ANIMAFEST PRO | LECTURES | Olivier Cotte: Secrets of Oscar-Winning Animation

Olivier Cotte: Secrets of Oscar-Winning Animation

– Who wants to win an Oscar?

– Me! What do I have to do for that?!?

A film, maybe?

Everybody wants to win an Oscar, or… let’s say, an Academy Award!

Every year, we, the public and professionals, bet on which films will be selected and which one will be the ultimate winner. Actually, we can be wrong quite often at this game. And when we look back to the list of the lucky winners, sometimes we just don’t understand the choice that was made. But most of the time, we agree.

Of course, the final choices depend on the period of time, the technical challenge, the aesthetic, the emotion, the general quality of the film, a certain monumental aspect of the animation; but there are other elements involved as well. Finally, it is not that easy to reduce the success to a simple formula. For instance, we can’t explain why some countries (or even continents) are much less awarded than others, or why some good director wins several Oscars, while others, equally skillful, do not win a single one. Why so few experimental (non-narrative) films? It can be very interesting to analyse which techniques garner most success. Is the Academy Award committee a bit conservative?

Let’s be honest: most of the awarded films are good. And some are very good indeed. Father & Daughter by Michaël Dudok De Wit is one of them. That is why this lecture about the Academy Awards will be followed by a detailed analysis of the narrative and visual structures of this masterpiece and the story of the making itself.