Carolyn Giardina Following a debut work-in-progress screening of Paramount Animation’s “Transformers One” last month during the Annecy Intl.
Animation Festival, a capacity crowd at the 1,000-seat Bonlieu main theater erupted with a lengthy standing ovation for the movie and its Oscar-winning director, Josh Cooley.
It was a great moment for the studio and filmmakers, and underscored the direction of Ramsey Naito, president of Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation, who will receive Variety’s inaugural Executive Impact in Animation award. “I was so proud of Josh and so proud of the filmmakers,” says Naito of the response. “People really felt like it was a great film and a great story that appealed to them even though they weren’t super fans of ‘Transformers,’ which was a dream come true.
We went into this wanting to appeal to everybody.” Naito’s comes from an artistic background, having studied at CalArts. She started her career at Nickelodeon and returned in 2018 before she was upped to her current role in September 2021.
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