‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ director and VFX team respond to double Oscar nomination
Today’s announcement of the 2017 Oscar nominations bore a double-dose of good news for the team behind LAIKA’s latest masterwork Kubo and the Two Strings. In response to being nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, director/producer and LAIKA CEO Travis Knight had the following to say:
I’m over the moon! An Academy Award nomination is an extraordinary and cherished gift. Two nominations is more than anyone could hope for. Every filmmaker dreams of a moment like this. But the truth is, I already lived my dream by making this film. Movies have always given me great joy. They enriched my life. They inspired me to dream. That’s the kind of film our team at LAIKA sought to make with Kubo and the Two Strings. A film is a slice of a hundred souls. In this case many more. An incredible, immense community of artists gave ceaselessly and selflessly to breathe life into this story. I’m so thankful for their talents and efforts and so proud of what we’ve done together. I’m profoundly grateful to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who somehow saw fit to include us among the finest storytellers in film. It is a tremendous honor to stand alongside them.
The film has also earned itself an award nomination for Achievement in Visual Effects, the first time an animated feature film has done so in over twenty years, the last being 1994’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (Dir. Henry Selick). The Kubo and the Two Strings crew, consisting of Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean & Brad Schiff, have released a joint statement at the news, acknowledging the many artists who have paved the way for the film’s visual innovation:
As much as Kubo and the Two Strings is an homage to Japanese culture and to woodblock artists including Kiyoshi Saito, it is also a tribute to special effects pioneers Ray Harryhausen, Willis O’Brien, Jim Danforth, and the many innovative FX artists who tell stories using in-camera effects, puppets, and human hands. We’re thrilled for the artists at LAIKA who put years into realizing Kubo. For all of us at the studio, being recognized alongside such distinguished and talented members of the VFX community is truly an honor.
Learn more about the creation of Kubo’s fantastic world in our recent Lightbox interview featurette with Travis Knight:
Don’t forget to take part in our 2017 Oscar polls and see if your predictions are correct when the 89th Academy Awards are held on February 26th, 2017 at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre.