Stop motion master Oscar winner Co Hoedeman shares his earlier films to the most recent; giving an overview of working on film projects in 35 mm and changing over into digital filmmaking.
Co Hoedeman
Jacobus-Willem (Co) Hoedeman, animation virtuoso, is born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1940. He works for Film Production Studio’s while continuing his studies at the School of fine Arts in Amsterdam and the School of Photography of The Hague. At the age of 25, he decides to immigrate to Canada where he finds employment with the National Film Board of Canada. Initially he becomes involved in the production of educational films. He has created and directed more than twenty four films and collaborated, in different capacities, on more than thirty other film productions. After a training course in Czechoslovakia (1970) where he perfects his skill in puppetry, Co Hoedeman becomes fascinated with Inuit legends and decides to put animation at their service. He does it with great respect for the iconography and the music of the Inuit, delivering jewels of poetry of a rare anthropological quality.Acclaimed everywhere in the world, his films received more than 80 awards and mentions from the many Festivals. His film “The Sand Castle” alone has received 24 awards among which, in 1978, OSCAR® for best animated short and the GRAND PRIX of the International Days of animation cinema, in Annecy, France. In 1999, he received the KLINGSOR AWARD for the body of its work from the Bibiana Festival, in Bratislava, Slovakia. More recently, The Alliance for children and television awarded him the GRAND PRIX D’EXCELLENCE, Radio-Canada for his film “Ludovic, The Snow Gift.” In 2003, the year of the Cinémathèque Québécois 40th anniversary, devoted its annual exhibition to Co Hoedeman, entitled THE GARDEN OF CHILDHOOD. On this occasion, all the sets and artwork of his films were exposed to the public with the emphasis on school children, family and the general public. Then the exposition crossed the Atlantic and found its way to the château d’Annecy in France for the next six months. The Museum of the fine arts in Montreal and the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, have also exhibited a selection of his works.Ambassador of Canadian Cinema with his films, Co Hoedeman is also invited to participate as jury member at a variety of International Film Festivals in Africa, Asia and Europe. Retrospectives of its work are regularly shown around the world. He participates in conferences, conducts Master-classes and workshops in animation at Universities, schools and Festivals. He often gives hands-on Animation Workshops, introducing children to the Art of Animation.Co Hoedeman is a humanist in love with beauty that surrounds him. All his work is the fruit of a constant exploration of the real and whimsical fantasies of the human being.