Academy to Salute Animator Norman McLaren
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will pay tribute to Norman McLaren, the Academy Award®-winning animator who helped launch the National Film Board of Canada’s (NFB) now renowned animation program. The salute, which also celebrates 65 years of animated film production at the NFB, will take place on Friday, August 18, at 8 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Hosted by animation expert and author Charles Solomon, the program will explore McLaren’s life and work as well as his influence on the visual culture of Canada and animation worldwide.
Joining Solomon will be a panel composed of McLaren’s former colleagues, including Ishu Patel and Chris Hinton, both of whom are two-time Oscar®-nominated animated short film directors.
The NFB has honored its roots by remastering and restoring a significant amount of McLaren’s work. The tribute will feature 13 short films, all remastered and restored 35mm prints, including McLaren’s Oscar-winning short documentary, “Neighbours” (1952), and his Oscar-nominated live action short, “A Chairy Tale” (1957).
“McLaren makes it possible to imagine that one can make a personal film, that animation movement is an end in itself, and that experimental animation has a place in the world,” said Patel.
In 1975, the magazine Séquences christened McLaren as the “poet of animation” for a signature style that fused music, movement, abstract images and innovative animation techniques. “All young animators, one way or another, are touched by McLaren’s legacy,” added Patel.
McLaren was born in Stirling, Scotland, in 1914. As a student filmmaker he was influenced by the abstract work of German animator Oskar Fischinger. While McLaren is widely associated with drawing, painting or etching directly on the film frame, he also explored numerous other approaches and produced and directed live action and documentary shorts. Beyond the film industry, McLaren also made key connections with emerging aesthetics in painting, choreography and jazz in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. He retired from filmmaking in 1983 and died in 1987.
Tickets to “A Salute to Norman McLaren” are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members. Doors open at 7 p.m. Seats are unreserved.
The Samuel Goldwyn Theater is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Free parking is provided in the garages located at 8920 and 9025 Wilshire Boulevard. For additional information, call (310) 247-3600.
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