(L-R) Tony Mark of CayFilm with Pixar co-founder Loren Carpenter (Photo by Deep Blue Images)
(CNS Local Life: Two Hollywood heavyweights – Loren Carpenter, co-founder and former chief scientist at Pixar Animation Studios, and James V. Hart, who wrote the screenplay for Bram Stoker’s Dracula – will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at the CayFilm Cayman International Film Festival set for 30 June to 3 July 2017.
Carpenter, who also attended the festival in 2015, will be honoured for his contribution to and revolutionary work in the animation film genre. He will also host the screening of a Pixar short film retrospective on Saturday, 1 July, and answer questions about his career in the film industry. Pixar has created such classics as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, Brave and Finding Dory.
“We are proud to say that Loren is a friend and supporter of CayFilm; we are so thrilled to be able to honour him in this way,” said CayFilm festival director Tony Mark. “He is a pioneer and a visionary in the field of animation and the groundwork he laid at Pixar has inspired a generation of animators and computer graphics artists to think outside the box and go beyond the realms of their imaginations.”
A computer graphics researcher and developer, Carpenter is the co-inventor of the Reyes rendering algorithm and is one of the authors of the PhotoRealistic RenderMan software, which implements Reyes and renders all of Pixar’s movies. In 2001, he and two colleagues were awarded the only Oscar statuettes ever given for computer science.
Following Disney’s acquisition of Pixar in 2006, he became a senior research scientist at Disney Research. In addition to his award-winning work in computer animation, Carpenter and his wife, Rachel, have explored new concepts in interactivity and computer art through their own company, Cinematrix, Inc. He retired in early 2014.
Screenwriter James V. Hart at CayFilm 2016 (Photo by Deep Blue Images)
In addition, this year marks the 25th anniversary of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and CayFilm will be screening the romantic horror film, which was directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. Hart will be in Cayman to introduce the film, host a panel discussion and receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the film industry in the area of screenwriting.
Hart has attended the festival for the past two years to conduct his popular screenwriting workshop and is the creator of the HartChart, a story-mapping tool to track the emotions of film characters and their journeys. A writer and producer, he is known for such films as Hook, Epic, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life and Contact.
“James is incredibly supportive of CayFilm and we are fortunate to have someone of his calibre give advice and guidance to filmmakers and aspiring screenwriters so that they can develop their craft,” said Mark. “We are thrilled to be able to honour the role that he has played in the film industry over the years by presenting him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. His creativity and talent has given the world amazing work such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and we are so glad he will be here to celebrate the 25th anniversary of this classic film.”
The Dracula screening is part of CayFilm’s opening event on Friday, 30 June. The festival takes place at The Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman.
It’s such a shame that there is no local awareness of the UK film production of “the Mercy” – it would have made sense to have invited some of these stars to the Cayman Islands for this year’s festival. Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz star in the big-budget picture currently in post-production and due for release in October 2017. Like the 2006 movie “Deep Water”, narrated by Tilda Swilton (on Netflix USA), the story focuses on the ill-fated 1968 voyage of Donald Crowhurst, whose strange custom trimaran, the “Teignmouth Electron” now rests in historic rotting desolation and fractured neglect just south of the Cayman Brac airport. There are no guide books or markings to its final resting site, and few locals even know the story, whereabouts, or the historical significance of this vessel. It’s not on any maps, and almost fully obscured from the road. When I saw it in February, most of the identifying markings had been stripped by souvenir hunters. Sailors, history and film buffs from all around the world know about this boat and have flown to the Brac just to see it, if only more knew it was there. It should be one of the main items of pop-culture significance to see in Cayman Brac, yet the Minister of Tourism, and Cayman Brac MLA, clearly doesn’t know the tale that gripped all of Europe in 1968, and is still being told years later in big budget films! CIG broke up this golden goose with a backhoe to plough an airport drainage ditch!