Paul Augustin Driessen (born 1940) is a Dutch

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...

and

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Biography

After studying graphic design and illustration at the Art Academy in Utrecht, Driessen began animating TV-commercials in the Netherlands in the 1960, although he had no training in that art at all. When

George Dunning George Garnett Dunning (November 17, 1920 – February 15, 1979) was a Canadian filmmaker and animator. He is known for animating and directing the 1968 film inspired by the Beatles, '' Yellow Submarine''. Biography Dunning was born in Toronto ...

, in search for talent, found Driessen at the Cine Cartoon Centre in Hilversum, he hired him as an animator for his feature animation film '' Yellow Submarine'' (1968). He also helped Driessen to emigrate to Canada where he became a member of the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

in 1972.

Style

Driessen's unique style can be easily recognized by the delicate quality of his ever-moving and wiggling lines, as well as by the fluid but awkward movements of his characters. His storytelling sometimes splits up the screen into three or even six different parts, with all actions nicely woven into each other.

Accolades

His short films have won more than fifty prizes all over the world, including the Life Achievement Awards at both

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and

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animation festivals, and a 1999 Oscar nomination for ''3 Misses'' .

Legacy

In the 1980s Driessen taught animation at the University of Art Kassel, Germany, after

Jan Lenica Jan Lenica (4 January 1928, Poznań, Poland – 5 October 2001, Berlin) was a Polish graphic designer and cartoonist. A graduate of the Architecture Department of Warsaw Polytechnic, Lenica became a poster illustrator and a collaborator on the e ...

. Two of his students' films--'' Balance'' by Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein, and ''

Quest A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of ever ...

'' by Tyron Montgomery and Thomas Stellmach—won Academy Awards. His films ''3 Misses'' and ''2D or Not 2D'' were included in the Animation Show of Shows. This short film ''

The Killing of an Egg ''The Killing of an Egg'' (Dutch title ''Ei om Zeep'', literally "Egg for Soap") is an animated short directed by Paul Driessen and produced by Nico Crama in the Netherlands in 1977. Synopsis The film starts with a bald, obese man in a bright ...

'' influenced Stephen Hillenburg to consider the field of animation.Stephen Hillenburg: marine biologist whi created Spongebob Squarepants, The Independent, The Independent
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Films

* "The Story of Little John Bailey" (1970) * "Le Bleu perdu" (1972) * "Air!" (1972) * "Au bout du fil" ("Cat's Cradle") (1974) * "An Old Box" ("Une vieille boîte") (1975) * "David" (1977) * "

" ("Ei om Zeep") (1977) * "Ter land, ter zee en in de lucht" ("On Land, at Sea and in the Air") (1980) * "Jeu de coudes" (Elbowing) (1980) * "Het Treinhuisje" ("Home on the Rails") (1981) * "Une histoire comme une autre" ("The Same Old Story") (1981) * "La Belle et la boîte" ("Oh What a Knight") (1982) * "Tip Top" (1984) * "Het scheppen van een koe" ("Spotting a Cow") (1984) * "Elephantrio" (1985) * "Spiegel eiland" ("Sunny Side Up") (1985) * "The Train Gang" (1986) * "Getting There" (1986) * "De Schrijver en de Dood" ("The Writer") (1988) * "Uncles & Aunts #1" (1989) * "The Water People" (1992) * "Uncles & Aunts #3" (1992) * "The End of the World in Four Seasons" ("La fin du monde en quatre saisons") (1995) * "3 Misses" (1998) * " The Boy Who Saw the Iceberg" ("Le garçon qui a vu l'iceberg") (2000) * "2D or not 2D" (2003) * "Oh What a Nico" (2004) * "Oedipus" (2011) * "Cat Meets Dog" (2015) * "The One-Minute Memoir" (2020)

External links

*
Paul Driessen's personal website

NFB films by Driessen online

NFB retrospective ''Beyond the Blue Meanies''

References

{{Authority control 1940 births Directors of Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners for Best Animated Short Dutch animators Canadian animators Dutch animated film directors Canadian animated film directors People from Nijmegen Living people National Film Board of Canada people