EXCLUSIVE: Klaus, Ford v Ferrari, and animated shorts Sister and Hair Love repped Oscar nominations earned by alumni of The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) yesterday.
Since the creation of the Best Animated Feature Oscar category in 2001, 12 of the winning films were directed by CalArts alums with the last seven consecutive Animated Features Oscars going to ‘CalArtians.’ Klaus, was one of the two Netflix animated films to bust into the category yesterday, along with I Lost My Body, sidelining such notable animated pics as Disney’s Frozen 2 and DreamWorks’ Animation’s Abominable. Klaus co-director Sergio Pablos hails from CalArts.
Also recognized by AMPAS yesterday with four Oscar nominations was Ford v Ferrari from director James Mangold, who is a CalArts grad. The 20th Century Fox/Disney feature earned four nods in Best Picture, Film Editing, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. Siqi Song, who helmed Best Animated short nominee Sister, and Bruce W. Smith, who co-directed Hair Love, also attended the Valencia, CA-based arts college.
Last year at the Oscars CalArts alums included Bob Persichetti who co-directed Oscar Animated Feature winner Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Earlier Oscar-winning films from alumni directors include The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007) directed by Brad Bird; Finding Nemo (2003) and Wall-E (2008) by Andrew Stanton; Brave (2012) by alumni duo Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman; Up (2009) by Pete Docter; Frozen co-directed by alumnus Chris Buck; Inside Out (2015) co-helmed by Docter, and Zootopia (2016) co-directed by alumnus Rich Moore; and Coco (2017), co-directed by first-time feature director and CalArts graduate Adrian Molina
Separately, with Frozen 2 becoming the highest grossing animated film of all-time with $1.37 billion, CalArts reveals to Deadline that the total animated box office generated by all their alums between 1985-2019 now totals well over $48.8 billion. For more info on CalArts’ alumni and their box office achievements, click here.
CalArts was founded by Walt Disney and incorporated in 1961. The private university has set the pace for educating professional artists through six schools: Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater.