The Russian film expert Victor Bocharov has found a record of 1906, which is apparently the first national animation, as well as the world’s first model shot.
      
      The film shows puppets dancing ballet against the background of still scenery. The filming was made by the Mariinsky Theatre’s ballet master Alexander Shiryaev, who thereby could have forestalled Ladislas Starevich, who is considered the father of puppet animation. The first animated film by Starevich, Lucanus Cervus was made in 1910.
      
      “The most valuable thing is that along with the positive there is also the negative here. There are no negatives preserved from the beginning of film era in the world. It is just because nobody kept them. But here the negative has been preserved” – Victor Bocharov explains.
      
      Source: ntv.ru