Memorable Images Focus Of Animated Features Celebration During Oscar Week

One of movie fans favorite events of Oscar Week was held Thursday evening at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre, as the Academy held the eighth annual event celebrating the nominees for Best Animated Feature Film.

The evening featured clips from each film, followed by an onstage discussion with each group of nominated filmmakers.

This year’s eclectic mix – Anomalisa, Boy and the World, Inside Out, Shaun the Sheep Movie and When Marnie Was There – are as international as they are distinct.

Employing a stunning variety of animation techniques, the nominees explored a wide range of topics, including existential despair, devastation of natural resources, learning to handle emotion, the value of friendship and surviving the difficulties of adolescence.

This year, members were able to stream the movies and voting came from all over the world.

The evening’s hosts were Don Hall, Chris Williams, Roy Conli, last year’s Oscar winning team from BIG HERO 6. Conli said the five nominees are “beautiful silent moments filled with poetry.”

Hosts Don Hall, Roy Conli and Chris Williams

From left: Animated Feature Film nominees Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura, “When Marnie Was There”, Jonas Rivera, “Inside Out”, Rosa Tran, “Anomalisa, Richard Starzak, “Shaun the Sheep Movie”, Pete Docter, “Inside Out”, Duke Johnson, “Anomalisa”, Alê Abreu, “Boy and the World”, Mark Burton, “Shaun the Sheep Movie” and Charlie Kaufman, “Anomalisa” prior to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscar Week: Animated Features event

From left: Animated Feature Film nominees Alê Abreu, “Boy and the World”, Richard Starzak, “Shaun the Sheep Movie”, Rosa Tran and Duke Johnson, “Anomalisa”, and Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera, “Inside Out”, prior to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscar Week: Animated Features event

“Anomalisa” – Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran

Michael Stone, a middle-aged motivational speaker who is grappling with an existential crisis, attends a customer service convention in Cincinnati to give a speech. At the hotel, he meets and falls for Lisa, a seemingly ordinary woman who sparks his imagination and energizes him to reexamine his life.

ANOMALISA was a staged radio play in Los Angeles in 2005. Filming on the stop-motion animated feature began in 2011. “Puppetry is a perfect medium for this story. It was a good way to explore the adult themes and the emotional story,” said Johnson. On working together, Kaufman said, “co-directing was easy. There was no real division of labor.” The director also talked about the one actor’s voice (Tom Noonan) playing so many characters and the realization for the audience. “It comes to people at different times. I didn’t want to guide the audience. Some never figure it out. There is no right or wrong time.” Over 300 face plates were used on the film while one character was a composite of 20 people. The three filmmakers were going for a natural look and not necessarily a stop-motion feel.

On the choice to use Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ for one the best scenes of the film, Tran told the audience, “at first we wanted to use ‘My Heart Will Go On’ but we couldn’t get the clearance to the rights to use it. It took two years to clear Lauper’s song.” Johnson laughed, “Rosa had us thinking we had the rights all along. She didn’t share it with us that we didn’t. We only got them at the end. And we only just discovered that at a recent Q&A session.”

“Boy and the World” – Alê Abreu

Despite his family’s poverty, young Cuca lives a satisfying life, full of wonder at his rural surroundings, until his father goes on a train trip and disappears. While searching for his father, Cuca meets a wide variety of people as he journeys from a farming camp to the ocean and a large factory and then back to the big city.

“Making my film was a special moment for animation in Brazil,” said Abreu. The first time nominee said he tried to listen for the character’s voice and to see the story through the boy’s eyes. “I wanted to convey that through colors. It was an exercise in freedom to draw the character as a child without the critical voice of an adult. The animation style was created for the film. It’s a lyrical film as well as epic.” Music is a huge part of this special film. Abreu added, “it’s a lyrical film as well as epic. The score, by Gustavo Kurlat and Ruben Feffer, is its own special character. It’s a huge part and special.”

“Inside Out” – Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera

When 11-year-old Riley and her parents move to a new city, it’s up to Riley’s five main emotions — Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust — to help her adjust. Joy and Sadness are accidentally launched on a journey through Riley’s brain to preserve her core memories, and as the duo races back to Headquarters, Fear, Anger and Disgust must figure out how to guide Riley.

Inside Out is the ninth animated feature to receive a Writing nomination. To date, none has won. With his fourth Writing nomination this year, Pete Docter has tied Andrew Stanton for the most writing nominations for animated films. The filmmakers said the images were created first and they wrote the dialogue to fit it. It was important to both Docter and Rivera that children and adults could relate to the important themes of the film. Rivera remarked, “kids got it immediately when we first started screening it. We had to simplify it for the studio execs.”

“Shaun the Sheep Movie” – Mark Burton and Richard Starzak

Shaun and his fellow sheep are disgruntled with the Farmer’s adherence to his rigid schedule, which leaves no room for spontaneous fun, but when he goes missing in the Big City, the flock and sheepdog Bitzer leave their rural home to hunt for their pal, all the while eluding a power-mad animal containment officer.

The stop motion animation came easy to the duo. Based on the 140 episodes from the TV show, which ran 7 minutes each, there were many stories to tell with a full-length film. “The emotional core prompted us to make the movie. It’s a story about a family. We used no dialogue throughout the movie and told the story physically. We used sound as a device.” said Starzak. Both agreed Buster Keaton was a big influence in telling the story of SHAUN THE SHEEP more like a silent film. From the beginning the themes never changed. Burton added, “we adapted as we went along – adjusting the storyboards to see what was working, but the heart of the story remained the same.” Burton added that the song “Home” from the Foo-Fighters could only be used in the film once they had the rights. “It happened when we sent a photo of Shaun pleading for the rights.”

Prior to the Q&A event, when I asked the filmmakers about their next project, Starzak said they were working on SHAUN THE SHEEP 2.

“When Marnie Was Here” – Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura

After lonely young Anna is sent to live in Hokkaido with her relatives, she spends her time drawing and exploring her rural home. Anna is befriended by a mysterious blonde girl named Marnie who lives in an isolated mansion, and as their bond grows, Anna becomes obsessed with uncovering the secret of Marnie’s life.

During the Q&A part of the program, director Hiromasa Yonebayashi spoke of the adapting the original British story. Through a translator, Yonebayashi said, “we didn’t know at first how to tell the story of Anna and Marnie and their journey. It was difficult at first to depict how they felt and then turn it into a film, but eventually it worked.” He continued, “It’s a fine line to show a flawed at empathetic character. Most of Studio Ghibli fans know that our films conatin bright sunny characters. We wanted to convey a character who is short in stature, but large in issues.” The greatest personal achievement for the filmmaker was the depiction of water in the movie. “Showing water is very difficult. When we first showed it to Mr. Miyazaki, he remarked on how the water looked very real. I felt very relieved!”

Producer Yoshiaki Nishimura mentioned Studio Ghibli is no longer making feature films, only shorts. However the company’s name will remain the same.

Oscar Week Events

February 23: Shorts

February 24: Documentaries

February 25: Feature Animation

February 27: Foreign Language Film

February 27: Makeup and Hairstyling Symposium

The 88th Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.