Tour host Ron Diamond (l) and Lavatory Lovestory's Konstantin Bonzit.

Nine of us gathered in the lobby of the elegant Sofitel Hotel in an industrial park in San Carlos, California somewhere south of the San Francisco airport, to begin the Bay Area leg of the Oscar Tour.

The nominees at this first meet and greet were: Kunio Kato, age 31, the director of “La Maison en Petites Cubes;” Konstantin Bronzit, age 43, the director of “Lavatory Lovestory;” and three “Oktapodi” directors, Olivier Delabarre 28, Quentin Marmier 26, and Francois Xavier Chanioux 26.

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.

Introducing myself to Oktapodi director Julien Bocabeille.

Wednesday I had the pleasure of joining Ron Diamond and the players in the traveling Oscar Tour on their visit to Sony Pictures Animation. The Oscar-nominated directors of the animated short films "Oktapodi," "La Maison en Petits Cubes," and "Lavatory Lovestory" had a chance to tour the studio and answer questions from the animation crew.

On a bluff overlooking San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.

By Lauren Brown

 On our way up PDI/DreamWorks to George Lucas’ Big Rock Ranch we stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge. It was another beautiful day in the Bay Area and we walked around a bit to stretch our legs. We were able to get some great photos overlooking the bay and the bridge. It was Marc Betrand and Patrick Doyon’s first time crossing this iconic American landmark. Bonnie Thompson said that she had been on it before, but it was quite a long time ago. Marc Bertrand said that he thought the bridge was very impressive and enjoyed the time we spent there.

Here they are — pics from the exciting Oscar day. Lots of winners, excitement and fun!

Conversation was brief on the ride over to PDI/DreamWorks. With the tour winding down, I think we were all winding down as well. When we arrived at the studio, the screening was already in full swing. With a bit of down time, we mingled around the lobby and cafeteria, where the draw of more ping-pong was irresistible for I Met the Walrus‘ Josh and James, who said that ping-pong is needed for animation productions to work.

The nominees - Oktapodi's Emud Mokhberi (l-r), Oktapodi's Thierry Marchand, Lavatory Lovestory's Konstantin Bronzit, La Maison's Kunio Kato, This Way Up's Alan Smith, This Way Up's Adam Foulkes, and Presto's Doug Sweetland

The screening at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences is always an exciting event for the nominees. Sell out crowds are eager to see the films and are always very receptive. The screening is also a big press event with the nominees juggling interviews and photo ops with news outlets from around the world.

Thursday was an absolute whirlwind day on the tour. I couldn’t possibly write everything interesting that was said during the course of the day. So I’m going to set out to recap the day in full, but tease you with details to come later.

Well, I just got back from the Academy screening, which closed another whirlwind day on the Oscar Showcase tour. In addition, to Roger, Don, Marcy, Geza and Tamas, Gary Rydstrom, Lifted producer Katherine Sarafian (who we’d all meet at the Pixar screening), Torill Kove, The Danish Poet’s Norwegian producer Lise Fearnley, co-director of No Time for Nuts Chris Renaud and No Time for Nuts producer Lori Forte all joined the fun. Mike Thurmeier is back in New York with his wife and we’re happy to announce their new daughter has arrived. Her named is Katelyn Ivy. She was born on Feb. 18th at 2:23 in the afternoon. She was 21 inches long and a healthy 8lbs 10ozs!!!

The Los Angeles leg of the Oscar Showcase tour kicked off at Sony Pictures Animation. The group congregated in the lobby where I met the new members of our merry band — I Met the Walrus producer Jerry Levitan, Madame Tutli-Putli executive producer David Verrall and Even Pigeons Go to Heaven producer Simon Vanesse. Not joining us for the first two events of the day was Madame director Maciek Szczerbowski, whose lobster taco from the night before was not sitting well with him. Jerry laughed when Walrus director Josh Raskin revealed that he had been describing him as “a 14-year-old kid with balls of steel.” I leave Jerry’s response to your imagination, because Walrus illustrator James Braithwaite warned Jerry not to say things like that around the human mimeograph as he pointed to me. I like to think of myself as the unofficial stenographer of the animated Oscar nominees.