According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jonas Rivera, the Oscar-winning producer of Inside Out and Toy Story 4, has been promoted to executive VP, film production at Pixar.
What’s Happening:
- In his new position, Rivera will oversee all film and streaming production at the studio, guiding projects toward their creative and operational milestones.
- With the promotion, producers, associate producers and directors of production will continue to report to Rivera. Directors will continue to report to chief creative officer Pete Docter on creative matters but will now report to Rivera on operational issues.
- The promotion comes as Pixar ramps up production on movies and TV shows for theatrical and streaming.
- Rivera joined the animation studio in 1994 to work on Toy Story as the studio’s first and only production intern.
- He advanced roles on almost every subsequent Pixar feature film: art department coordinator for A Bug’s Life, marketing and creative resources coordinator on Toy Story 2, art department manager on Monsters Inc. and production manager on Cars.
- He became a full-fledged producer with the studio’s 2009 film Up, which was nominated for a best animated feature Oscar.
- In 2015, Rivera re-teamed up with Up’s director, Docter, for Inside Out, which won an Academy Award for best animated feature and was nominated for best original screenplay. He most recently produced Toy Story 4, which also won the Oscar for best animated feature in 2020.
- Currently, he is overseeing the completion of Pixar’s latest original feature, Elemental, working with director Peter Sohn and producer Denise Ream ahead of a planned June 16th release.
- He is also mid-production on Win or Lose, a series for Disney+, and shepherding Pixar’s spring and summer 2024 feature film releases, Elio and Inside Out 2.