At a Sharjah Animation Conference workshop on ‘storyboard and creativity’ held on on
Thursday, Andrea Bozzetto, creative director of the historic Studio Bozzetto that boasts
a 1991 Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film for Grasshoppers
(Cavallette), demonstrated how his team uses the power of visualisation to depict some
of the “world’s greatest ideas in the simplest of manners”.
Speaking at a packed event taking place on the side-lines of the 14th annual Sharjah
Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF 2023), he was dasked about how he thought
animation helps victims of trauma, and he responded saying: “Animation is a form of
media like any other, but it does have an amazing ability to deliver a healing touch. If
you look at some of Pixar’s animations, you will see how deeply touching they are, often
evoking emotions that many classics can’t.”
Bozzetto, who together with Branko Rakic, created and directed the 52-episode TV
series “The Game Catchers” in 2021, further noted: “With animation you can do just
about anything. We can go to planet Mars, let’s say, and create the imagery you want.
The beauty of it all is that everybody understands this because animation speaks a
universal language; it is for every culture, for everyone”
While presenting some of his best animated works, most of them parodies of Hollywood
classics using CGI for top multinational clients like Toyota and ABB, Bozzetto offered
rich insights into how they use visual storytelling effectively to make “mundane plots
interesting”.
Bozzetto heads the family studio founded by his father Bruno in 1960 in Milan. As the
successor of a prestigious legacy and someone who has worked extensively on
storytelling for corporate and educational content, Bozzetto brought his signature
perspectives to benefit both industry professionals and amateurs who are attending the
first-ever Sharjah Animation Conference being held in Expo Centre Sharjah.
Visitors to the inaugural three-day event will have the opportunity to witness as many as
11 masterclasses, eight workshops and three concerts as part of a specially curated
agenda.