements of the previous year. The trophy is a sculpture by artist Adrian Ilfoveanu representing ‘Gopo’s Little Man’, the main character of Gopo’s animation films.
