Here it is the long awaited gallery of select pics from Ron’s camera from the Oscar Showcase tour’s swing by DreamWorks, Fox, the Academy, Disney and ICM. There’s also a couple special pics at the end courtesy of No Time for Nuts director Mike Thurmeier.

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.

Skywalker Ranch is an awesome experience and in this photo gallery you’ll understand why.

Kunio Kato (l) with Robot Communications Taki Tsuyoshi.

Congratulations to Oscar winner Kunio Kato, as well as everyone at Robot Communications, especially Taki Tsuyoshi. I’d also like to congratulate all the nominees on their wonderful films. Even though I only had a chance to follow the filmmakers on the L.A. leg this year, I believe the overall tour was again a success.

Each year Alain Dudoit, the Consul General of Canada, Los Angeles, hosts a star-studded event to celebrate the Oscar nominees from Canada. Check out who the Madame Tutli-Putli and I Met the Walrus filmmakers got to meet.

Seeing the pictures from the Oscar Showcase tour is a great way to convey all the events that took place. Here are some more shots from Ron from William Morris, the AWN/Acme Oscar party, Sony Animation and CAA.

Dinner at Gracias Madre - (from left to right) Ron Diamond, Max Lang, Saschka Unseld, Geefwee Boedoe, Jakob Schuh, Alex Woo (with apologies to Sara Diamond in the bottom left corner)

Written by Dan Sarto

In a couple hours we’re off to the Disney Museum and then over to Skywalker Ranch for the rest of the day and evening. It’s funny – in all the years we’ve been doing this annual tour and get-together with the animated short nominees, this is the first year I’ve gone on the northern California leg.  One thing or another has always kept me in LA. I’m excited, though my room is freezing.  I should drag this room heater back home – it would make a great air conditioner for my office.

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.

A group shot in front of the doors of Sony.

Sony was the second stop on the L.A. leg of the Oscar Showcase tour this year. See the day in pics.

Like last year, a pattern of the same questions being asked at the various screenings continues. Of course the first question was to Chris and Maciek about the human eyes on the puppets in Tutli-Putli. Marcy said one of the difficulties of working with the eyes was timing out shots. Chris and Maciek found that the performance via the eyes sold some scenes quicker than when it was cut using the eyeless puppets. Josh was asked about the audio footage of John Lennon used in his film, which he said had never really been heard before they made I Met the Walrus. A first for the tour, but most likely not a first for the Madame Tutli-Putli team was about their enigmatic ending. Maciek explained that the intention of the film was less about plot and more like a poem where one scene doesn’t dictate the next, but informs the preceding scene. Chris added that the work of Carl Jung was also influential in setting the mood for the film. A little tidbit about the title is that in Hindi it means puppet, as well as delicate woman, which is a fact that the directors did not know before they were informed of it by a Hindi speaking member of one of their audiences.