LORENZO director Mike Gabriel was stunned at winning The Grand Prix at Annecy. How could we have won? he told AWN. There were 50 world class shorts we were competing against, shorts that were all imaginative, and it was completely intimidating. We felt like we were welcomed into the club.
Gabriel and producer Baker Bloodworth, who jetted back earlier last week after presenting LORENZO at the prestigious 28th annual international animation fest in France, were informed on Friday that it would behoove them to return immediately for the awards ceremony on Saturday night. So back they went, though, admittedly, it was a much easier flight. Its a strange position to be in when you are a major studio like Disney or Fox with GONE NUTTY, Gabriel continued. Youre competing with a lot of government-sponsored shorts, but ours was just as personal as any of those. Just because we had the corporate backing of Disney, we had to fight every step of the way to get [LORENZO] made. There was no commercial incentive, so kudos to Disney for staying with us, as we went on and stopped and went on and stopped.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
