Each frame was made using slow-drying oil paints upon a back-lit glass "canvas." With his fingers, Director Aleksandr Petrov manipulated the oils between frames and photographed the results, then gently molding the oils for the next frame to repeat the process.
A total of 29,000 frames are in the film.
Before this film, Petrov worked on an A4 sized canvass. Yet, as this film was being made specifically for IMAX, the glass canvass had to be four times this size.
Aleksandr Petrov worked for two and a half years in Montreal (Canada). There he created the film.
In 2000, "The Old Man and the Sea", which became the first ever animated film for cinemas of the large format IMAX, was awarded the Academy Award "Oscar".