![]() ![]() I see animation mirroring that change, and it makes me very, very happy. ![]() I have an 18-year-old daughter, and I see the youth leading change in society. Traditionally in animation, if you did see the four women, I guarantee you they were probably painters or clean-up artists. It has been all men.” Before you guys were here, women were doing this! I wonder what happened that it changed and became, particularly in animation, this male-run world? And we see this with writers, editors, and directors…what happened to the storytelling that it became, “Well, we’ll give you a shot. I’m a great lover of the Academy’s archives, and I once looked at an image of the animators hand-drawing Pinocchio and saw four women sitting there. But not as many as we’d like to see, and I’m a champion for uplifting them in any way possible. Now there are so many more, and so many more directors as well. And not just in the production side of things-it was very rare to have a woman board artist in animation. It’s evolved now, especially in the past couple of years. I would look around the room and note to myself, “I am the only woman here.” That was during story meetings, animation approvals, background approvals, whatever. For many years, especially in the artistic departments, it was a very male-dominated crew. I was the fifth person there, so I got to see everybody walking through the door. My first movie was Pocahontas at Disney, and I started at Dreamworks soon after Jeffrey Katzenberg formed it. It looked so different, Laura, 30 years ago. Why don’t you meet them?” We hired them on the spot.Ĭan you speak a little bit as to why I would have such resounding congrats on this group of amazing women animators-what did the world of animation look like when you started, and how has it changed? When we needed a couple more animators, Youngran said, “Hey, I know a few friends that just graduated. She had the vision of what the animation and design could be and had so many conversations with me and Michael Govier and Will McCormack about how to visually enhance the emotion of the story. We happened to have this magical meeting with Youngran Nho, who was straight out of California Institute of the Arts. We just wanted to find the best person for the job. We never set out to specifically say we only wanted women animators. A lot of the storyboarding was mostly done by women as well, and we have a female composer. And how about that you’re also nominated for an Oscar for an animated short with an all-women animator team? Yes, and I’m only 29 years old, so that’s incredible. Given your years of experience-am I right to say almost 30 years working in animation? We got our message out through art, and I think it started some real dialogue. It’s reached millions of people on Netflix, and there’s been a lot of discussion on TikTok as well. I think the silver lining of the nomination, besides it being such an incredible honor, is that the message of gun safety in schools has been our North Star since day one. What does it mean to have If Anything Happens I Love You nominated? ![]()
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