Computer Animation alum wins Oscar

Brad Booker ’95, Computer Animation, won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko, at the 96th Academy Awards. The project was a collaboration with Booker’s production partner Dave Mullin and their animation studio ElectroLeague, along with Yoko Ono and John Lenon’s son Sean Ono Lenon. The animation and visual effects were created by Peter Jackson’s New Zealand-based VFX company, Wētā FX. 

The short narrative animation takes place on the World War One battlefield with an underlying anti-war message—no one wins at war. In the film, a carry pigeon aids two soldiers from opposing sides in a game of chess, carrying messages of their next move back and forth, until one day there is no one to send the messages, as both soldiers are presumably dead. Booker and Mullins previously won an Annie Award for Best Short Subject for the film.