Me on the left with This Way Up director Alan Smith.

written by Rick Farmiloe

I was lucky enough to be included in part of the Oscar Showcase tour this year. Every year the nominees for animated short films are given a tour and luncheon at some of the animation studios here in the Los Angeles area.  The organizer of these celebrations, Ron Diamond, invited me to join them at DreamWorks on the last day of the tour.  Ron and I are on the Executive Committee of the Short Films/Animation Branch of the Academy, and see scores of animated shorts every year.  There is always a wide range of styles and ideas presented in various mediums.  It’s always interesting to see which ones will make the final cut for the Oscar nominations. This year the field was exceptionally strong, with every film being quite unique and different from the rest.  Meeting the filmmakers and hearing about their thought process and methods of getting it on the screen was extremely interesting and inspiring.

Everyone gathered outside the Campanile Building where the theater is located.  There would be a screening for the DreamWorks staff, then a question and answer period with the filmmakers afterwards.  It was fun to meet the filmmakers beforehand and mingle around a bit. The director of PRESTO, Doug Sweetland, could not attend this day, unfortunately. This was the last of the tour stops, so they were very friendly with each other by this point. There seemed to be a common bond, regardless of language or background.  They were joined together by a love and passion for filmmaking and animation.  There was absolutely no competitive vibe among them.  They were just all together as filmmakers, celebrating the animated art form.  Jeffrey Katzenberg showed, and greeted everyone very warmly, making everyone associated with this tour feel extremely welcome.  Jeffrey is one of animation’s biggest fans and supporters.

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Kunio Kato (l) with Robot Communications Taki Tsuyoshi.

Congratulations to Oscar winner Kunio Kato, as well as everyone at Robot Communications, especially Taki Tsuyoshi. I’d also like to congratulate all the nominees on their wonderful films. Even though I only had a chance to follow the filmmakers on the L.A. leg this year, I believe the overall tour was again a success.

The tour members pose outside the Campanile Theater.

The Oscar Showcase tour came to an end on Friday with a visit to DreamWorks. The filmmakers were clearly tired from their long week and a half, but their excitement hasn’t wavered. Ron invited Academy board member Rick Farmiloe to join us for the day to experience the tour with the filmmakers. The day was a bit of a homecoming for Farmiloe, who served as a story artist on the original “Shrek.” At Disney, he animated classic characters like Lefou in “Beauty and the Beast” and Abu in “Aladdin.”

For the first time, the “This Way Up” filmmakers were able to join the tour. Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes have been busy though, spending much of the week meeting with execs around town on feature projects. Alan said they met with the Hensons, former Fox exec Chris Meledandri, and Sony’s Hannah Minghella. Accompanying the famed commercials directors, their most recent work was seen during the Super Bowl — the Coca-Cola “Avatar” spot — were writer/producer Chris O’Reilly and producer Charlotte Bavasso, who I had met two nights prior at the AWN/Acme Filmworks party. She said the party at Ron’s house was especially nice, because she was tired of restaurant after restaurant every night that she has been in L.A.

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Introducing myself to Oktapodi director Julien Bocabeille.

written by Bill Kroyer

Wednesday I had the pleasure of joining Ron Diamond and the players in the traveling Oscar Tour on their visit to Sony Pictures Animation. The Oscar-nominated directors of the animated short films “Oktapodi,” “La Maison en Petits Cubes,” and “Lavatory Lovestory” had a chance to tour the studio and answer questions from the animation crew.

Not lost on the Sony audience was the fact that there is not a single spoken word in the five nominated films, a condition that emphasizes the international make-up of the nominees and the universal appeal of the films. The top Sony animation executives, including Hannah Minghella and Barry Weiss, hosted a luncheon following the screening.

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The nominees meet their latest Academy guest Bill Kroyer (r).

Well, the second to last tour stop brings the filmmakers to Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks. For Emud, it was a return to his workplace where he is on the Disney live-action/CG flick, “G-Force.” He was thankful that Sony gave him ten days off to tour both in San Francisco and L.A.

We arrived and were greeted by a dapper looking Don Levy, marketing master for Sony, who had to leave us early to hand out an award at the publicist’s awards that afternoon. For each stop of the L.A. leg, Ron invited a different member of the Academy board. At Sony, the filmmakers had the pleasure of meeting Bill Kroyer. FX was particularly impressed with meeting someone who worked on “Tron.” Bill shared a story of “Ice Age” director Chris Wedge entering x-sheet data into the computer on the film. Bill said he was glad that Chris stuck with computers after the job.
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Oktapodi's Julien Bocabeille and I talked over lunch.

written by Bob Degus

For more than a decade, I’ve been a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Short Film and Feature Animation Branch.  Each year I look forward to our fall screenings where we get to see the finest short animated films from around the world and select the five nominees.  It’s like attending the best film festival in the world.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of spending the day with the filmmakers of three of the nominated shorts — “Oktapodi,” “Lavatory Lovestory,” and “La Maison en Petite Cubes” — as they were welcomed into and toured the “birthplace” of American animation – Walt Disney Studios.
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The nominees - Oktapodi's Emud Mokhberi (l-r), Oktapodi's Thierry Marchand, Lavatory Lovestory's Konstantin Bronzit, La Maison's Kunio Kato, This Way Up's Alan Smith, This Way Up's Adam Foulkes, and Presto's Doug Sweetland

The screening at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences is always an exciting event for the nominees. Sell out crowds are eager to see the films and are always very receptive. The screening is also a big press event with the nominees juggling interviews and photo ops with news outlets from around the world.

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The tour poses for a pic with the Animation Resource Library archivists in front of background painted for a Donald Duck promotional tour.

As the tour swings from San Francisco to Los Angeles, the Oscar Travelogue switches chroniclers from Barbara Robertson to me, Rick DeMott.

Walt Disney kicks off the L.A. leg. For a touch of morning inspiration, we gathered at the Animation Resource Library. Having traveled with the Oscar Tour for the past two years in both San Fran and Los Angeles, it feels strange coming in midstream. I missed out on the bonding that took place in the Bay Area as the filmmakers from around the globe were getting to know each other. For the “Oktapodi” crew, the tour was the first chance for them to be together since graduating from Gobelins. Julien Bocabeille and Thierry Marchand, who both work for DreamWorks in Bangalore, India, joined FX, Olivier, Quentin and Emud, who already had a taste of the tour last week. Joining the six “Oktapodi” directors were Konstantin and Kunio, who having met for the first time in San Fran, have clearly bonded quickly, despite not speaking the same language.

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Ron introduces the boys to PDI's Eric Darnell and Gail Curry.

written by Barbara Robertson

The two and a half day fast forward is behind us, now. The nominees are on their way to Los Angeles for part two of Ron Diamond’s Oscar Tour, although for the second half, I don’t think he’ll be driving the giant white van (generously donated by PDI/DreamWorks), which he, amazingly, managed to squeeze into the only parking place in San Francisco’s Mission District that was big enough and still within walking distance to the ASIFA dinner. Finding a parking place for a Smart Car in San Francisco is hard, but somehow, the reality matched Ron’s optimism that it would all work out.

Now, for a rewind and some impressions from within the bubble.

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The filmmakers meet the George Lucas.

written by Barbara Robertson

It’s been a busy an exciting three days, but such a wonderful time. Some highlights and pictures. I’ll sketch in details tomorrow.

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