Jeffrey Katzenberg introduces the screening at DreamWorks. © AWN Inc.

Well, I just got back from the Academy screening, which closed another whirlwind day on the Oscar Showcase tour. In addition, to Roger, Don, Marcy, Geza and Tamas, Gary Rydstrom, Lifted producer Katherine Sarafian (who we’d all meet at the Pixar screening), Torill Kove, The Danish Poet’s Norwegian producer Lise Fearnley, co-director of No Time for Nuts Chris Renaud and No Time for Nuts producer Lori Forte all joined the fun. Mike Thurmeier is back in New York with his wife and we’re happy to announce their new daughter has arrived. Her named is Katelyn Ivy. She was born on Feb. 18th at 2:23 in the afternoon. She was 21 inches long and a healthy 8lbs 10ozs!!!

We began our day at DreamWorks, where we were greeted by John Tarnoff, the head of the studio’s “incubator” department, which develops the initial artistic designs and storyboards for the company’s feature animated films. Jeffery Katzenberg came to meet the nominees and introduce the screening. He commented that the current renaissance in animated shorts is inspiring. He added that one of his dreams when he started in the industry was to be involved with a project that was nominated for an Academy Award, because it was an acknowledgement from your peers, and told the nominees to cherish this moment. In addition, he was delighted to finally have Roger and Don, who he worked with at Disney, visit the DreamWorks studio. During the screening, Jeffery requested a private screening of Lifted, which Ron provided for him. The audience at the screening was receptive and had many of the same questions that artists at the other studios had such as “what was your inspiration” and “how long did it take to make the film?”

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Don Hahn (l to r), Roger Allers, Ron Diamond, Mike Thurmeier and Marcy Page talking about their films at PDI/DreamWorks. © AWN Inc.

Thursday was an absolute whirlwind day on the tour. I couldn’t possibly write everything interesting that was said during the course of the day. So I’m going to set out to recap the day in full, but tease you with details to come later.

Roger Allers and Don Hahn meet the rest of us at our hotel and we ventured right down the street to EA. Boy, that seems like days ago and not just this morning. Our host Bob Nicoll showed us the immense campus, which has pool tables and videogame systems set up in a common area for the employees to use. A Starbucks is even opening up in the building so that the employees don’t have to leave to get their caffeine fix in the morning. During crunch times, the studio brings in oil change services, masseurs and dry cleaners to help the employees balance their personal lives with their busy schedules.

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Canemaker & producer Peggy Stern

It’s exciting to able to share with the rest of the community the thoughts and experiences of the Oscar nominees. And it’s a great pleasure to share with you today the feelings of last year’s Oscar winner John Canemaker. The Moon and the Son director tells us why the Oscar Tour was such a special event in the whole Oscar extravaganza. Here is what he had to say:
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