William Morris agents Ken Freimann (l to r), Danny Gabai and Aaron Hart chat with the nominees. © 2008 AWN Inc.

After a late screening in the Aidikoff Screening Room for the William Morris agents, the filmmakers had a chance to meet with a few of the agents. Like many people have said along the tour, the agents felt that this year is one of the strongest years for animated shorts in quite some time. Peter and the Wolf asked how an animation director or producer finds representation. Ken Freimann said that it depends on what the filmmaker wants. Based on their nominated work, he said it would be tough because it’s hard for them to sell less than mainstream projects to the studios. He added that their films prove what they can do, so coming to agents with projects worked out would be a great help in determining what an agent can do for an animator. Agent Danny Gabai, who represents many independent writer/directors, said that if you want to move into the mainstream then they could help, or they could help connect their projects with artists who could help getting the project made. Ken’s example was that if Tim Burton gets involved with a project, the studios would be more interested. For producers, Ken said that they would represent them on a project-to-project basis.

Read the rest of this entry »

The nominees answer the questions of the literary agents at William Morris. © AWN Inc.

Seeing the pictures from the Oscar Showcase tour is a great way to convey all the events that took place. Here are some more shots from Ron from William Morris, the AWN/Acme Oscar party, Sony Animation and CAA.

Read the rest of this entry »

Torill Kove is the center as she receives a special certificate from the Canadian government. © AWN Inc.

I thought I was going to have Thursday morning to catch up, but I was wrong. Wednesday night Ron invited me to be his guest to the Canadian consulate general’s home for a lunch the next day. I’ve been to two previous Oscar functions at the Canadian consulate general’s beautiful house in Hancock Park and couldn’t pass up the chance to go again. The luncheon took place in the lovely courtyard in back by the pool. They were prepared for the rain and had tents and heaters set up, making it comfortable on the rainy L.A. day.

The consulate general made a brief speech congratulating all the Canadian nominees, which included The Danish Poet’s Torill Kove, Best Foreign Language production Water, Best Actor nominee Ryan Gosling, Best Screenplay nominee Paul Haggis and one of the sound editors from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Both Gosling and Haggis were no shows at the event. But Torill was quite happy to meet her favorite actress Laura Dern. But she was kind of embarrassed because she had one of those “why did I say that” moments when she told Laura Dern that she was her “all time favorite actress” or something like that. She shouldn’t feel bad; I think everyone in the industry has at least one of those moments. The first time I had the pleasure of interviewing Stan Lee, I ridiculously gushed to him at the end that much of my desire to get into creative endeavors was inspired by this work. I felt embarrassed afterward, but I couldn’t help it. But I digress. Then the consulate general introduced a member of the Canadian parliament. The parliament had passed a resolution formally congratulating all the Canadian nominees. Torill was presented with a nice certificate. I wonder if they know that No Time for Nuts co-director Mike Thurmeier is originally from Canada.

Read the rest of this entry »