Bird’s-eye view of Oscar from the winner’s circle
Canadian animator takes some time to reflect on big awards night
VICTORIA AHEARN
TORONTO Alan Barillaro says he’s still unpacking the events surrounding his Oscar win Sunday for his animated short Piper.
From watching his parents proudly walk the red carpet with him and his wife, to witnessing the best-picture fiasco, to meeting his “Canadian heroes,” it was an unforgettable night for the father of three.
“To see my parents walk down the red carpet was by far worth everything,” Barillaro said from California, adding his parents helped foster his love of film while growing up in the Niagara Falls, Ont., community of Chippawa, as well as Markham, Ont.
The six-minute Piper, about a baby bird facing her fear of ocean waves with her mother on a beach, screened before Finding Dory, which was 2016’s top-grossing film.
Barillaro said he was a bundle of nerves throughout the Oscars. When he heard his name announced as the best animated short winner, along with producer Marc Sondheimer, his mind went blank. He was brought back to reality when his wife squeezed him hard.
“It felt a little like Piper was an autobiographical story at that moment, of facing your fears,” he said.
Barillaro thanked his family during his acceptance speech, including his “three little pipers” — his young children, who were watching from their home in Alameda County, Calif.
“I felt like if I can talk to them, maybe I won’t be so scared to be onstage,” he said, adding the best moment of the experience came once he’d sat back down.
“I get back to my seat … beside my wife and she shows me a video that my sister sent of all the kids watching the nomination and winning and just screaming. That just made it really special.”
Then came the best-picture mess, in which La La Land was wrongly announced as the winner before Moonlight was awarded the big prize.
“Your heart goes out to those filmmakers,” he said. “I thought they handled it with such great … compassion for each other.”
Barillaro and his wife attended the post-Oscars Governors Ball and Vanity Fair party.
“I went right for the Canadian heroes — I went to Eugene Levy and (Catherine) O’Hara,” he said. “It was nice that they had seen the picture, and Eugene Levy of course worked on Finding Dory.
“It’s one of those moments where you can never imagine watching SCTV as a kid that Eugene Levy, someone you adore, might actually like something you make one day.”
Barillaro, who previously contributed to some of Pixar’s biggest hits, including A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc. and WALL-E, will next work on The Incredibles 2.
As for his Oscar, he’s happy to share it with the Pixar crew.
“Right now, (the Oscar) is floating around the animation department of Pixar, on people’s desks,” he said. “It’s a wonderful thing to share, and there were so many people who worked so hard on it. It doesn’t feel right to put it in a cabinet.
“It must be the Pixar part of me that just wants toys to be played with, so I’ve been passing it around. I don’t usually see it until the end of the day.”