ANIMATORS WIN AWARD OF A LIFETIME
The Venice Film Festival’s first ever Lifetime Achievement Award has been given to the animation directors of Pixar Studios. The award was presented to Chief creative officer John Lasseter and the other directors by George Lucas, under whom Pixar actually began as the computer graphics division of his Lucasfilm company. Lucas sold Pixar to Apple founder Steve Jobs for ten million dollars in 1986, and Lasseter notes “I think anybody else, when they sell a company and it goes on to be very successful, they would feel like they missed out… George Lucas is so proud of us and we are so thankful to him – he is a true visionary,” Pixar’s movies – ten so far- have been a commercial and critical phenomenon, even scoring four Oscars for Best Animations, and Lasseter says he hopes that the Academy’s decision to open up the Best Picture category to allow for more nominations might result in animated pictures getting more of a chance there, too – “The extension of the number of nominees for best picture opens up opportunities for very popular films and other films including animation,” he told journalists. Lassiter personally directed the 1995 smash “Toy Story”, with his animation team also including Brad Bird (“Ratatouille”), Pete Docter (“Monsters Inc”), Andrew Stanton (“Wall-E”) and Lee Unkrich (“Toy Story 3”), and following the Disney buyout of Pixar in 2006, was made chief creative officer of both studios. Their latest picture, “Up”, due for release in the UK in October, has already been a massive success overseas |
