Patrick Osborne Wins an Oscar

There was a time (for me) when the Academy Awards meant something more. You know, the anticipation of its start, who is watching with me, what’s on the snack menu and how many winners will I guess correctly. Ah, the memories. Now, I have 4 wonderful daughters who (strangely) don’t want to watch overdressed adults give speeches as an entertainment. Instead, this year our family watched a kids show which, like a river, flowed, one into the next, into the next, into the next (infinity). Which, truthfully, on most nights is entertainment enough for me.

While I was wading through I did manage, occasionally, to tune into the Oscars. On this particular awards night I saw something that caught my attention. The winner for Best Animated Short was a movie called Feast. It’s about a man who befriends a dog by feeding it (okay, it’s about a touch more than that). You may have seen it at the front of the movie Big Hero 6, which won for Animated Feature Film. Patrick Osborne who directed the film and accepted the Oscar is a graduate of my alma mater, the Ringling College of Art and Design. When I attended Ringling, I was one of 600 students (total). Two decades later it has grown into one of the most respected colleges of its kind and is a straight up powerhouse for animation related careers.

This was pretty cool to see! And, even though I had nothing to do with any of it, I am proud of my old school and “I too, would like to thank the academy.”

– Eric