"I have always loved animation, especially short films that tell a story or express an idea in an intelligent way. When I was in my early teens there was a BBC TV series called 'Bob Godfrey's Do-It-Yourself Film Animation Show'. My dad bought the book but got bored with it. I picked it up and was hooked. After months of pining and whining I got a Super 8mm film camera one Christmas and started making all kinds of home movies, but mostly animation. Animation with cut-outs, plasticine, paper-and-pencil, people etc.
"After one of my films won the BBC 'Screen Test' Young Filmmakers competition, Movie Maker magazine predicted a shining career for me as an animator. By that time I had realised that animation is difficult and demands the tenacity of Sisyphus and the patience of a saint. I, however, am lazy and easily distracted. It was the time of the so-called 'microchip revolution' and when the time came to leave school I was already obsessed with computers and their promise of limitless power over the universe. I then spent the best part of a decade getting a BSc in Computer Science and a PhD in Theoretical Robotics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. I did, however, manage to pervert most of my undergraduate programming projects in the direction of drawing pictures and I kept a close eye on the exciting new world of Computer Graphics.
"When I emerged from Academia as Dr. Pinkava I had undergone the character-building experience of 'writing-up' and the demands of animation didn't seem as bad as all that. But the academic life was not for me and after a short time doing freelance work at the edges of simple computer graphics I saw a newspaper advertisement which read 'Are you the next John Lasseter?' (which, by the way, I'm not). I was lucky enough to get the job at Digital Pictures Ltd, a real computer animation company, in the fleshpots of London's Soho TV and film community. We made computer-animated TV commercials on strict deadlines and tight budgets with a small team of bright people who needed a strong drink after work every day. It was a great experience.
"I freelanced again for a bit and then sent my CV and 'showreel' to Pixar. The timing was just right and soon I was in sunny California directing commercials while the company turned into a fully fledged Animation Studio in the process of making TOY STORY. My first commercial won a Gold Clio award (the Oscar of advertising) and I spent the next three years collecting only minor awards and dust before getting the opportunity to direct my first short film GERI'S GAME. The film has won an Oscar and numerous international animation awards, as well as being released in the cinemas (in the USA) with A BUG'S LIFE, Pixar's last feature film. All of which is many times better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick and it has completely gone to my head.
"If you were to ask what I am doing now, I would have to smugly reply that I can't tell you because I am 'in development' on a feature film project and, as always in the movie business, it's all terribly secret. If you didn't ask me what I am doing now, it might bring me down to earth a bit."
[Pinkava collaborated with Brad Bird on the story and screenplay for the animated feature RATATOUILLE (2006). He and Bird co-directed the Academy Award®-winning film.]
Best Achievement in Animated Short Films 1997: GERI'S GAME - Producer
1 nomination, 1 Award