The recipient of the Red Stick International Animation Festival inaugural Lifetime Career Achievement Award is renowned Disney feature animator Andreas Deja.
Andreas Deja was nominated for the award by frequent Red Stick speaker Dr. Stuart Sumida, a paleo-biologist and animal locomotion expert who is a long-term consultant to most major studios on animal movement. Deja also was awarded the 2007 Winsor McCay Award at the 34th annual Annie Awards in Glendale, Calif.
“Andreas was nominated because of his unfailing love for the medium of animation and his overwhelming contribution to it. It was an honor to hear him speak at the festival, and an honor for our city and our festival for him to be the first recipient of our animation lifetime career achievement award,” said Red Stick Festival director Stacey Simmons.
Long-time festival contributor, Stuart Sumida, presented Deja with the award during the festival’s closing-night dinner and reception on Saturday, April 19 at the Hilton Capitol Center’s Heidelberg Ballroom. East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Kip Holden attended the reception and declared Saturday, April 19 “Andreas Deja Day” in Baton Rouge.
Deja did early work on “Black Cauldron” and “The Great Mouse Detective” before exploding onto the scene as a supervising animator in the landmark film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” He has created some of the most memorable characters in Disney animation, including King Triton in “Little Mermaid,” Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast,” Lilo of “Lilo and Stitch,” Scar from “The Lion King” and Jafar from “Aladdin.” Deja also is one of Disney’s few “keepers of Mickey,” the animators entrusted to sketch Disney’s marquee character, Mickey Mouse.
“Andreas Deja is an animator’s animator,” Sumida said. “When other animators are surveyed about whom they would rank among the world’s finest living animators, he is inevitably on the list.”
The fourth annual Red Stick International Animation Festival took place April 16-19 in downtown Baton Rouge. LSU’s Center for Computation & Technology sponsors the festival, in partnership with the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, Baton Rouge Area Foundation, East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President’s Office, Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism and Louisiana Economic Development.
Publish Date:
05-01-2008
