Every year the group takes a photo in front of this gigantic statue of Po from Kung Fu Panda. This year's tour group includes (from left to right) John Kahrs (Paperman), Tim Reckart (Head Over Heels), David Silverman (Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare"), Minkyu Lee (Adam and Dog), Fondhla Cronin O'Reilly (Head Over Heels) and Ron Diamond.

By Kira Formina

Today, February 14th, is Valentine’s Day, and there’s plenty of love in the air aimed at the directors of the nominated animated shorts.  Two more have joined us today - Paperman director John Kahrs and Adam and Dog director Minkyu Lee.  We are all greeted by host Victor Fuste in the PDI/DreamWorks lobby. The group decides to have lunch during the screening and come up for the Q&A session afterwards.

(From left to right, top row) Carol Frank, Ron Diamond, Lampton Enochs, William Joyce and Marc Bertrand. (From left to right, bottom row) Patrick Doyon, Brandon Oldenburg and Bonnie Thompson, outside PDI/DreamWorks.

By Lauren Brown

This morning we visited PDI/Dreamworks in Redwood City. Victor Fusté, our host, greeted us at the entrance. Victor currently works in the pre-visual development training department. The lobby area of PDI had a life-size model of our favorite Kung Fu master, Po the panda, and it was a big attraction for a couple of the filmmakers. Patrick Doyon, Marc Bertrand, and Bonnie Thompson took pictures with the life-size Po. Bonnie Thompson said “it was a must” in order to impress her grandkids.

The group out front of PDI/DreamWorks. From left to right - Jakob Schuh, Max Lang, Geefwee Boedoe, Ron Diamond and Dan Sarto.

Written by Dan Sarto

Day 2 of our tour started exactly as Day 1 ended – everyone sleeping snugly in their rooms at the Skywalker Ranch Inn.  Each room at the Inn is named after and designed in the style of a noted celebrity – I was in the Frank Lloyd Wright room, Ron was in the Norman Rockwell room, others scattered within Orson Wells, Ella Fitzgerald, Lillian Gish rooms, to name a few.  A fast breakfast of bagels, yogurt and sugary, creamy, caffeiny Starbucks’ coffee drinks, followed by a mad dash to load the car without getting soaked and we were off in the pouring rain towards Redwood City and PDI/DreamWorks. Our stay at the Inn was way too short, but I can honestly say it was truly cool with a capital K.

Another Kung Fu Panda Knockout

Day One of the 2010 AWN Oscar Tour begins at PDI/Dreamworks and continues on to ILM's Big Rock Ranch.

The tour members are welcomed to PDI by Eric Darnell and Gail Curry and some champagne.

Check a few shots from the stop at PDI/DreamWorks in Northern California.

Ron introduces the boys to PDI's Eric Darnell and Gail Curry.

The two and a half day fast forward is behind us, now. The nominees are on their way to Los Angeles for part two of Ron Diamond’s Oscar Tour, although for the second half, I don’t think he’ll be driving the giant white van (generously donated by PDI/DreamWorks), which he, amazingly, managed to squeeze into the only parking place in San Francisco’s Mission District that was big enough and still within walking distance to the ASIFA dinner. Finding a parking place for a Smart Car in San Francisco is hard, but somehow, the reality matched Ron’s optimism that it would all work out.

The filmmakers meet the George Lucas.

It's been a busy an exciting three days, but such a wonderful time. Some highlights and pictures. I’ll sketch in details tomorrow.

Directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski talks about the inspiration for the train in their film Madame Tutli-Putli at the PDI/DreamWorks Q&A.

Here is the last photo gallery from the San Francisco leg of the Oscar Showcase tour. We closed out the event at PDI/DreamWorks, where the Q&A audience asked some new questions and the nominees had a chance to chat with the studio’s artists.

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.