Oscar winner Suzie Templeton gets a chance to talk with My Love director Alexander Petrov. © 2008 AWN Inc.

The day before the Oscars DreamWorks hosts a brunch at Campanile. Look at the animation who’s who gallery.

Madame Tutli-directors Chris Lavis (l) and Maciek Szczerbowski (2nd r) share a laugh with Maciek's mother and the head of the NFB Tom Perlmutter. © 2008 AWN Inc.

The night before the Big Night was a chance for the animation community to come together for the 18th annual Chocolate Fosca party, which was hosted by Marilyn Zornado and Libby Simon at the home of Renate Kempowski and Paul Demeyer. The annual event was originally started by Mike Gribble, the co-founder of the Spike & Mike festival, as a way to celebrate the animated shorts nominees. Originally called the Chocolate Oscars, the event was renamed after Fosca, a character from Marv Newland’s Anijam, after the Academy objected to the creation of chocolate Oscars. View the fun that was had by all.

On Thursday, Feb. 24th, the Oscar Showcase tour pulled into DreamWorks. View the fun we had there.

Oscar-winner Suzie Templeton (2nd left) hangs out in front of Joseph's with animator Rosto (l), along with BUF producer Lucie Bloze and Even Pigeons Go To Heaven producer Simon Vanesse. © 2008 AWN Inc.

After a long day at Disney, the evening of Feb. 20th was for fun. Check out the photos from the annual Acme/AWN Oscar party.

Tour host Ron Diamond (l) and Madame Tutli-Putli director Maciek Szczerbowski (r) run into John Lasseter on the Disney lot. © 2008 AWN Inc.

On Feb. 20th, the day belonged to Disney on the Oscar Showcase tour. Here is the photographic evidence.

On the evening of Feb. 19th, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences hosted a screening of the animated and live-action shorts. Check out the pictures from the star-studded event.

The second stop on the L.A. leg of the Oscar Showcase tour was on Tuesday, Feb. 19th at 20th Century Fox. So here are some more pics.

Here are some more pics from the first stop on the L.A. leg of the Oscar Showcase tour - Sony Pictures Animation.

With the Oscar Showcase beginning to slow down, Thursday marked our chance to see DreamWorks L.A. While the screening was taking place, John Tarnoff, the head of the DreamWorks’ “incubator” department, showed us around the facility. After seeing production art from Bee Movie, Kung-Fu Panda and Madagascar 2, we got to see some production art and CG characters from DreamWorks’ 2009 releases Monsters vs. Aliens and How to Train Your Dragon. Being that Monsters vs. Aliens is the studio’s first stereoscopic production and the release date was moved up to March, the production is in furious mode. In regards to the challenges of working in 3-D, John said that DreamWorks looks at stereoscopic as they do stereo sound – a subtle enrichment of the movie going experience. Though the release will not be in 3-D, a test was done using the opening action sequence from Kung-Fu Panda to discover the limits to which they could push the technology. David Verrall, the exec producer of Madame Tutli-Putli, who has a hand in every English language film produced at the NFB, said they have artists working on eight foot screens for stereoscopic productions so they can get a better idea of how the mind processes the images as they are working on them.

After a nice long break where some filmmakers, like Madame Tutli-Putli directors Maciek Szczerbowski and Chris Lavis, Peter and the Wolf director Suzie Templeton, and Even Pigeons Go To Heaven director Samuel Tourneux and Pigeons producer Simon Vanesse, had to run off to do interviews, the ones who were able to stay chatted with the inquisitive artists at Disney TV Animation. Many of the questions were similar to questions asked before, but new insights did emerge.