Sadness for Raoul Servais: ‘Wizard of Ostend’ is no more

“The city of Ostend mourns, but is especially grateful for everything Raoul Servais meant to Ostend. The ‘wizard of Ostend’ was the father of the animation film and leaves behind an impressive oeuvre,” says the city in a press release.

Funeral register in Ostend

“You can express your condolences to one of the greatest artists Ostend has ever known via the online funeral register on the website of the City of Ostend via www.oostende.be/raoul.

There is also a physical mourning register in De Grote Post culture center where everyone can write a personal message. This is possible daily from 12 to 8 p.m., from 21 to 26 March.

Pioneer of the animated film

Ostend draftsman, designer and film director Raoul Servais passed away at the age of 94. He was born in Ostend in 1928, but lived for more than 30 years in a small house on the ‘boerenbuiten’ in Leffinge. He was considered the father and pioneer of animation film, the city of Ostend writes in a press release.

“He was internationally acclaimed with more than 60 awards, including a Golden Palm in Cannes. He was also one of the founders of the animation film course at KASK in Ghent, the first in Europe. Charlie Chaplin and Felix de Kat

His oldest memory, he told UiTmagazine in an interview on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday, was the joy he felt when he received a box of colored pencils as a gift. He loved to draw and got his interest in film from his father. As a five-year-old, his heroes were Charlie Chaplin and Felix the Cat. He secretly took the tapes out of the closet and studied the drawings on them. He didn’t understand why the images moved, and that mystery later prompted him to start film.”

Internationally acclaimed

“He studied applied arts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent (KASK). He was the founder of the first animation film education in Europe at the KASK. He taught at the Higher Institute La Cambre in Brussels and at the Center Tertaire in Valenciennes. He has also been a visiting lecturer at Columbia College in Chicago and at the California Institute of Arts in Los Angeles.

Internationally acclaimed Raoul Servais made about twenty films that received more than sixty national and international festival awards, including the grand prize at the Mostra in Venice, the Special Prize of the Jury in Cannes and the Golden Palm in Cannes. In Canada he received the Norman McLaren Heritage prize, in Valladolid De Gouden Aar for his film career, in Bruges the Achilles Van Acker prize, and in West Flanders the Five-yearly Culture Prize. He was cultural ambassador of Flanders.

In 1973 he was appointed member of the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences of Belgium. In 2018, at the age of 90, he was made an honorary citizen of Ostend. His graphic-filmic oeuvre has been exhibited all over the world and in Mu.Zee an entire wing has been dedicated to him,” says the city of Ostend.

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