Pete Docter, current Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Animation Studios and director of classics like Monsters, Inc., Up, Inside Out and Soul, is set to receive an honorary membership in the Visual Effects Society, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
What’s Happening:
- The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced their newest lifetime and honorary members set to be recognized during a special event in October, and among those listed is Pixar Animation Studios’ Chief Creative Officer and Academy Award Winning Director, Pete Docter.
- Docter was the third animator to be hired at Pixar Animation Studios, and went on to direct the acclaimed hits, Monsters, Inc., Up, Inside Out, and Soul, the latter three titles winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
- Starting at Pixar in 1990, Docter collaborated and helped develop the story and characters for Toy Story, Pixar’s first full-length animated feature film, for which he also was supervising animator. He served as a storyboard artist on A Bug’s Life, and wrote initial story treatments for both Toy Story 2 and WALL•E. Aside from directing his four films, Docter also executive produced Monsters University and the Academy Award-winning Brave.
- Docter’s interest in animation began at the age of eight when he created his first flipbook. He studied character animation at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia, California, where he produced a variety of short films, one of which won a Student Academy Award. Those films have since been shown in animation festivals worldwide and are featured on the Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 2. Upon joining Pixar, he animated and directed several commercials, and has been nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Animated Feature-winners Up, Inside Out, Soul, and nominee Monsters, Inc., and Best Original Screenplay for Up, Inside Out and WALL•E. In 2010, Up also was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
- Honorary VES Memberships will also be awarded to Jeff Barnes, Patricia “Rose” Duignan, Toni Pace Carstensen, David Tanaka, with a lifetime VFS membership also being awarded to Pam Hogarth, who ran the Digital Media Institute, helped grow the digital program at AFI, and taught at the Directors Guild, Otis College, Gnomon, and AFI.
What They’re Saying:
- VES board chair Lisa Cooke: “Our VES honorees represent a group of exceptional artists, innovators and professionals who have had a profound impact on the field of visual effects. We are proud to recognize those who helped shape our shared legacy and continue to inspire future generations of VFX practitioners.”