Jan 13, 2014

Alfonso Cuarón thanked the right people at the Golden Globes

Last night when Gravity director Alfonso Cuarón won best director at the Golden Globes, he began his acceptance speech by saying, “This is for the hundreds of people that made this film possible,” a reference to the film's crew, including countless vfx/animation artists. He also thanked the film's vfx supervisor, Framestore's Tim Webber, by name.

Cuarón has been transparent about the heavy use of animation in his film and repeatedly expressed gratitude for the work of the artists. His acknowledgment of the animation technique and its creators signals a positive step forward. It also stands in stark contrast to other live-action directors who have used vfx/animation in recent high-profile projects, namely Ang Lee, who neglected to thank Life of Pi's vfx crew when he won an Oscar last year, and James Cameron, who doesn't believe that the animation in Avatar is animation.

Cuarón's acceptance speech did not go unnoticed. At least one compositing supervisor, ILM's Todd Vaziri, applauded him on Twitter: