I sent out six questions to the nominees and producers of the nominated shorts. I’m hoping everyone will have time to answer them before the Tour begins, however I know how unbelievably busy they are at the moment. Marcy Page, producer of Madame Tutli-Putli and Oscar Tour alum, has written back and here is what she had to say about the Oscar experience, as well as the eye-catching stop-motion film that she worked on. (Okay, that was a pun I couldn’t resist).

Oscar winning producer of Peter and the Wolf Hugh Welchman. © 2008 AWN Inc.

Once again, I’d like to congratulate the Peter and the Wolf team on their Oscar win, as well as congratulate all the nominees on their wonderful films. Check out a few exclusive pics from the Big Night.

At the ILM Q&A, Madame Tutli-Putli director Maciek Szczerbowski and Peter and the Wolf director Suzie Templeton talk about the scale of their film’s puppets.

After screening at Sony, the next stop of the tour was 20th Century Fox. After Ron Diamond, publisher of AWN, introduced the filmmakers to the studios execs in the audience, the group took the chance to walk around the back lot and grab a couple of coffee.

For young animators, no story from last year’s Oscars was more inspiring than Shane Acker’s tale. His student film, 9, not only earned him an Academy Award nomination, but a feature production deal at Focus Features with Tim Burton and Night Watch director Timur Bekmambetov producing. The feature is now in production at Luxembourg-based Attitude Studios and the voice cast includes Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau. I really enjoyed 9 and I look forward to seeing the feature, which looks to be something potential unique in the world of 3D animation.

At the ILM dinner, animation supervisor Hal Hickel, who was nominated for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, talks with Madame Tutli-Putli director Chris Lavis about motion-capture and the importance of eyes in animation.

Sign in foyer outside the screening room announcing the Oscar-nominated animated shorts program. All images courtesy of Dan Sarto.

By Dan Sarto

With a full afternoon planned at Disney Feature Animation, the group wasted no time getting started.  Our host, Stephanie Morse, toured us through the maze of halls, with stops every now and again to check out walls adorned with artwork from Frozen, their upcoming feature set for release this coming November 27^th.  Soon, however, it was back to the screening room for audience Q&A. 

Once again, our filmmakers displayed great patience as they answered mostly the same set of questions they’ve been answering at numerous screenings, interviews and meetings ever since they were nominated.  I enjoy these Q&A sessions because though the questions may be the same, each time a filmmaker speaks, they add something new, share greater details or a new story you haven’t heard before.  You never know what tasty tidbits they may share in a moment of fatigue.

At the Pixar Q&A, directors Maciek Szczerbowski and Chris Lavis talk about the journey of the title character in their film Madame Tutli-Putli.