"I think every single director, live-action director, now has to take into account animation," Miller continued. "I think, as I said, there's a convergence between them. And you talk to most of those big kinds of filmmakers, the Jim Camerons, and the Spielbergs and the Jacksons and whatever. They are doing that. They are all into it because it's part of our language now; it's part of our repertoire. We have all got to learn it and it's a great way to play. And everyone is so young, it's such a great opportunity, everyone is so young. The average age on this film was 26. And I'm an old fart, and working with them was fantastic."

The hardest contest to call in the animation biz was the Animated Shorts category with THE DANISH POET (NFB) up against LIFTED (Buena Vista/Pixar) by Gary Rydstrom, THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL (Buena Vista/Disney) by Roger Allers and Don Hahn, MAESTRO (Szimplafilm/Kedd Prod.) by Géza M Toth and NO TIME FOR NUTS (20th Century Fox/Blue Sky) by Chris Renaud and Mike Thurmeier.

On stage, shorts animator Kove said, “I want to thank the Academy for this wonderful award, it's such an honor and also for continuing to support this animated short category. That really means a lot to us.” She continued the theme when talking to reporters backstage. When asked if shorts were an endangered species at one point, she replied, “Well, I don't actually think that any animated shorts are an endangered species, I think they're doing really, really well at the moment, but I think what the Oscars do and what the Academy is doing for animators is they're bringing the animated short form out to… I mean, I hate to call it the mainstream, because that sounds maybe a bit condescending, that isn't what I mean. I think the animated short community, it's a wonderful eclectic, inclusive community, but it is a little bit insular and I think to have the Academy recognize this film form every year by having a category included in the awards.

“I mean, all the films are now available and iTunes some -- and I don't know about the other films -- but mine has been shown all across the states and all across Canada in movie theaters, which is unheard of these days so I think it's tremendously important. And, like I said, I think what the Academy is doing for us is really important and we're really grateful for it.”

She told AWN spending the past week touring studios with the other shorts nominees had been really inspiring. “As far as the medium is concerned and length of film, I'm still quite attached to the short film format,” she said. “It is liberating to be able to do what I do and I just really want to do it again, I'm completely hooked on it, it's wonderful.”

And I like to draw, you know, so I'll probably keep doing that for a while longer,” responding to if she might experiment in other styles of animation.

During their onstage acceptance for VFX, Knoll said, “You know the naysayers said that four blind kids from the Bronx couldn't make it in visual effects, but here we are. First, I got to thank Jerry Bruckheimer for entrusting us with this great, big project. Thanks to Gore Verbinski, your vast imagination, your humor, your tireless work ethic and that's why we're up here. Thank you.”

Backstage, Knoll told VFXWORLD, “Probably the thing we're working on right now is just making our life difficult and miserable. It's a lot of very tough computer-generated water. It was hard. It was hard for the POSEIDON guys, it was hard for SUPERMAN, it's hard for us too, and we're doing some work that's very demanding in that area.

Gibson added, “Also, just the amount of work in the film is pretty staggering. We're pretty close to 2,000 shots, which is…really about as many shots as were in the first two films combined with a dramatically shortened schedule.”

Sound editing went to Alan Robert Murray for LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (Warner Bros.), winner in that category the night before at the Golden Reel Awards.