Peter Baynton: Last News

K.J. Yossman Star-studded animated holiday feature “The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland” has set a streaming release date in the U.S. and U.K.

London-based PR maven Matthew Freud, joined by fellow Brit and collaborator Charlie Mackesy, offered his apologies for winning the Oscar for Short Film (Animated) for The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse.

Terry Flores “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” has picked up another award on its march to the Oscars, nabbing the feature prize at the 50th Annie Awards, presented by ASIFA-Hollywood, on Saturday evening. In addition to being named the top film by the animation industry, “Pinocchio” led the winners’ list with five trophies overall, including the award for best direction for del Toro and fellow director Mark Gustafson. The stop-motion movie also picked up wins for music (Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz, del Toro and Patrick McHale), production design (Curt Enderle and Guy Davis) and character design (Tucker Barrie). Del Toro, who came directly from the PGA Awards where he received the trophy for producing ‘Pinocchio,’ was thrilled to win the Annie for direction alongside Gustafson. “Can I say this? I wanted the fucking Annie so much. It’s the most gorgeous thing in the world!” He noted that the Annies ceremony was the one place that he didn’t have to point out that animation is a medium and not a genre. “What I can say is about ‘Pinocchio’ is that it was done by artists, and the animators were treated like cast and not technicians.”

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor This article first appeared as part of Jenelle Riley’s Acting Up newsletter – to subscribe for early content and weekly updates on all things acting, visit the Acting Up signup page. Charlie Mackesy always thought Tom Hollander would make a great mole.  More specifically, the artist who wrote and illustrated the bestselling 2019 book “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” felt the British actor was a wonderful match to voice one of his characters in the short film adaptation he co-directed with Peter Baynton. The film, now streaming on Apple TV + has charmed audiences worldwide and is nominated for an Academy Award for animated short film. 

“I used to lie on my bed and stare at the ceiling and see snowfall and imagine the characters in the book moving. It was a dream of mine to take them further than the static book drawings,” said writer-director Charlie Mackesy during a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees to discuss The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.

The title that saw Riz Ahmed stifle laughter, the press room crack up and Allison Williams murmur “no comment” at Oscar nominations last month hits theaters today as ShortsTV presents Oscar Nominated Short Films at circa 380 locations in 75 markets.

J.J. Abrams Behind BBC Christmas Adaptation; Idris Elba, Tom Hollander Aboard