Legendary Works

Co Hoedeman was a Dutch-Canadian animation filmmaker born in 1940 in Amsterdam. At the age of 15, Hoedeman left school to work as a photograph retoucher in the printing industry in his native Netherlands, but soon decided to try film. He first worked at Multifilm, a small production company, and then at Cinecentrum, where he worked in the optical and special effects department and helped out with camera, laboratory and sound work when he could. He spent his evenings taking courses at the School of Fine Arts in Amsterdam and the School of Photography in The Hague. As his skills improved, he took on more complex work, including transitions and models, and eventually began designing, editing, and directing commercials. He immigrated to Canada in 1965, where he landed a job as a production assistant at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), joining filmmakers such as Jacques Drouin, Michèle Cournoyer, Suzanne Gervais, and Yves Leduc. He made his first short film there in 1968. Wanting to learn more about stop-motion animation techniques, he went to Czechoslovakia in 1970 to study puppet animation. In 1978, he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for his film The Sand Castle. Co Hoedeman was known for his mastery of stop motion animation and technical innovation in films that reveal his close observation of human and social interaction. He was influenced by the work of animation filmmakers Jiří Trnka and Norman McLaren, and pays particular attention to the materials he uses, as they enable him to define the personalities of his characters.