Jan Pinkava
Jan Pinkava | |
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Awards | Animated Short Film Geri's Game |
Signature | |
Jan Jaroslav Pinkava (born 21 June 1963) is a Czech-British-American producer, director, writer, and animator. He directed the Pixar short film Geri's Game and served as co-director and co-wrote the story for Ratatouille, both of which went on to win Oscars.
Early life
Pinkava was born in
He attended
After obtaining an 8mm movie camera for Christmas in 1975, he began experimenting with
He went on to study Computer Science at the
Career
After university he turned to a career in computer animation initially in London, with Digital Pictures, who specialised in TV commercials.
In 1993 he joined
His 1997 animated short Geri's Game won the Oscar for Best Animated Short on his mother's birthday, which prompted him to dedicate the award to her long-distance, with a message in Czech[8] and won a string of other awards.
The short film "67 Aluminum Plates" was created during the 1998 Ottawa International Animation Festival by a group of volunteers under the direction of Jan Pinkava. The film is stop motion, filmed in one long day and edited the next.[9] It was shown on the closing night of the festival.
In 2000, he began work as director on Ratatouille, a European-flavoured, ultimate-outsider tale based on his original story. This was to have been his feature film debut and the first Pixar film beyond the terms of the then-expiring Pixar-Disney franchise.
In 2005, Pinkava was replaced as main director by
He subsequently worked as a director at LAIKA on his new film Little White Lie,[15] but left in 2011;[16] along with Claire Jennings, the studio's head of entertainment.[17]
In 2013, as a creative executive in Motorola Mobility, he came up with a new, in-phone, interactive animation genre.[18][19][20][21]
From 2014 to 2019, Pinkava was a Creative Director of Google Spotlight Stories, an experimental unit involved in the making of 360° interactive shorts.[22]
Personal life
He is the third-born of four children of the Czech polymath Václav Pinkava alias Jan Křesadlo. He has two sons, named Thomas and Edward.
Filmography
Short films
Year | Film | Director | Writer | Animator |
---|---|---|---|---|
1997 | Geri's Game | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Feature films
Year | Film | Director | Writer | Story Artist |
Animator | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1998 | A Bug's Life | No | No | No | Additional | ||
1999 | Toy Story 2 | No | No | Yes | No | ||
2001 | Monsters, Inc. | No | No | Additional | No | ||
2007 | Son of Rambow | No | No | No | No | Himself[23] | Special Thanks |
Ratatouille | Co-Director | Original Story | No | No | Original director |
References
- ^ "Colchester: Oscar winner's film screening at school". Gazette. 8 July 1999. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ "'My parents were shocked' - Oscar winning Colcestrian weighs in on road name row".
- ^ "'Art UK'".
- ^ "RAINBOW". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 27 September 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ "Screen Test-UK Gameshows". Retrieved 2 October 2013.
- ^ "Oscar winner Jan Pinkava". 11 July 2012.
- ^ Rhys, Steffan (20 October 2007). "The Welsh days of animation great". WalesOnline.co.uk. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ "Jan Pinkava Academy Award acceptance speech". 23 March 1998.
- ^ Jackson, Wendy (1 November 1998). "67 Aluminum Plates". Animation World Network. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ "Q&A:Jan Pinkava". Computer Arts. 25 April 2006. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ Jérémie Noyer (25 February 2008). "Jan Pinkava reveals "les ropes" of Ratatouille". Animated views. Retrieved 26 February 2008.
- ^ Ron Barbagallo (28 January 2008). "The Art of Making Pixar's Ratatouille". Animation Art Conservation. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ "Savoring Pixar's Ratatouille". Time. 7 June 2007. Archived from the original on 11 June 2007. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
- ^ "Still image from Ratatouille's end credits".
- ^ Fernandez, Jay A. (22 February 2010). "Two writers ready to tell 'Little White Lie'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ "Jan Pinkava's LinkedIn Profile". Retrieved 17 February 2012.
- ^ Rogoway, Mike (8 March 2011). "Laika parts with Claire Jennings, head of studio's entertainment division". Oregon Business News. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
- ^ "Sneak peek at Motorola Project". 26 September 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
- ^ "... Technological Leap in Smartphone Graphics Utilization". Retrieved 4 October 2013.
- ^ ""Windy Day" innovative real-time animation". Archived from the original on 9 August 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
- ^ "...Change Storytelling as We Know It". Retrieved 29 October 2013.
- ^ "Breaking: Google Spotlight Stories Shuts Down". 14 March 2019.
- ^ Gilbey, Ryan (8 February 2008). "The Guardian: Let's hold the premiere in the front room". London. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
External links
- Pinkava's website (in Czech)
- Jan Pinkava at IMDb
- Jan Pinkava interview at the official Pixar website
- Jan Pinkava interview at ASIFA-SF March 1998, shortly before his Oscar
- Computer Arts interview
- ITWales interview from 2012