‘The Sea Beast’ Director Chris Williams On Oscar Nom & His Incredible Team Of Animators: “They Deserve The Recognition”

deadline.com:

With his first project after leaving Disney Animation in 2018, director Chris Williams has already received an Oscar nomination. “When I arrived at Netflix Animation, it was certainly a daunting realization that I was a crew of one,” he laughs.

He attributes this nomination to his team of animators. “One director does not make a movie, I needed to work with an incredibly talented team to make a movie as ambitious as this, and I was so lucky that so many amazing artists were willing to join me on this journey… I’m just really proud of the crew.

They deserve the recognition.” The Sea Beast was an ambitious project for Williams, in term of scope and technical difficulties. “I wanted to make a pure action adventure story, like the ones that I loved the most growing up,” he says. “We knew we were gonna have these full-throated action scenes, and we were really gonna go for it.” Other than the appeal of seeing giant monsters battling ships, Williams says the emotional story is what kept the audience engaged. “It’s a big movie, with a lot of characters and a lot of story, but it comes down to the central relationship between Jacob and Maisie.

And I think the movie really does depend on the incredible performances from Carl Urban and Zaris-Angel Hator, who played those characters.