VIEW Conference is proud to present a virtual discussion with a distinguished panel of the directors behind this year’s Academy Award nominees for Best Animated Short Film. This free online event takes place on Tuesday, February 28th, 2023 at 9:00am PST / 5:00pm UK / 18:00 CET.
Register for the free online session: “Five Oscar Contenders For Best Animated Short”:
The panel is moderated by Dan Sarto, editor-in-chief of Animation World Network, and features:
- • Peter Baynton and Charlie Mackesy – “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse”
- • Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby – “The Flying Sailor”
- • João Gonzalez – “Ice Merchants”
- • Sara Gunnarsdóttir – “My Year of Dicks”
- • Lachlan Pendragon – “An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It”
“I am struck not only by the incredible beauty of this year’s Best Animated Short Film Oscar nominees,” says Conference Director Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez, “but also by the amazing variety of subject matter and technique on display. The directors have demonstrated an extraordinary level of commitment and creativity in making their films, and it is truly an honor for VIEW Conference to welcome them to this special panel.”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented its first Oscar for an animated short film to Walt Disney for the Silly Symphonies cartoon “Flowers and Tree,” at the 5th Academy Awards ceremony in 1932. The category at the time was known as ‘Short Subjects, Cartoons.’ Disney triumphed every year through the rest of that decade, before Fred Quimby joined the ranks of winners in 1940 with MGM’s “The Milky Way.” Recent winners include “Hair Love,” “If Anything Happens I Love You,” and “The Windshield Wiper.”
An international community of over 10,000 artists, filmmakers and executives, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded in 1927, with Douglas Fairbanks as its first president. The 95th Academy Awards is scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
Biographies
Peter Baynton studied character animation at Central St Martin’s, London. “Over the Hill,” his first
film after graduating, won The McLaren Award for Best British Animation, and he was selected by Screen International as a UK Star of Tomorrow. After years of making shorts and commercials, in 2015 he followed his heart to pursue longer form animation, working on films including “Paddington 2” and “The Tiger Who Came to Tea.”
Charlie Mackesy began his career as a cartoonist for The Spectator, before becoming a book illustrator for Oxford University Press. His internationally bestselling book “The Boy, the Mole, the
Fox and the Horse” was published in 2019 and has since been translated into over 40 different languages and dialects. Charlie's paintings have been exhibited widely and his bronzes can be found in public spaces in London.
Amanda Forbis joined the National Film Board of Canada in 1990 as animation director on the educational film “The Reluctant Deckhand.” Wendy Tilby’s first film, the Oscar-nominated “Strings” (1991), won many international awards. Forbis and Tilby teamed up to co-direct “When the Day Breaks” (1999) and “Wild Life” (2011), both of which were nominated for an Academy Award.
João Gonzalez is a film director, animator, illustrator and a musician, who trained at Escola Superior de Media Artes e Design in Portugal, and at London’s Royal College Art. His films “Nestor” and “The Voyager” won multiple awards. In 2022, his film “Ice Merchants” won the Cannes Jury Prize for Best Short Film in competition at the Critics Week, a first for a Portuguese filmmaker. Gonzalez composes the score for all his films, occasionally performing the music live.
Sara Gunnarsdóttir received her BFA from the Icelandic Academy of the Arts, while also part of the electro punk band Donna Mess. She has created animation, music videos and artwork for film and television, including Marielle Heller’s debut feature “The Diary of a Teenage Girl,” and HBO’s Emmy-nominated “The Case Against Adnan Sayed.”
Lachlan Pendragon is a writer, director, animator from Brisbane, Australia. He is a Student Academy Award-winner for his stop motion animated short film, "An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It". Lachlan created the short through a Doctor of Visual Arts program at Griffith Film School in Brisbane.
Stream sessions on-demand from VIEW Conference 2022:
An international community of over 10,000 artists, filmmakers and executives, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded in 1927, with Douglas Fairbanks as its first president. The 95th Academy Awards is scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
About VIEW Conference
An English language event, VIEW Conference 2023 takes place from October 15-20 in the beautiful baroque city of Torino, Italy. Attending the event in person guarantees an unrivaled opportunity for people to soak up the atmosphere and meet their heroes and mentors. Meanwhile, full online access enables a global audience to enjoy the conference via exclusive livestream.
The international VIEW Conference brings together industry professionals, thought leaders, students and enthusiasts not only to share and celebrate the latest achievements in Animation, VFX and Games, but also to share their visions of the future. The conference’s vibrant and inclusive atmosphere is designed to enlighten and inspire, with an extensive live program of talks, presentations, workshops and masterclasses embracing cutting-edge thinking on such diverse topics as Storytelling, Virtual Production, Computer Graphics, Interactive & Immersive Media, VR/AR/Mixed Reality and the Metaverse, Artificial Intelligence, Real-Time Rendering and much, much more.