Animation spotlights female filmmakers more than ever
WOMEN seldom get Golden Globe nominations for directing animated films. It had been four years since a woman received such a nod - co-director Jennifer Lee was recognised for 2013’s “Frozen” - after “Arthur Christmas’ “Sarah Smith became the first female directing nominee in 2011.
But 2017 is giving women a bit more of their due.
The animation feature film nominees, announced on Monday morning by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, include GKIDS’s “The Breadwinner,” directed by Irish filmmaker Nora Twomey (“The Secret of Kells”), and Good Deed’s “Loving Vincent,” co-directed and co-written by Dorota Kobiela, who studied painting in Warsaw.
“The Breadwinner,” about an Afghan girl who poses as a boy to help her family, was written by Anita Doron and Deborah Ellis, with Angelina Jolie serving as an executive producer. It features the voice of Canadian actress Saara Chaudry.
(Worth noting: Saoirse Ronan, Globe-nominated for “Lady Bird,” also voices a character in “Loving Vincent.”)
Among the other animated film nominees, a creative force behind Disney/Pixar’s “Coco,” was producer Darla K. Anderson, who went on the creative team’s first research trips to Mexico; and producer Ramsey Ann Naito, a veteran of the Maryland Institute College of Art, who was a driving force behind Fox’s “The Boss Baby” after taking the book project to director Tom McGrath.
The production team behind the fifth nominee, Fox/Blue Sky’s “Ferdinand,” includes Lori Forte and Lisa Marie Stetler.
The Golden Globes ceremony, hosted by Seth Meyers, will air Jan 7 on NBC. — WP-Bloomberg