Kunio Kato (r), La Maison en Peits Cubes director with Bronzit (l).

Kunio Kato, La Maison en Petits Cubes

AF: First of all, how did you find out that you were nominated for an Academy Award? How did you celebrate when you received the news?

Kunio Kato: [Via his translator Takizawa Tsuyoshi] I received a telephone call from Mr. Ron Diamond from Acme Filmworks. Afterward, the president of our company took us out for a celebration.

AF: How many people worked on the film?

KK: It was 15 people, altogether. We spent four months developing the story, and another eight months for production.

AF: Did you imagine that you would receive this much positive attention for your work?

KK: No, not at all. This has all come as a complete surprise.

AF: What was the inspiration for your film?

KK: I had a vision of house with many levels, each stacked one on top of the other. From that idea, I created an illustration, and that became a seed of the film.

La Maison en Petits Cubes. © 2008 Robot Communications, Inc.

AF: How many short films have you directed in the past?

KK: Two... maybe three.

AF: Do you plan to continue working on animated shorts for the time being, or do you have other career aspirations?

KK: I'll continue working on animated shorts for now, but if the right story comes up, I'd like to direct a feature animation film.

AF: Do you have any interest in experimenting with other forms of animation?

KK: No, I'm happy to pursue my own style of animation.

AF: What have been the highlights of the AWN tour so far?

KK: Meeting all other nominees and Mr. Ron Diamond has been a great pleasure.

AF: Will you be attending the Academy Awards? Whom would you most like to meet when you're in Hollywood?

KK: Yes, I will. I'd like to meet Mr. Mickey Rourke. His performance in The Wrestler was very impressive, and it seems that he put a lot of his own life experience into that role.

AF: Have you begun work on any new projects since the completion of La maison?

KK: I'm still working on story development for several other projects. Nothing that I'm ready to discuss yet.

All six Oktapodi directors.

Emud Mokhberi, Oktapodi

[Editor's Note: Although the Academy only allows two directors per short film, Oktapodi was directed by six men: Julien Bocabeille, François-Xavier Chanioux, Olivier Delabarre, Thierry Marchand, Quentin Marmier and Emud Mokhberi. Mokhberi and Marchand will represent their film at Sunday's Oscar ceremony.]

AF: How did you find out that you were nominated for an Academy Award? How did you celebrate when you received the news?

Emud Mokhberi: I was online at 5:30 in the morning, L.A. time, since that's when they were supposed to make the announcement. We already knew that we were on the short list for Oscar consideration. I kept hitting the "refresh" button until about 5:45, when I got the news.

Then I called the other directors, who were in India and in France, and I gave them the news. We all screamed a bunch. After the screaming, the guys in France and India had to go to work. I spent the rest of the morning on the phone with friends and family.

AF: How did the six of you come to work together? Where was the work completed?

EM: This was a school project. All of us were at Gobelins, in the l'école de l'image. Our group came together about a month and a half into the school year. Four of the directors had already worked together, and the two of us hooked up with them since we all had similar goals with our animation.

For our film, we wanted to do something funny and fast, with a big crescendo toward a big finish. We also wanted to do something new and fresh with 3D animation.