Jan Pinkava

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Jan Pinkava

Jan Jaroslav Pinkava (born June 21, 1963 in Prague ) is a British - Czech animator , director and screenwriter . His animated short film Geri's Game (1997) and the animated film he helped develop Ratatouille (2007) each won an Oscar .

Life

Pinkava was born in Prague in 1963 as the third of four children. His father was the writer Václav Pinkava , who became known under the pseudonym Jan Křesadlo . After the Warsaw Pact invaded in 1968, the family emigrated from Czechoslovakia to England . Pinkava went to school in Colchester from 1974 to 1982 . He took an early interest in music, theater and sculpture, so one of his sculptures is on display at the University of Essex library . After he got his first video camera at Christmas 1975, he experimented with various film and animation techniques. He soon won first prizes in film competitions, such as in 1980 with the animated short film The Rainbow the Young Film Maker's Competition of the Year Award in the BBC series Screen Test , a quiz show for children. In 2001, his film was honored again on 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows as the most professional contribution in the 15-year history of Screen Test . Pinkava's short film is also shown in the 2007 film The Son of Rambow .

Pinkava studied computer science at Aberystwyth University in Wales and graduated with a doctorate . He then worked in the field of computer animation in a London company specializing in TV commercials.

In 1993 Pinkava moved to the United States and started working at Pixar Animation Studios . In 1994 he won the Clio Award for his first commercial for the Listerine brand . Pinkava wrote the script and directed the 1997 short film Geri's Game . The film won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1998 .

During the Ottawa International Animation Festival 1998, the film 67 Aluminum Plates was made in just two days , which Pinkava also directed. In the next few years he worked as an animator on various Pixar films such as The Big Crawling , Toy Story 2 and The Monster AG .

In 2000 he started working on Ratatouille as a director . In 2005 he was replaced by Brad Bird , director of the hit animated film The Incredibles . At this point, Pinkava had already developed the core story, characters and sets , so he will be named as co-director and author of the original story in the final film. Pinkava left Pixar shortly afterwards; in interviews he did not want to comment on the reasons for the separation. The film Ratatouille , which finally came out in 2007, won an Oscar , the Golden Globe Award , the LAFCA Award , the BFCA Award and the Annie Award for Best Animated Film . There were also four other Oscar nominations, including Pinkava's nomination together with Brad Bird and Jim Capobianco in the Best Original Screenplay category .

Today Pinkava works for the animation studio Laika Inc.

Filmography

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pinkava, Jan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pinkava, Jan Jaroslav (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-Czech animator and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague