I loved the recent Oscar-nominated film Ma Vie de Courgette (My Life as Zucchini). The film marks two significant trends. First, in terms of technique, it’s a great example of the return to a more handcrafted approach—in this case, beautifully designed stop-motion directed by Claude Barras. There is a bit of a backlash against realism-driven CGI animation currently. This film, however, shows that character and emotion can be even more potent with simply animated tactile characters and gently paced storytelling.
In terms of content, My Life as Zucchini manages to deal with a range of challengingly sensitive issues for children in a relatable, humorous, emotional way. Barras worked with Celine Sciamma, the French director of Girlhood, to adapt the screenplay from the original novel by Gilles Paris. The collaboration marks a brave step away from preconceptions about what constitutes a successful animated feature for a family audience. Ultimately, it is a film that understands its audience and does not patronize them. I’m hoping this marks a trend toward more diverse and thought-provoking subject matter for children’s content.
Women in Animation
Women have been involved in animation—particularly in independent animation—right from its inception. Lotte Reiniger and Claire Parker are key examples here. And of course, over time, women working in animation have adapted their practice to and evolved with the changing opportunities and challenges of the medium.
At Aardman, I work with women in all capacities. We have brilliant directors, producers, sound designers, VFX artists, designers, model makers, execs, writers and animators. Looking outside of Aardman and across the industry, I think that women access all areas—but there are also areas that would benefit from more female representation, particularly lead creative roles and in technology. That said, I do feel this is slowly improving.
The Commercial Directing Conundrum
In the U.K., I believe the split between male and female students in animation degree courses is roughly 50/50. However, something is still going wrong in the industry because there are so few female animation directors. I read that in the last decade of major US–released animated features, only one out of 93 was directed solely by a woman (Kung Fu Panda, directed by Jennifer Yuh).
A recent Women in Film and TV study found that from 2015 to 2016, women made up only 26% of creators, directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and directors of photography working on broadcast network, cable and streaming programs. It’s not just animation—film as a whole, and especially comedy, is a male-dominated field. Misguided preconceptions about women not being able to direct comedy or fantasy are still quoted from major studios in the industry. This worrying reluctance to encourage women directing comedy/animation is easily proved wrong by directors such as Joanna Quinn, Rebecca Sugar or Michaela Pavlatova. Personally, I would love to see a major feature directed by Quinn. And I have to wonder, would she have already been given that opportunity if she were a man?
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