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Bruno Bozzetto was born on 3 March 1938 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for Allegro non troppo (1976), La cabina (1973) and Self Service (1974).- Director
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- Animation Department
Sylvain Chomet was born on 10 November 1963 in Maisons-Laffitte, Seine-et-Oise [now Yvelines, Île-de-France], France. He is a director and writer, known for The Triplets of Belleville (2003), The Illusionist (2010) and Paris, I Love You (2006).- Director
- Animation Department
- Editor
- Director
- Animation Department
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Paul Driessen was born on 30 March 1940 in Nijmegen, Gelderland, Netherlands. He is a director and writer, known for The Boy Who Saw the Iceberg (2000), 3 Misses (1998) and The End of the World in Four Seasons (1995).- Director
- Animation Department
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- Animation Department
- Art Department
- Production Designer
Ralph Eggleston was born on 18 October 1965 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. He was a production designer, known for Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003) and Inside Out (2015). He died on 28 August 2022 in California, USA.- Director
- Art Department
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Born in Tatebayashi city. After working in a PR firm, joined Shin'Ei Animation Company in 1982. After doing animation tasks for the TV series "Doraemon" (created by Fujiko-Fujio), he was promoted to chief director with others TV series of the same creators, "ESPer Mami" (1987-88) and "21-Emon" (1991-92). Debuted as a film director with the theatrical version of "ESPer Mami, the Starry Sky Dancing Doll" in 1988, followed by a Doraemon spin-off, "Dorami-chan, The Highway Boys Band" in 1991. From 1992 he began to direct, produce and write episodes of the TV series "Crayon Shin-chan", and starting in 1993 also the yearly theatrical films based on its characters.- Producer
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- Art Department
William Joyce was born on 11 December 1957 in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Epic (2013), The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011) and Rolie Polie Olie (1998).- Producer
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Although born in Hollywood, John and his twin sister Johanna were raised in Whittier near Los Angeles. His parents were Jewell Mae (Risley), an art teacher, and Paul Eual Lasseter, a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership. His mother's profession contributed to his interest in animation and particularly the Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons which he would watch on television. It was when he was in High School that he realized that he could have a career in animation and he wrote to the Walt Disney Studios but nothing happened then In 1975 the Disney company started an animation course at Calarts - The California Institute of the Arts- and John, with encouragement from his mother, was one of the first to sign up. He and his class mates, who included the future animators and directors Brad Bird, and Tim Burton were taught by some of Disney's veteran animators such as Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. During his time there John produced two animated shorts - Lady and the Lamp (1979) and Nitemare (1980) - which both won the Student Academy Award for Animation. On graduating in 1979 John was taken on as an animator at the Disney Studios. In 1983, while working on Mickey's Christmas Carol some friends invited him to see some footage of Tron that they were working on using CGI and he immediately saw the potential of it to enhance animated films. John and a colleague made a short test film and satisfied with the result and full of enthusiasm started work on a feature without consulting their superiors who when they found out about it canceled it and sacked John. Having made contacts in the computer industry he was quickly taken on by Lucasfilm which was bought by Steve Jobs for $5 million with a further $5 million invested as working capital and the company renamed Pixar. John soon convinced Steve that the future lay in computer animation by bringing his desk lamp to life in the short 'Luxor Jr' which was shown at a computer graphics conference and got a standing ovation. The first computer animated feature soon followed in the form of 'Toy Story' winning John an Oscar for Special Achievement to go with one he got for Animated Short Film - Tin Toy. He's also had Oscar nominations for Animated Feature - Monster Inc and Cars, Original Screenplay -Toy Story, Animated Short Story - Luxor Jr while the short Knick Knack was selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the best 10 animated films of all time. In 2008, he was honored with the Winsor McCay Award, - the lifetime achievement award for animators. He oversees 3 animation studios - Pixar, Disney Animation and DisneyToon He spent 9 year (2005 - 2014) on the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, only relinquishing his seat due to term limits. He was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood in November 2011.- Director
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- Animation Department
Michèle Lemieux is known for Nuit d'orage (2003), Here and the Great Elsewhere (2012) and Éloge de l'ombre (2023).- Producer
- Animation Department
- Director
Peter Lord was born on 4 November 1953 in Bristol, England, UK. He is a producer and director, known for The Amazing Adventures of Morph (1980), Chicken Run (2000) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).- Actor
- Animation Department
- Art Department
Bud Luckey was an American animator, writer, director and voice actor from Montana known for his works at Pixar and Sesame Street. He directed and voiced the short film Boundin' before voicing Rick Dicker in The Incredibles and Jack-Jack Attack. He later voiced Chuckles from Toy Story 3 and Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. He passed away in February 2018 due to an extended illness.- Writer
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Ivan Maksimov was born on 19 November 1958 in Moscow, USSR. He is a writer and director, known for Long Bridge of Desired Direction (2013), Veter vdol berega (2004) and Rain Down from Above (2007).- Animation Department
- Director
Kyle Miller is known for I Declare War (2012) and Inkblots (2010).- Director
- Animation Department
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- Animation Department
- Writer
- Art Department
Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's greatest animation directors. The entertaining plots, compelling characters, and breathtaking visuals in his films have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition within Japan.
Miyazaki started his career in 1963 as an animator at the studio Toei Douga studio, and was subsequently involved in many early classics of Japanese animation. From the beginning, he commanded attention with his incredible drawing ability and the seemingly endless stream of movie ideas he proposed.
In 1971, he moved to the A Pro studio with Isao Takahata. In 1973, he moved to Nippon Animation, where he was heavily involved in the World Masterpiece Theater TV animation series for the next 5 years. In 1978, he directed his first TV series, Future Boy Conan (1978). Then, he moved to Tokyo Movie Shinsha in 1979 to direct his first movie, the classic Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979). In 1984, he released Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), which was based on the manga of the same title he had started 2 years before. The success of the film led to the establishment of a new animation studio, Studio Ghibli. Since then, he has since directed, written, and produced many other films with Takahata. More recently, he has produced with Toshio Suzuki. All enjoyed critical and box office success, in particular Princess Mononoke (1997). It received the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Award for Best Film and was the highest-grossing (about USD $150 million) domestic film in Japan's history at the time of its release.
In addition to animation, he also draws manga. His major work was Nausicaä, an epic tale he worked on intermittently from 1982 to 1984 while he was busy making animated films. Another manga Hikotei Jidai, later evolved into Porco Rosso (1992).- Writer
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Nick Park was born on 6 December 1958 in Preston, Lancashire, England, UK. He is a writer and producer, known for Chicken Run (2000), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) and Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers (1993).- Director
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He studied art at VGIK (state institute of cinema and TV). He was a disciple of Yuri Norstein at the Advanced School for screenwriters and directors (Moscow).
After making his first films in Russia, in Canada he adapted the novel The Old Man and the Sea (1999), resulting in a 20-minute animated short - the first large-format animated film ever made. Technically impressive, the film is made entirely in pastel oil paintings on glass, a technique mastered by only a handful of animators in the world. By using his fingertips instead of a paintbrush on different glass sheets positioned on multiple levels, each covered with slow-drying oil paints, he was able to add depth to his paintings. After photographing each frame painted on the glass sheets, which was four times larger than the usual A4-sized canvas, he had to slightly modify the painting for the next frame and so on. It took Aleksandr Petrov over two years, from March 1997 through April 1999, to paint each of the 29,000+ frames. For the shooting of the frames a special adapted motion-control camera system was built, probably the most precise computerized animation stand ever made. On this an IMAX camera was mounted, and a video-assist camera was then attached to the IMAX camera. The film was highly acclaimed, receiving the Academy Award for Animated Short Film and Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.
After this, Aleksandr Petrov has maintained a close relationship with Pascal Blais Studio in Canada, which helped fund The Old Man and the Sea (1999), where he works on commercials.
He returned to Yaroslavl in Russia to work on his latest film, My Love (2006), which was finished in spring 2006 after three years' work and had its premiere at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival on August 27, where it won the Audience Prize and the Special International Jury Prize. On March 17, 2007, My Love (2006) was theatrically released at the Cinema Angelika in Shibuya, (Japan) by Studio Ghibli, as the first release of the "Ghibli Museum Library" (theatrical and DVD releases of Western animated films in Japan).
Petrov's style from the late 1980s onward can be characterized as a type of Romantic realism. People, animals and landscapes are painted and animated in a very realistic fashion, but there are many sections in his films where Petrov attempts to depict a character's inner thoughts and dreams. In The Old Man and the Sea (1999), for example, the fisherman dreams that he and the marlin are brothers swimming through the sea and the sky. In My Love (2006), the main character's illness is represented by showing him being buried beneath freshly fallen snow on a dark night.
In a 2009 interview, Petrov stated that he was jobless and using-up the last of his previously earned money. A 2010 article stated that Petrov wants to create an animated feature film with his technique, but cannot start because of lack of funds.
In 2014, Petrov directed a three-minute animated sequence for the Sochi paralympic games called Firebird. In an interview later that year, Petrov confirmed that if he can find the funding, he would like to work on a feature film in the future using his signature style, and stated that he is working on a film project but that it is progressing with great difficulty.
In July 2016 Petrov sat on the board of directors for the International Film Festival of Poetic Animation held in Pergola, Italy.- Producer
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Jan Pinkava was born on 21 June 1963 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He is a producer and director, known for Ratatouille (2007), Geri's Game (1997) and A Bug's Life (1998). He has been married to Kay Renard since September 1994.- Director
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Bill Plympton was born on 30 April 1946 in Portland, Oregon, USA. He is a director and writer, known for Cheatin' (2013), I Married a Strange Person! (1997) and Idiots and Angels (2008).- Animation Department
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- Art Department
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- Animation Department
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Barry Purves is known for Screen Play (1993), Gilbert & Sullivan: The Very Models (1998) and Achilles (1995).- Writer
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Carlos Saldanha is a Brazilian director of animated films. He was the director of Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) and Rio (2011), and the co-director of Ice Age (2002) and Robots (2005).
Saldanha was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He left his hometown in 1991 to follow his artistic instinct and passion for animation. With a background in computer science and a natural artistic sensibility, he found New York City the perfect locale to merge these skills and become an animator. He attended the MFA program at New York's School of Visual Arts, where he graduated with honors in 1993, after completing two animated shorts, The Adventures of Korky, the Corkscrew (1992) and Time For Love (1993). The shorts have been screened at animation festivals around the world. At SVA, Saldanha met Chris Wedge, one of the co-founders of Blue Sky Studios, who invited him to join their growing team of artists.
He also worked as animator on Wedge's short film Bunny (1998).- Director
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- Animation Department
Henry Selick is a film director, specializing in films with stop-motion animation. He has formal training as an animator.
Selick was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, son of Charles H. Selick and Melanie Molan. He was mostly raised in Rumson, New Jersey. As a child, Selick took up drawing as a hobby. He became fascinated with animation at a young age, after viewing two specific films. One was the silhouette animation feature film "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (1926) by Lotte Reiniger. It was one of the earliest animated feature films (the first had been released in 1917), the first produced in Europe, and the earliest one that has been preserved. The other film was the live-action film "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958), which featured stop-motion animation by Ray Harryhausen.
Selick started his college studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he studied science. He next studied art in Syracuse University, arts and design in the Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, and animation at the California Institute of the Arts. Two of his student films won so-called "Student Academy Awards", awards by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for promising student films.
In the 1970s, after completing his college studies, Selick was hired by Walt Disney Productions, (the animation studio of the Disney corporation). He started his career there as an in-betweener, generating intermediate images for key frames in animated works. This is typically a low-level position at the animation department and the work goes uncredited.
At Disney, he started working as an animator trainee, one of several trainees under an aging crew of directors and supervisors. His first (uncredited) high-profile works was as part of the animation crew in the feature film "Pete's Dragon" (1977) and the featurette "The Small One" (1978). Among his associates at the time were other animator trainees, such as Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. The man mainly responsible for their training was veteran animator Eric Larson (1905-1988), one of "Disney's Nine Old Men" (an old guard of senior animators and directors that had long careers with the studio).
The young animators of the studio, Selick among them, completed a single film, the drama film "The Fox and the Hound" (1981). Then many of them left the studio to pursue careers elsewhere. Selick spend most of the 1980s as a freelancer. He directed animation for television commercials, for products such as the Pillsbury Doughboy, and Ritz Crackers. He also worked as a sequence director or storyboard artist for a number of films, such as "Twice Upon a Time" (1983), "Return to Oz" (1985), "Nutcracker: The Motion Picture" (1986). His television work also included some animation work for a television channel called "MTV".
Selick's big break in the animation world came when he was approached by an old acquaintance, director Tim Burton. Burton was producing a stop-motion animation feature film for Disney, but did not have the time to direct it himself, and needed someone to direct and to supervise the developing process. Selick was hired as the director for "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993), the first full-length, stop-motion feature from a major American studio.
"Nightmare" was a relatively low-budget film, but became a minor box office hit, earning about 76 million dollars at the worldwide box office. It also earned critical acclaim, particularly praise for then-revolutionary visual effects. It earned a number of awards and nominations, including a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and an Annie Award. It was no surprise that Selick would be asked to direct again.
His next film was the novel adaptation "James and the Giant Peach" (1996), based on a work by Roald Dahl. The film combined live-action with stop-motion animation. It was another critical success, but a box office flop. It was overshadowed in the Annie Awards (for animation) by two competitors: "Toy Story" (1995) and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996).
Selick attempted a comeback with a comic book adaptation. He secured the rights to the graphic novel "Dark Town" (1995) by Kaja Blackley. The story was about a comatose cartoonist whose soul ends up in a limbo-like realm called "Dark Town". The original story ended in a cliff-hanger and never received a sequel. Selick and his crew further fleshed out the limbo realm, added new characters, and developed an original ending. The result was the dark fantasy film "Monkeybone" (2001). An ambitious, big-budget film, it turned out to be a box office bomb. It earned about 7.5 million dollars at the worldwide box office, much less than the film's budget.
Selick's next project was developing stop-motion visual effects the live-action film "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004), directed by Wes Anderson. The film was an ambitious comedy-drama film, loosely inspired by the life of oceanographer Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997). It under-performed at the box office, and received moderate critical acclaim. The film and its cast were nominated for a number of awards, but failed to win any major awards.
In 2004, Selick was hired as a supervising director by Will Vinton Studios, a minor animation studio that focused on stop-motion animation. In 2005, Will Vinton Studios was replaced by a new studio called "Laika". Selick retained his position. For Laika, Selick developed and directed his first computer-animated short film: "Moongirl" (2005). The premise is that a young boy is transported to the Moon, where he helps a Moongirl repair the Moon.
"Moongirl" turned out to be a critically acclaimed short film and won a number of awards, including an award by the Ottawa International Film Festival. Selick was next hired to write a children's book based on the film, which was released in 2006.
Laika next started work on its first feature film, an adaptation of a novel by Neil Gaiman. Selick was assigned as the director of the film. Selick was reportedly necessary for the company to secure the rights to the novel, because Gaiman happened to be a fan of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and trusted him to adapt his work for film. The film was dark fantasy "Coraline" (2009). It earned about 125 million dollars at the worldwide box office, becoming the most commercially successful film in Selick's career.
"Coraline" was critically acclaimed winning or receiving nominations for several major awards. It even received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, though it lost to "Up" (2009) by Pete Docter. It served as a comeback for Selick. Selick left Laika shortly after the release of the film.
In 2010, Selick signed a long-term contract with Disney, where he was supposed to create new stop-motion animation films to be released by the company. He formed a new studio called "Cinderbiter Productions" to produce the films. He worked for a number of years on a project called called "ShadeMaker", but this has been in development hell since 2013. Selick is reportedly working on several other projects, but has not released a new feature film following "Coraline".- Writer
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Joann Sfar was born on 28 August 1971 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France. He is a writer and director, known for Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (2010), The Rabbi's Cat (2011) and Thomas Fersen: Hyacinthe (2005).- Producer
- Animation Department
- Director
David Silverman was born on 15 March 1957 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and director, known for The Simpsons (1989), The Simpsons Movie (2007) and Monsters, Inc. (2001).- Writer
- Producer
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Andrew Stanton has been a major creative force at Pixar Animation Studios since 1990, when he became the second animator and ninth employee to join the company's elite group of computer animation pioneers. As Vice President, Creative he currently oversees all shorts and feature projects at the studio. Stanton wrote and directed the Academy Award®-winning Disney and Pixar feature film "WALL.E," for which he also received a Best Original Screenplay Oscar®-nomination. In 2016 Stanton directed Disney and Pixar's "Finding Dory," which, upon release, became the highest-grossing domestic animated feature of all time and in 2019 Stanton served as screenwriter and executive producer of "Toy Story 4."
Stanton made his directorial debut with the record-shattering "Finding Nemo," an original story of his that he also co-wrote. The film garnered Stanton two Academy Award® nominations (Best Original Screenplay and Best Animated Film), and "Finding Nemo" was awarded an Oscar® for Best Animated Feature Film of 2003, the first such honor Pixar Animation Studios received for a full-length feature film.
One of the four screenwriters to receive an Oscar® nomination in 1996 for his contribution to "Toy Story," Stanton went on to receive credit as a screenwriter on every subsequent Pixar film - "A Bug's Life," "Toy Story 2," "Monsters, Inc." and "Finding Nemo." Additionally, he served as co-director on "A Bug's Life," and was the executive producer of "Monsters, Inc.," and "Monsters University," and Academy Award®-winning films "Ratatouille" and "Brave."
In addition to his multi-award winning animation work, Stanton made his live-action writing and directorial debut with Disney's "John Carter," released in March 2012.
A native of Rockport, Massachusetts, Stanton earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Character Animation from California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts), where he completed two student films. In the 1980s, he launched his professional career in Los Angeles animating for Bill Kroyer's Kroyer Films studio, and writing for Ralph Bakshi's production of "Mighty Mouse, The New Adventures" (1987).- Animation Department
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Doug Sweetland is an American animator/director who helped define Pixar animation on early hits like "Toy Story", "Toy Story 2", "Monsters, Inc.", "Finding Nemo", and "Cars". He is a back-to-back Annie Award winner and his Pixar short, "Presto", was nominated for an Annie and an Oscar. His pitch, "Windy Day", launched Google's highly acclaimed VR series, "Spotlight Stories", and was granted a patent for its advances in virtual storytelling. Doug subsequently directed alongside Nick Stoller ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall", "The Muppets") to create the highly improvised, alt-comedy cult hit, "Storks". Doug continues his work as a creator in emerging tech. For freelance inquiries, please visit dougsweetland.com.- Director
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Isao Takahata was born on 29 October 1935 in Ise, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Pom Poko (1994) and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013). He died on 5 April 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.- Animation Department
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Wendy Tilby was born in 1960 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She is a director and writer, known for When the Day Breaks (1999), Strings (1991) and The Flying Sailor (2022).- Animation Department
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Amanda Forbis is known for When the Day Breaks (1999), The Flying Sailor (2022) and Wild Life (2011).- Director
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- Animation Department
Walter Tournier was born on 14 July 1944 in Uruguay. He is a director and writer, known for A pesar de todo (2003), Caribbean Christmas (2001) and Tonky y Otros Amigos (2009).- Actor
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John Christian Wedge was born on March 20, 1957 in Binghamton, New York. After graduating from Fayetteville-Manlius High School, he went to study at the State University of New York at Purchase, where he received a BFA in film, and soon after that he went on to study at Ohio State University, earning him a MA in computer graphics and art education.
Wedge began his career as an effects artist for films such as Tron (1982). In February, 1987, he founded Blue Sky Studios, along with Carl Ludwig, Dr. Eugene Troubetzkoy, Alison Brown, David Brown and Michael Ferraro. Throughout the 80s and 90s the studio helped create visual effects for television commercials and films like "Alien Resurrection" (1997), "Star Trek: Insurrection" (1998), "Fight Club" (1999) and "Titan A.E." (2000). Wedge produced the short animated "Bunny", in 1998, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. After Wedge directed the critically acclaimed feature film "Ice Age" (2002), Blue Sky Studios was finally established in to one of the top animation studios in the United States.- Producer
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Kôji Yamamura was born on 4 June 1964 in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. He is a producer and director, known for Ikuta no kita (2021), Satie's Parade (2016) and The Mountain Head (2002).- Art Department
- Animation Department
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Georges Schwizgebel was born on 28 September 1944 in Reconvilier, Bern, Switzerland. He is a director and writer, known for L'homme sans ombre (2004), Fugue (1999) and Darwin's Notebook (2020).- Animation Department
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Born to Jewish parents and raised in a Moscow suburb, Yuri Norstein painted as a hobby and trained as a carpenter before studying animation. He directed his first film in 1968 and made a series of short films notable for their attention to atmosphere and fine detail, using a multiplane camera to create the illusion of three-dimensional depth. His 1979 film, 'Tale of Tales' was acclaimed by a panel of international animation experts as the best animated film of all time. Since then, he has worked on an adaptation of Gogol's 'The Overcoat', which has been beset by production and funding problems.- Actor
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In 1968 Garri Bardin graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School-Studio, the course of P.V. Massalsky. Worked as a dramatic actor in the theater of Gogol, was shot in the movies. In 1974, together with V. Livanov wrote a play "Don Juan", and was invited by Sergei Obraztsov as a director in the Moscow Puppet Theater. In 1975 he began to work as a director-animator at the Soyuzmultfilm studio, where for 15 years he made 15 films marked by numerous prizes both at home and abroad. In his luggage Bardin had four "Nika", "Golden Palm Branch" of the Cannes Film Festival and a host of other prestigious prizes collected by his films around the world. Garri Bardin has won recognition and success, using in his films a variety of techniques and materials: these are the matches in the "Conflict", and the ropes in the "Brace", and the wire in "Freaks," and origami in one of the latest films - "Adagio." In addition, the author uses both traditional dolls and clay. Almost in all of his films, Garri Bardin is the author of the scripts. In 1991, together with his group, Bardin founded his own studio "Stayer", where he still works.- Director
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The identical twin Brothers Quay (the other being Timothy) were born near Philadelphia in a town with a large European immigrant population, which fuelled their interest in European (especially Eastern European) culture. They moved to London in the late 1960s to study at the Royal College of Art where they made their first short films (now lost), and after spending some time in Holland in the 1970s they returned to London to team up with fellow RCA alumnus Keith Griffiths who would act as producer on all their subsequent films. They spent the 1980s making TV commercials (Honeywell, Walkers Crisps, Dulux Wood Protection) and music videos (most famously, part of Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer') in order to support their personal projects, mostly based around their trademark puppet animation and typically drawing on obscure literary sources (Bruno Schulz, Robert Walser Michel de Ghelderode). 1995 saw the premiere of their first feature, the almost entirely live-action (but still distinctively Quayesque) 'Institute Benjamenta'.- Director
- Animation Department
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The identical twin Brothers Quay (the other being Stephen) were born near Philadelphia in a town with a large European immigrant population, which fuelled their interest in European (especially Eastern European) culture. They moved to London in the late 1960s to study at the Royal College of Art where they made their first short films (now lost), and after spending some time in Holland in the 1970s they returned to London to team up with fellow RCA alumnus Keith Griffiths who would act as producer on all their subsequent films. They spent the 1980s making TV commercials (Honeywell, Walkers Crisps, Dulux Wood Protection) and music videos (most famously, part of Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer') in order to support their personal projects, mostly based around their trademark puppet animation and typically drawing on obscure literary sources (Bruno Schulz, Robert Walser Michel de Ghelderode). 1995 saw the premiere of their first feature, the almost entirely live-action (but still distinctively Quayesque) 'Institute Benjamenta'.- Director
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- Animation Department
Don Hertzfeldt was born on 1 August 1976 in Fremont, California, USA. He is a director and writer, known for World of Tomorrow (2015), It's Such a Beautiful Day (2011) and The Simpsons (1989).- Director
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Grew up on a shrimp farm in southern Australia together with two brothers, one sister and two parrots. He discerned his artistic abilities at an early age and spent five years studying photography, painting, pottery etc. In 1996 he began his studies at the Victorian College of the Arts where Uncle (1996), the first part of his trilogy, was made. After he graduated in 1997, the trilogy was completed with Cousin (1999) and Brother (2000).- Producer
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- Visual Effects
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Suzie Templeton was born in 1967 in Hampshire, England, UK. She is a director and writer, known for Stanley (2000), Dog (2001) and Peter and The Wolf (2006).- Animation Department
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Michael Dudok de Wit was born on 15 July 1953 in Abcoude, Utrecht, Netherlands. He is a writer and director, known for The Red Turtle (2016), Father and Daughter (2000) and The Monk and the Fish (1994).- Additional Crew
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
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Max Lang was born in 1982 in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is an assistant director and writer, known for The Gruffalo (2009), The Snail and the Whale (2019) and Room on the Broom (2012).- Director
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Konstantin Bronzit was born on 12 April 1965 in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia]. He is a director and writer, known for We Can't Live Without Cosmos (2014), Ubornaya istoriya - lyubovnaya istoriya (2007) and He Can't Live Without Cosmos (2019).- Animation Department
- Cinematographer
- Director
Evan Derushie is known for The Fox and the Chickadee (2012), Birdlime (2017) and The Little Prince (2015).- Animation Department
- Art Department
- Director
Christian Desmares is known for April and the Extraordinary World (2015), Persepolis (2007) and Lastman (2016).- Producer
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- Additional Crew
Franck Ekinci is known for April and the Extraordinary World (2015), Lastman (2016) and Café froid (2015).