Film Animator. He was a Canadian artist and director, world renowned for his short animated films. In 1952, he began his career as an illustrator in the graphics department of Radio-Canada’s first-ever television station. Branching from television illustrations to directing short animated films, he produced his first animation short, “Abracadabra” in 1970. Over the next decade he directed five more shorts, before making “Tout Rein” which he was nominated for an Oscar for best animated short in 1981. Nominated for three more Oscars, he won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film for his films “Crac!” (1982) and “The Man Who Planted Trees” (1987). In 1989, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec, was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1990 and received the Eco-Hero Media Award from the Planet in Focus Film Festival in 2004. He died from cancer at the age 89. (bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith)