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Wikipedia

Don Hertzfeldt

April 12, 2024

Don Hertzfeldt (born August 1, 1976) is an American animator, writer, and independent filmmaker. He is a two-time Academy Award nominee who is best known for the animated films It's Such a Beautiful Day, the World of Tomorrow series, and Rejected. In 2014, his work appeared on The Simpsons. Eight of his short films have competed at the Sundance Film Festival, a festival record.[1] He is also the only filmmaker to have won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for Short Film twice.

Don Hertzfeldt
Hertzfeldt in 2015 at the Austrian Film Museum
Born (1976-08-01) August 1, 1976 (age 47)
Fremont, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of California, Santa Barbara (B.A. 1998)
Styleanimation, black comedy, surreal humour, science fiction, surrealist cinema, experimental, absurdist fiction, psychological drama, surrealism, dramedy
Awards
Websitewww.bitterfilms.com

Hertzfeldt's work has been described as "some of the most influential animation ever created",[2] "some of the most vital and expressive animation of the millennium",[3] and "some of the most essential short films of the last 20 years".[4] In 2020, GQ described his work as "simultaneously tragic and hilarious and philosophical and crude and deeply sad and fatalist and yet stubbornly, resolutely hopeful."[5]

In his book The World History of Animation, author Stephen Cavalier writes "Hertzfeldt is either a unique phenomenon or perhaps an example of a new way forward for individual animators surviving independently on their own terms... he attracts the kind of fanatical support from the student and alternative crowds usually associated with indie rock bands".[6]

Hertzfeldt's feature film It's Such a Beautiful Day was listed by many film critics as one of the best films of 2012 and the L.A. Film Critics Association named it runner-up for Best Animated Feature Film of the year.[7] After a limited UK release in 2013, the film was ranked #3 on Time Out London's list of the 10 Best Films of 2013 and #4 on The London Film Review's list of the same. In 2014, Time Out New York ranked It's Such a Beautiful Day #16 on its list of the "100 Best Animated Movies Ever Made,"[8] and in 2016, The Film Stage critics ranked the film #1 on their list of "The 50 Best Animated Films of the 21st Century Thus Far."[9] In 2019, The Wrap named It's Such a Beautiful Day the #1 "Best Animated Film of the 2010s."[10] The same year, the Vulture film critics ranked it #12 on their overall list of the "Best Movies of the Decade."[11] In 2021, IGN's CineFix gave it the #1 spot on their "Top 10 Animated Films of All Time" list.[12]

In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked World of Tomorrow #10 on its list of the "40 Greatest Animated Movies Ever".[13] Despite its short running time, The A.V. Club called it "possibly the best film of 2015."[14] In 2019, Indiewire ranked World of Tomorrow #17 in its overall list of the "100 Best Movies of the Decade".[15] In 2020, Indiewire called it "one of the greatest short films in the history of movies."[16]

World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts premiered in 2017 and received rare "A+" reviews from Indiewire and Collider, where it was described as "another soulful sci-fi masterpiece."[17] The Daily Beast called it "a must-see animated masterpiece" and "one of the best films of the year."[18]

World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime was released in 2020 to more positive reviews, including another "A+" from Indiewire.[19][20] Of the "dreamy, beloved" ongoing series, The Film Stage noted, "Hertzfeldt has crafted what might be the crowning achievement of modern science fiction."[21]

In December 2023, Hertzfeldt announced that his next film, "ME", would be releasing in 2024.

Hertzfeldt primarily supports his work through self-distribution such as ticket sales from theatrical tours, DVDs, VOD, and television broadcasts. He has refused all advertising work.[22]

Personal life edit

Hertzfeldt was born on August 1, 1976, in Fremont, California, the son of an airline pilot and a county library clerk.[23][24] Some publications have his place of birth as Fremont while others name Castro Valley, California.[23][25] He is of half Swedish descent.[26] Hertzfeldt attended Mission San Jose High School in Fremont.[25] In his childhood, Hertzfeldt drew homemade comic books and, at the age of 15, he began to teach himself animation with a VHS video camera.[24] Two of Hertzfeldt's teenage VHS cartoons can be seen on the "Bitter Films: Volume 1" DVD collection.

While at film school, Hertzfeldt was drawn to animation as it was a less expensive form to work in. He could not afford to buy the numerous rolls of 16 mm film required to shoot live action. He has stated, "I think I've always approached animation from a strange angle, a bit like a live action filmmaker who just happens to draw. Editing, writing, sound—those are the things that usually come first in my head. Animation is often just the busy work I need to get through to connect the dots and tell the story."[27]

Hertzfeldt has never held a job other than creating his animated films.[28] His earliest teenage video animations found film festival exposure, and in film school at the University of California, Santa Barbara he was able to find international distribution for each of his 16mm student films. He is a 1998 graduate[29] with a B.A. in Film Studies.[30]

Hertzfeldt's influences include Steven Spielberg,[31] Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Edward Gorey,[32] Monty Python, Stan Brakhage,[33] silent films, and the animated shorts he saw at numerous animation festivals at a young age, including the early works of Aardman Animation and Bill Plympton.[34]

In 2022, for the BFI Sight and Sound "Greatest Films of All Time" poll, Hertzfeldt listed the following ten films as important titles that had "knocked me over the head at some point in life and continue to do so": The Act of Killing, Citizen Kane, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Gates of Heaven, The Godfather, Goodfellas, Harold and Maude, Monty Python's Life of Brian, The Pianist, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.[35]

Technique edit

Hertzfeldt's work commonly features hand-drawn stick figures, in stories of black humor, surrealism, and tragicomedy. Some films contain existential and philosophical themes while others are more straightforwardly slapstick and absurdist. His animation was first created traditionally, with pen and paper, before transitioning to digital animation for his World of Tomorrow short film series. Hertzfeldt initially used antique 16 mm or 35 mm–film cameras to photograph his drawings and often employs old-fashioned special effect techniques such as multiple exposures, in-camera mattes, and experimental photography. While some of these techniques are as established as an occasional stop-motion animation sequence or a universe of moving stars created by back-lit pin holes, other effects are new innovations on classical methods, as seen with the in-camera compositing of multiple, split-screen windows of action in the Everything Will Be OK films.[36][37][38]

Hertzfeldt's student films in the 1990s were photographed on 16mm. From 1999 to 2011, Hertzfeldt photographed his films on a 35mm Richardson animation camera stand, believed to be the same camera that photographed many of the Peanuts cartoons in the 1960s and 1970s.[39] Built in the late 1940s, it was one of the last remaining functioning cameras of its kind left in the world, and Hertzfeldt found it to be a crucial element in the creation of his films and their visuals.[40]

In 2015, Hertzfeldt released his first digitally animated short film, World of Tomorrow, which was created at the same time as another digital piece, an animated guest appearance on The Simpsons. Both pieces were still hand-drawn by Hertzfeldt, but he used a Cintiq tablet instead of paper.

Discussing film and digital technology with The New York Times in 2008, Hertzfeldt noted:

I don't know why these things are always framed as a big dumb cage match: Hand-drawn versus computers, film versus digital. We have over 100 years now of amazing film technology to play with, I don't understand why any artists would want to throw any of their tools out of the box. Many people assume that because I shoot on film and animate on paper I must be doing things the hard way, when in fact my last four movies would have been visually impossible to produce digitally. The only thing that matters is what actually winds up on the big screen, not how you got it there. You could make a cartoon in crayons about a red square that falls in unrequited love with a blue circle, and there wouldn't be a dry eye in the house if you know how to tell a story.[41]

It's not unusual for Hertzfeldt to write, direct, produce, animate, photograph, edit, perform voices, record and mix sound, and/or compose music for one of his films, at times requiring years to complete a single short by working alone. The animation for one of his films may often require tens of thousands of drawings.

Hertzfeldt frequently scores his pictures with classical music and opera. The music of Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Smetana, Beethoven, Richard Strauss, and Wagner have all appeared in his films. On occasion, Hertzfeldt has also scored portions of his films himself, with a guitar or keyboard.

Approach to writing edit

Hertzfeldt described his relaxed writing process in a 2015 Reddit "AMA" session:

It's like you're floating in an ocean, and you want to build a raft. So you just float there and you wait and wait. And eventually this little piece of something comes drifting by, maybe a memory, and you hang on to it, and then another little piece comes around, it is unrelated, maybe it's a funny sentence you overheard somewhere. And you keep collecting all these little things that just sort of drift by... a dream, a beautiful sentence in your head that just appeared while doing the dishes, an anecdote you stole from your old diary... and eventually you find connections between all the things and with all these parts you've gathered up you now have enough stuff to build a raft. And then once you have the raft you can remove all the bits that don't quite fit anymore, the spare parts that you didn't need after all, you toss them back or maybe save them for another raft later. When I write, there isn't a lot of active effort or swimming around, or calculation... for me that can be very poisonous to creativity. The big ideas won't happen right when you mentally stress on them... it's more a matter of being patient and being open to all the things that just drift in.[42]

In another Reddit "AMA", on the subject of creativity, Hertzfeldt suggested the following:

...You need to try to return to the time when you were a little kid, creating things on a big sheet of paper in a beautiful sunbeam, and not having any cares at all about how it might one day be received. It's when children learn to think, "Is this any good?" that they start to become paralyzed creatively. And this is why most adults don't draw, don't write, don't sing, don't dance, and are terrified in front of audiences.[43]

Student films, 1995–1998 edit

Hertzfeldt made four 16mm animated student films while studying film at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Ah, L'Amour and Genre were produced at the ages of 18 and 19. Ah, L'Amour won the HBO Comedy Arts Festival Grand Prize for "World's Funniest Cartoon".[44]

His first dialogue short, Lily and Jim, was released in 1997, and tells the story of a disastrous blind date. Its partially improvised vocal performances helped the short win twenty five awards, including the Grand Prize at the New Orleans Film Festival.[45]

His final student cartoon, Billy's Balloon, is about an inexplicable attack on small children by malevolent balloons. It was nominated for the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, and won the Grand Jury Award at the 1999 Slamdance Film Festival. In total, it won thirty three awards.[46]

The popularity of each student short at film and animation festivals—and eventually around the world from screening on MTV and other networks—helped fund the next one, and eventually financed the production of his first film after college.

Independent animation, 2000–present edit

Rejected edit

Main article: Rejected

Soon after graduating from film school, Hertzfeldt purchased his own 35mm rostrum camera and made his next animated short, Rejected.

Released nationwide in theaters through the Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation in 2000, the short won 27 film festival awards and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film the following year.

Rejected is now considered a cult classic and one of the most influential animated films ever made.[47][48] In the early 2000s, pirated copies of Rejected turned the film into a viral video, where it has been credited with shaping the surreal sense of humor of the early Internet.[49] In 2018 New York Magazine wrote, "If there is a single piece of media that inspired what we nebulously refer to as "internet humor," it's probably Rejected.[50]

In 2009, Rejected was the only short film named as one of the "Films of the Decade" by Salon.[51] In 2010, it was noted as one of the five "most innovative animated films of the past ten years" by The Huffington Post.[52] Indiewire film critic Eric Kohn named Rejected one of the "10 best films of the 21st century" on his list for the BBC Culture poll in 2016.[47]

The film presents itself as a reel of rejected commercial work by a fictional version of Don Hertzfeldt. The commissioned animated vignettes grow more and more abstract and inappropriate as the animator suffers a mental breakdown, until they literally fall apart.

Although the film is fictional and Hertzfeldt has never done advertising work, he received many offers to do television commercials after Billy's Balloon drew international attention. In appearances Hertzfeldt has told the humorous story of how he was tempted to produce the worst possible cartoons he could come up with for the companies, run off with their money, and see if they would actually make it to air. Eventually this became the germ for Rejected's theme of a collection of cartoons so bad they were rejected by advertising agencies, leading to their creator's breakdown and ultimately the cartoons' metaphysical crisis.

The Animation Show edit

Main article: The Animation Show

In 2003, Hertzfeldt created The Animation Show with Beavis and Butt-head creator Mike Judge. It was a biennial North American touring festival that brought independent animated short films to more movie theaters than any distributor in history. The programs were personally curated by Hertzfeldt and Judge. Highlights of the first theatrical program included a restored excerpt from Ward Kimball's 1957 Mars and Beyond through a special partnership with Disney, the stop-motion animated film Vincent by Tim Burton, new cartoons by Hertzfeldt to book end the program, and never-before-seen pencil tests and animation experiments by Mike Judge.

A second Animation Show edition toured throughout 2005, featuring Hertzfeldt's new short film The Meaning of Life and new work by animators Peter Cornwell and Georges Schwizgebel. The third season of The Animation Show began its nationwide release in January 2007, featuring new work by animators Joanna Quinn and Bill Plympton, as well as Hertzfeldt's Everything Will Be OK.

A stated goal of The Animation Show was to regularly "free the work of these independent artists from the dungeons of Internet exhibition," and bring them into proper movie theaters where most of the short films were originally meant to be seen. The Animation Show meanwhile launched a supplemental DVD series of animated short films, with content that varied from the annual theatrical programs. These DVDs were distributed by MTV.

In a March 2008 entry in his blog, Hertzfeldt announced he had decided to leave The Animation Show, after having programmed three tours. A fourth season of the program was released in theaters in summer 2008, with no involvement from him.[53]

The Meaning of Life edit

 
Hertzfeldt at his desk during the production of The Meaning of Life

Almost four years in the making, Hertzfeldt's twelve-minute The Meaning of Life premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and toured film and animation festivals in 2005–2006. Though its abstract nature puzzled some critics, it received mostly positive reviews. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called the film "the closest thing on film yet to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey."[54]

In the film, the evolution of the human race is traced from prehistory (mankind as blob forms), through today (mankind as teeming crowds of selfish, fighting, or lost individuals), to hundreds of millions of years into the future as our species evolves into countless new forms; all of them still behaving the same way. The film concludes in the extreme future, with two creatures (apparently an adult and child subspecies of future human), having a conversation about the meaning of life on a colorful shore.

In 2009, Hertzfeldt noted, "I don't often make the same sort of movie twice in a row. It's always been whatever's next in my head. From a commercial standpoint I guess I've made some pretty inscrutable decisions, like following up 'Rejected' with a sprawling abstract film about human evolution, but it's really just been whichever ideas won't go away at the time. There's always a lot of new things I'd like to try."[55]

In 2014, Time Out New York named the film one of the "thirty best animated short films ever made."[56]

Everything Will Be OK, I Am So Proud Of You and It's Such a Beautiful Day edit

Main article: It's Such a Beautiful Day
 
A line around the block for An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt

Everything Will Be OK edit

Everything Will Be OK was released in 2006 and became Hertzfeldt's most critically successful piece to date, receiving his strongest reviews. The 17-minute animated short was based on a character, Bill, from his webcomic "Temporary Anesthetics".[57] The Boston Globe called the film a "masterpiece" with the Boston Phoenix declaring Hertzfeldt a "genius."[58] The short film was a cover story on the Chicago Reader, receiving four stars from critic J.R. Jones. Variety film critic Robert Koehler named Everything Will Be OK one of the Best Films of 2007.[59]

Everything will be OK is the first chapter of a three-part story about a man named Bill whose daily routines, perceptions, and dreams are illustrated onscreen through multiple split-screen windows. Bill's seemingly mundane life, narrated in humorous and dramatic anecdotes, gradually grows dark as we learn he may be suffering from a possibly fatal neurological disorder.

Scenes throughout the trilogy are often divided into multiple windows of action on the screen at once against a background of pure black. Animated still photographs are also incorporated inside certain windows, as well as a handful of the colorful special effects and experimental film techniques that Hertzfeldt first utilized in The Meaning of Life. Like many of Hertzfeldt's films, the trilogy's special effects were captured in-camera.

Everything Will Be OK won the Grand Jury Prize for Short Filmmaking at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, the Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Grand Prize at the London Animation Festival, and 34 other awards.

I Am So Proud of You edit

I Am So Proud of You, the second chapter in the story, was released in autumn 2008. Upon its release, Hertzfeldt traveled with I Am So Proud of You and a selection of his other films to 22 cities on a sold-out American tour (with two stops in the UK and three in Canada). '"An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt" presented a 35mm selection of his work followed by an onstage interview and audience chat with him.[60] I Am So Proud of You also played at film festivals throughout 2009 and won 27 awards.[61]

It's Such a Beautiful Day edit

The third and final chapter, It's Such a Beautiful Day, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Hertzfeldt traveled with It's Such a Beautiful Day in 2011 and 2012 on another North American theatrical tour to 30 cities.

Of the trilogy, Steven Pate of The Chicagoist wrote, "There is a moment in each installment of Don Hertzfeldt's masterful trilogy of animated shorts where you feel something in your chest. It's an unmistakably cardiac event, the kind that great art can elicit when something profound and undeniably true is conveyed about the human condition. That's when you say to yourself: are stick figures supposed to make me feel this way? In the hands of a master, yes. And Hertzfeldt is to stick figures what Franz Liszt was to planks of ebony and ivory and what Ted Williams was to a stick of white ash: someone so transcendentally expert that to describe what they do in literal terms is borderline demeaning."[62]

The Feature Film edit

In 2012, Hertzfeldt edited together the three chapters of the short film trilogy to create a seamless new feature film of the story. His first feature film, the movie shares the same title as the third chapter of the story, It's Such a Beautiful Day, and had a limited theatrical release.

The film was subsequently released on DVD, iTunes, Netflix, and on-demand on Vimeo. It's Such a Beautiful Day was released on Blu-ray in 2015. In 2021, a remastered version was released on The Criterion Channel.

Critic J.R. Jones wrote, "with his humor, darkness, philosophical yearning, and insistence on drawing every line himself, [Hertzfeldt] may be the only legitimate successor to Charles M. Schulz."[63]

It's Such a Beautiful Day was very well received by film critics. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named it their runner-up for Best Animated Feature Film of the year, behind Frankenweenie. Indiewire ranked Hertzfeldt the 9th best Film Director of the Year in its annual poll (tied with Wes Anderson), and The A.V. Club film critics ranked the film # 8 on their list of the Best Films of 2012.[7] Slate Magazine named "It's Such a Beautiful Day" their pick for Best Animated Feature Film of 2012.

In the years that followed, the film's status grew. In 2014, Time Out New York ranked It's Such a Beautiful Day #16 on its list of the "100 Best Animated Movies Ever Made,"[8] and in 2016, The Film Stage critics ranked the film #1 on their list of "The 50 Best Animated Films of the 21st Century Thus Far."[9] In 2019, The Wrap named It's Such a Beautiful Day the #1 "Best Animated Film of the 2010s."[10] The same year, the Vulture film critics ranked it #12 on their overall list of the "Best Movies of the Decade."[11] In 2021, IGN's CineFix gave it the #1 spot on their "Top 10 Animated Films of All Time" list.[12]

Wisdom Teeth edit

In October 2009, Hertzfeldt premiered Wisdom Teeth, an unannounced, new five-minute cartoon at the "Evening with Don Hertzfeldt" screening at the Ottawa Animation Festival. It later screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010 and the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, where it was awarded a Special Jury Mention.[53] In 2010, it appeared as part of a series on the Showtime Network called "Short Stories".

The Simpsons edit

Main article: Clown in the Dumps

In 2014, Hertzfeldt wrote, animated, and directed a surreal and futuristic two-minute "couch gag" for the premiere episode of the 26th season of The Simpsons. It was the longest opening gag in the show's history and was described by Spin Magazine as "mind-melting," and "two of the strangest minutes of television ever to air on a major network during prime time."[64][65][66]

The sequence depicts Homer accidentally using a time-traveling remote control that regresses him to his original 1987 character model, then propels him into a distant future incarnation of the show called The Sampsans where he and his family have evolved into grotesque, mindless, catchphrase-spouting creatures. Future Homer sadly remembers past futuristic episodes, in which he still had an emotional connection with Marge and the children. Simpsons producer Al Jean called it "crazier than we thought," and "the most insane one we've ever done."[67]

World of Tomorrow edit

Main article: World of Tomorrow (film)

In January 2015, Hertzfeldt's first digitally-animated short film, World of Tomorrow, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize, his second. Illustrator Julia Pott performs the voice of the short's lead character, opposite Hertzfeldt's then-four-year-old niece, who was recorded while drawing and playing. Her spontaneous, natural vocal reactions and questions were then edited into the story to create her character.

On finally making the leap to digital animation after twenty years of working with pencil and paper, Hertzfeldt joked, "I kind of feel like it's like a rock band who traditionally was guitar, guitar, guitar and then for their new album, they're like, we're going electronic! But [then] they only use Casio keyboards and drum machines... It's not the cutting edge CG we're all used to."[68]

Critics were universally positive in their reviews, describing the science fiction film as "one of the most satisfying shorts since Chris Marker's landmark 1962 La Jetee and almost certain to be the highlight of this year's Sundance, full stop,"[69] "dazzling, enthralling"[70] and "astonishing."[71]

The film next won Best Animated Short at the SXSW Film Festival. Indiewire called the short film "one of the best films of 2015," and The Dissolve named it "one of the finest achievements in sci-fi in recent memory." The A.V. Club described the film as "visionary" and "possibly the best film of 2015,"[72] in spite of its short running time. The Austin Film Critics Association gave Hertzfeldt a Special Honorary Award in recognition of the film.

World of Tomorrow was released on-demand on Vimeo in March 2015, simultaneous with its run in film festivals.

At the end of its film festival run, the film won over 40 awards. World of Tomorrow won two Crystal Awards from the Annecy Animation Festival, a Special Jury Award, and the Audience Award. The film also won two awards from the Ottawa International Animation Festival, Best Script and the Audience Award.

In 2016, World of Tomorrow won the animation industry's Annie Award for Best Animated Short Film.

In 2016, World of Tomorrow was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film at the 88th Academy Awards, Hertzfeldt's second career nomination.

In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked World of Tomorrow # 10 on its list of the "Greatest Animated Movies Ever."[13]

World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts edit

World of Tomorrow Episode Two premiered in 2017 at Fantastic Fest in Austin and received rare "A+" reviews from Indiewire and Collider, where it was described as "another soulful sci-fi masterpiece."[17] The Daily Beast called it "one of the best films of the year... a must-see animated masterpiece."[18]

Hertzfeldt traveled with the film to theaters on a "winter mini-tour" in December 2017. The screenings opened with a surprise new two-minute cartoon, in which an animated Hertzfeldt introduces the program from the caverns of an alien planet.

World of Tomorrow Episode Two won the Grand Prize at Montreal's Sommets du cinéma d'animation, an Audience Award at Fantastic Fest, and a Special Jury Award from the London Animation Festival.

In January 2018, the film played opening night at the Sundance Film Festival.

World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime edit

World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime was released on-demand worldwide on October 9, 2020.

Unlike its predecessors, it was unable to premiere in theaters due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. "Episode Three" finally appeared in theaters in 2023 as part of a special "World of Tomorrow" program with the Alamo Drafthouse cinemas, called "An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt, Who Will Not Be There".[73][74]

Film critic David Ehrlich ranked World of Tomorrow Episode Three #3 on his list of the 25 Best Films of 2020.[75]

In 2021, the film was nominated for an Annie Award for Best Animated Short, Hertzfeldt's 4th nomination in the category.[76]

Other work edit

In December 2013, Hertzfeldt released a graphic novel, The End of the World, through independent publisher Antibookclub. The 216-page book was described in his blog as containing many years of leftover film ideas reshaped into an experimental new story: "If the films were albums, I guess these would be the B-sides." In 2019, Random House announced they would be printing a new edition of The End of the World in wide release.[77]

In 2013, Hertzfeldt created a 30-second piece called "Day Sleeper" on an iPad for the National Film Board of Canada. It was animated using their app, a tribute to experimental animator Norman McLaren.

In 2021, Hertzfeldt animated and directed On Memory, a non-fiction special feature included on the World of Tomorrow: The First Three Episodes Blu-ray.

Hertzfeldt created the animated logo for Jennifer Lawrence's production company, Excellent Cadaver. The logo debuted with the release of Causeway in 2022.[78]

Influence edit

Hertzfeldt's work has been credited with being a prominent influence on surrealism and absurdism in animation in the 2000s, including shaping Adult Swim's brand of animated comedy.[79]

In 2008, Comedy Central noted his work as having "influenced an entire generation of filmmakers."[80]

In 2012, Hertzfeldt was ranked #16 in an animation industry and historian survey of the "Top 100 Most Influential People in Animation."[81]

An animated science fiction story in the third season of Fargo was an homage to Hertzfeldt's work.[82][83]

In 2018, Raphael Bob-Waksberg cited Hertzfeldt as an influence in the creation of the animated series BoJack Horseman.[84][85]

In 2021, Pete Docter acknowledged Hertzfeldt's visual influence on the Pixar film Soul.[86]

Hertzfeldt influenced many webcomics including Hyperbole and a Half, xkcd, and Cyanide and Happiness.[87][88]

Awards and honors edit

Hertzfeldt has had more films play in competition at the Sundance Film Festival than any other filmmaker, with eight: Rejected, The Meaning of Life, Everything Will Be OK, I Am So Proud of You, Wisdom Teeth, It's Such a Beautiful Day, World of Tomorrow, and World of Tomorrow Episode Two. He returned to the Sundance Film Festival in 2013 to serve on the Short Film Jury.

In 1999, at the age of 22, Hertzfeldt was nominated for the Short Film Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Billy's Balloon, where he was the youngest director in competition. The same year Billy's Balloon won the Slamdance Film Festival Grand Jury Award.

In 2000, at the age of 23, Hertzfeldt was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for his fifth short film, Rejected. He lost to Michaël Dudok de Wit for Father and Daughter.

In 2001, Hertzfeldt was named by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the "Top 25 Filmmakers to Watch."

In 2002, Hertzfeldt joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In 2007, Hertzfeldt's Everything Will Be OK won the Grand Jury Award for Short Film at the Sundance Film Festival, a prize rarely given to an animated film.[89]

In 2007, according to the animation industry website Cartoon Brew, Everything Will Be OK advanced to the final round of voting as a contender for an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short, but did not make the ultimate list of five nominees.

In 2007, Hertzfeldt accepted an invitation from the George Eastman House's motion picture archives to indefinitely store and preserve the original film elements and camera negatives to his collected work.

In 2009, Rejected was the only short film named one of the "Films of the Decade" by Salon.com.[51] In 2010, it was noted as one of the five "most innovative animated films of the past ten years" by The Huffington Post.[52]

In April 2010, at the age of 33, Hertzfeldt received the San Francisco International Film Festival's "Persistence of Vision" Lifetime Achievement Award "for his unique contributions to film and animation," and "for challenging the boundaries of his craft."[90]

Hertzfeldt was the youngest director named in the "They Shoot Pictures, Don't They" list of "The 100 Important Animation Directors" of all time,[91]

In 2012, Hertzfeldt received the Ted M. Larson memorial award from the Fargo Film Festival, for his "contributions to film culture."[92]

In 2015, Hertzfeldt won the Grand Jury Award for Short Film a second time at the Sundance Film Festival, for World of Tomorrow.

In December 2015, Hertzfeldt received a special award from the Austin Film Critics Association, "in celebration of a career of remarkable short filmmaking and contributions to animation spanning two decades, with 2015's award-winning "World of Tomorrow" being recognized as his best work to date."

Hertzfeldt has been nominated for four Annie Awards for Best Animated Short Film. He lost for Rejected in 2001 and Everything Will Be OK in 2007 and won for World of Tomorrow in 2016. World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime was nominated in 2021 and lost.

In 2016, World of Tomorrow was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 88th Academy Awards, Hertzfeldt's second nomination. He lost to Bear Story.

DVD and Blu-ray releases edit

Hertzfeldt owns the rights to all of his work and has self-distributed his films under the moniker "Bitter Films" since the 1990s.[58]

Bitter Films' first DVD release was a 2001 limited edition DVD "single" of the short Rejected. The DVD included a deleted scene, audio commentary, and a few hidden pages. It is now out of print.

Don Hertzfeldt Volume One: 1995–2005 was released in 2006, collecting the first 10 years of his work. All of the short films were remastered and restored in high definition from their original film negatives. The DVD was made available only to fans via the Bitter Films website, with the first 750 pre-orderers receiving an "exclusive mystery gift" (either a 35mm clipping from Rejected that was autographed by Don, or a unique drawing by Don on a Post-it note).

This DVD marked the first time his student films such as Genre and Lily and Jim were made widely available to the public. Many of these works were only previously found on limited-release VHS collections of animated shorts, long out of print.

The special features for Don Hertzfeldt Volume One: 1995–2005 included a time-lapse documentary of the making of The Meaning of Life called "Watching Grass Grow", The Animation Show Trilogy cartoons, Lily and Jim deleted dialogues and outtakes, Rejected trivia captions, The Meaning of Life special effects audio commentary, an over 140-page "archive" section (of rare footage from Hertzfeldt's earliest cartoons, original pencil tests, deleted sequences, abandoned footage, and sketch to scene comparisons), Lily and Jim audio commentary, Rejected audio commentary, and a retrospective booklet, with liner notes by Hertzfeldt.

In 2007, Everything Will Be OK was released as another DVD "single". Special features on this release included over a hundred pages of "archival" material (sketches, storyboards, deleted materials), and a hidden feature that played a narration-free version of the film. Fans who pre-ordered the DVD received a unique 35mm film strip clipped from one of the film's theatrical prints.

I Am So Proud of You was released as a similar "single" in 2009. It featured a similar 148 page "archive" of production materials, as well as the hidden narration-free feature. Fans who pre-ordered the DVD received a unique 35mm film strip clipped from one of the film's theatrical prints.

Don Hertzfeldt Volume 2: 2006–2011, a DVD collection of all work from 2006–2011 (including the feature film version of It's Such a Beautiful Day) was released in November 2012. Special features for the release included over 40 minutes of live Q&A material from the touring program, the cartoon Wisdom Teeth, a deleted scene from It's Such a Beautiful Day, and a 24-page booklet. Fans who pre-ordered the release also received a unique 35mm film strip clipped from a theatrical print of It's Such a Beautiful Day, and other free gifts.

In 2015, Hertzfeldt ran a Kickstarter campaign to help fund future productions, with the Blu-ray debut of It's Such a Beautiful Day and World of Tomorrow as the central pledge reward. The campaign raised over $215,000. With rising pledges he restored and remastered additional short films The Meaning of Life, Rejected, Wisdom Teeth, and student films Billy's Balloon and Lily and Jim, adding them to the Blu-ray as well. Also included on the disc was an interview, his piece from The Simpsons, and the first preview of World of Tomorrow Episode Two.[93][94]

In 2021, a second fundraiser campaign raised over $450,000 for future productions. The main pledge reward was the Blu-ray release of World of Tomorrow: The First Three Episodes, a collection of the first three World of Tomorrow short films plus a booklet of production notes, a deleted scene, and a related new animated short called On Memory.[95] Other rewards included signed prints, original production artwork from It's Such a Beautiful Day, World of Tomorrow jigsaw puzzles, and original drawings.

Since the 1990s, Hertzfeldt has annually auctioned off rare animation artwork and original film props to raise money for local charities.[96][97] Other artwork has been occasionally given away through the Bitter Films online store through special promotions. Because Hertzfeldt does not often do signings, his animation artwork is rare for collectors and fans to own. The 2023 charity auction marked the first time original animation drawings from It's Such a Beautiful Day had ever been made available.[98]

View on advertising edit

Hertzfeldt has been offered numerous lucrative advertising deals, including ad campaigns for Cingular Wireless and United Airlines, which he has declined. He has made various comments over the years about his dislike of corporate America and says he will never be involved with the advertising world.[22] He has said, "The goal isn't to try and make as much money as I possibly can, the goal is to try and make good movies."

In a 2015 Vanity Fair interview, Hertzfeldt said:

...Many people in our industry would see advertising work as the ultimate goal, which really illustrates the sad state of affairs that's set up for many young animators. They're basically being taught that their [own] work has no value. Their personal projects, even when Oscar-nominated and whatnot, are perceived as just a way to attract some empty corporate advertising gig where they can maybe make enough money to fund another personal project that's maybe dropped on YouTube, loses money, and forgotten about. It's a terrible cycle. Artists shouldn't be making art on the side, it should be their job. We need to retrain audiences who've grown used to the free YouTube model that [short films] are worth paying for.[99]

In a March 2009 blog entry, Hertzfeldt compared filmmaking to his love of hiking and exploring new places: something he does just because he "enjoys doing it and will probably always enjoy doing it." He compared doing advertising to being paid to not go explore the woods, but to walk around someone's house eight hours a day wearing a sandwich board with a picture of a product on it. "Money's not the reason I take walks. It doesn't really factor into it. I take walks because I enjoy doing it. It's something I'd do if I was rich, and it's something I'd do if I were poor."[100]

In the commentary for Rejected on the Bitter Films Vol. 1 DVD, Hertzfeldt stated that "You never want to lie to your audience... you can trick them, you can disturb them, you can annoy them, but you can never lie to them. To me commercials are nothing but lies."[101]

Nevertheless, several international ad campaigns have borrowed heavily from his unique style and bear enough resemblance to Hertzfeldt's work as to be mistaken for it. The most well-known instance of this is a series of television ads for Kellogg's Pop-Tarts, which use black and white stick figures, "squiggly" animation, surreal humor, and even an occasional crumpling paper effect, all very similar to Hertzfeldt's style. Despite all these similarities, Hertzfeldt was not involved in any way.[102] In Canada, the not-for-profit corporation Encorp has used a Hertzfeldt-like style of short animation clips on TV and the Internet to promote its "Don't Mess With Karma" campaign to encourage recycling.[103] One of the latest ad campaigns to use an art style similar to Hertzfeldt's is Krystal fast food restaurant to promote their Blitz Energy Drink.[104]

Filmography edit

References edit

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  102. ^ "Killer Rabbit w/info on Dark Crystal 2, Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy Animated, Choose Your Own Adventure & more!!!". Ain't It Cool News. July 27, 2006. Retrieved August 8, 2006. Don Hertzfeldt did not do those Pop tart commercials. He is looking into ligation about it.
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External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Don Hertzfeldt.
  • Bitter Films – official site
  • Don Hertzfeldt at IMDb

April 12, 2024
hertzfeldt, born, august, 1976, american, animator, writer, independent, filmmaker, time, academy, award, nominee, best, known, animated, films, such, beautiful, world, tomorrow, series, rejected, 2014, work, appeared, simpsons, eight, short, films, have, comp. Don Hertzfeldt born August 1 1976 is an American animator writer and independent filmmaker He is a two time Academy Award nominee who is best known for the animated films It s Such a Beautiful Day the World of Tomorrow series and Rejected In 2014 his work appeared on The Simpsons Eight of his short films have competed at the Sundance Film Festival a festival record 1 He is also the only filmmaker to have won the Sundance Film Festival s Grand Jury Prize for Short Film twice Don HertzfeldtHertzfeldt in 2015 at the Austrian Film MuseumBorn 1976 08 01 August 1 1976 age 47 Fremont California U S NationalityAmericanEducationUniversity of California Santa Barbara B A 1998 Styleanimation black comedy surreal humour science fiction surrealist cinema experimental absurdist fiction psychological drama surrealism dramedyAwards2015 Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Short Film World of Tomorrow 2001 Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Short Film Rejected 2015 Grand Jury Prize for Short Film Sundance Film Festival 2007 Grand Jury Prize for Short Film Sundance Film Festival 1999 Short Film Palme d Or nominee Cannes Film Festival Winner of over 250 other film festival awardsWebsitewww wbr bitterfilms wbr comHertzfeldt s work has been described as some of the most influential animation ever created 2 some of the most vital and expressive animation of the millennium 3 and some of the most essential short films of the last 20 years 4 In 2020 GQ described his work as simultaneously tragic and hilarious and philosophical and crude and deeply sad and fatalist and yet stubbornly resolutely hopeful 5 In his book The World History of Animation author Stephen Cavalier writes Hertzfeldt is either a unique phenomenon or perhaps an example of a new way forward for individual animators surviving independently on their own terms he attracts the kind of fanatical support from the student and alternative crowds usually associated with indie rock bands 6 Hertzfeldt s feature film It s Such a Beautiful Day was listed by many film critics as one of the best films of 2012 and the L A Film Critics Association named it runner up for Best Animated Feature Film of the year 7 After a limited UK release in 2013 the film was ranked 3 on Time Out London s list of the 10 Best Films of 2013 and 4 on The London Film Review s list of the same In 2014 Time Out New York ranked It s Such a Beautiful Day 16 on its list of the 100 Best Animated Movies Ever Made 8 and in 2016 The Film Stage critics ranked the film 1 on their list of The 50 Best Animated Films of the 21st Century Thus Far 9 In 2019 The Wrap named It s Such a Beautiful Day the 1 Best Animated Film of the 2010s 10 The same year the Vulture film critics ranked it 12 on their overall list of the Best Movies of the Decade 11 In 2021 IGN s CineFix gave it the 1 spot on their Top 10 Animated Films of All Time list 12 In 2016 Rolling Stone ranked World of Tomorrow 10 on its list of the 40 Greatest Animated Movies Ever 13 Despite its short running time The A V Club called it possibly the best film of 2015 14 In 2019 Indiewire ranked World of Tomorrow 17 in its overall list of the 100 Best Movies of the Decade 15 In 2020 Indiewire called it one of the greatest short films in the history of movies 16 World of Tomorrow Episode Two The Burden of Other People s Thoughts premiered in 2017 and received rare A reviews from Indiewire and Collider where it was described as another soulful sci fi masterpiece 17 The Daily Beast called it a must see animated masterpiece and one of the best films of the year 18 World of Tomorrow Episode Three The Absent Destinations of David Prime was released in 2020 to more positive reviews including another A from Indiewire 19 20 Of the dreamy beloved ongoing series The Film Stage noted Hertzfeldt has crafted what might be the crowning achievement of modern science fiction 21 In December 2023 Hertzfeldt announced that his next film ME would be releasing in 2024 Hertzfeldt primarily supports his work through self distribution such as ticket sales from theatrical tours DVDs VOD and television broadcasts He has refused all advertising work 22 Contents 1 Personal life 2 Technique 2 1 Approach to writing 3 Student films 1995 1998 4 Independent animation 2000 present 4 1 Rejected 4 2 The Animation Show 4 3 The Meaning of Life 4 4 Everything Will Be OK I Am So Proud Of You and It s Such a Beautiful Day 4 4 1 Everything Will Be OK 4 4 2 I Am So Proud of You 4 4 3 It s Such a Beautiful Day 4 4 4 The Feature Film 4 5 Wisdom Teeth 4 6 The Simpsons 4 7 World of Tomorrow 4 7 1 World of Tomorrow Episode Two The Burden of Other People s Thoughts 4 7 2 World of Tomorrow Episode Three The Absent Destinations of David Prime 5 Other work 6 Influence 7 Awards and honors 8 DVD and Blu ray releases 9 View on advertising 10 Filmography 11 References 12 External linksPersonal life editHertzfeldt was born on August 1 1976 in Fremont California the son of an airline pilot and a county library clerk 23 24 Some publications have his place of birth as Fremont while others name Castro Valley California 23 25 He is of half Swedish descent 26 Hertzfeldt attended Mission San Jose High School in Fremont 25 In his childhood Hertzfeldt drew homemade comic books and at the age of 15 he began to teach himself animation with a VHS video camera 24 Two of Hertzfeldt s teenage VHS cartoons can be seen on the Bitter Films Volume 1 DVD collection While at film school Hertzfeldt was drawn to animation as it was a less expensive form to work in He could not afford to buy the numerous rolls of 16 mm film required to shoot live action He has stated I think I ve always approached animation from a strange angle a bit like a live action filmmaker who just happens to draw Editing writing sound those are the things that usually come first in my head Animation is often just the busy work I need to get through to connect the dots and tell the story 27 Hertzfeldt has never held a job other than creating his animated films 28 His earliest teenage video animations found film festival exposure and in film school at the University of California Santa Barbara he was able to find international distribution for each of his 16mm student films He is a 1998 graduate 29 with a B A in Film Studies 30 Hertzfeldt s influences include Steven Spielberg 31 Stanley Kubrick David Lynch Edward Gorey 32 Monty Python Stan Brakhage 33 silent films and the animated shorts he saw at numerous animation festivals at a young age including the early works of Aardman Animation and Bill Plympton 34 In 2022 for the BFI Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll Hertzfeldt listed the following ten films as important titles that had knocked me over the head at some point in life and continue to do so The Act of Killing Citizen Kane Close Encounters of the Third Kind Gates of Heaven The Godfather Goodfellas Harold and Maude Monty Python s Life of Brian The Pianist and 2001 A Space Odyssey 35 Technique editHertzfeldt s work commonly features hand drawn stick figures in stories of black humor surrealism and tragicomedy Some films contain existential and philosophical themes while others are more straightforwardly slapstick and absurdist His animation was first created traditionally with pen and paper before transitioning to digital animation for his World of Tomorrow short film series Hertzfeldt initially used antique 16 mm or 35 mm film cameras to photograph his drawings and often employs old fashioned special effect techniques such as multiple exposures in camera mattes and experimental photography While some of these techniques are as established as an occasional stop motion animation sequence or a universe of moving stars created by back lit pin holes other effects are new innovations on classical methods as seen with the in camera compositing of multiple split screen windows of action in the Everything Will Be OK films 36 37 38 Hertzfeldt s student films in the 1990s were photographed on 16mm From 1999 to 2011 Hertzfeldt photographed his films on a 35mm Richardson animation camera stand believed to be the same camera that photographed many of the Peanuts cartoons in the 1960s and 1970s 39 Built in the late 1940s it was one of the last remaining functioning cameras of its kind left in the world and Hertzfeldt found it to be a crucial element in the creation of his films and their visuals 40 In 2015 Hertzfeldt released his first digitally animated short film World of Tomorrow which was created at the same time as another digital piece an animated guest appearance on The Simpsons Both pieces were still hand drawn by Hertzfeldt but he used a Cintiq tablet instead of paper Discussing film and digital technology with The New York Times in 2008 Hertzfeldt noted I don t know why these things are always framed as a big dumb cage match Hand drawn versus computers film versus digital We have over 100 years now of amazing film technology to play with I don t understand why any artists would want to throw any of their tools out of the box Many people assume that because I shoot on film and animate on paper I must be doing things the hard way when in fact my last four movies would have been visually impossible to produce digitally The only thing that matters is what actually winds up on the big screen not how you got it there You could make a cartoon in crayons about a red square that falls in unrequited love with a blue circle and there wouldn t be a dry eye in the house if you know how to tell a story 41 It s not unusual for Hertzfeldt to write direct produce animate photograph edit perform voices record and mix sound and or compose music for one of his films at times requiring years to complete a single short by working alone The animation for one of his films may often require tens of thousands of drawings Hertzfeldt frequently scores his pictures with classical music and opera The music of Tchaikovsky Bizet Smetana Beethoven Richard Strauss and Wagner have all appeared in his films On occasion Hertzfeldt has also scored portions of his films himself with a guitar or keyboard Approach to writing edit Hertzfeldt described his relaxed writing process in a 2015 Reddit AMA session It s like you re floating in an ocean and you want to build a raft So you just float there and you wait and wait And eventually this little piece of something comes drifting by maybe a memory and you hang on to it and then another little piece comes around it is unrelated maybe it s a funny sentence you overheard somewhere And you keep collecting all these little things that just sort of drift by a dream a beautiful sentence in your head that just appeared while doing the dishes an anecdote you stole from your old diary and eventually you find connections between all the things and with all these parts you ve gathered up you now have enough stuff to build a raft And then once you have the raft you can remove all the bits that don t quite fit anymore the spare parts that you didn t need after all you toss them back or maybe save them for another raft later When I write there isn t a lot of active effort or swimming around or calculation for me that can be very poisonous to creativity The big ideas won t happen right when you mentally stress on them it s more a matter of being patient and being open to all the things that just drift in 42 In another Reddit AMA on the subject of creativity Hertzfeldt suggested the following You need to try to return to the time when you were a little kid creating things on a big sheet of paper in a beautiful sunbeam and not having any cares at all about how it might one day be received It s when children learn to think Is this any good that they start to become paralyzed creatively And this is why most adults don t draw don t write don t sing don t dance and are terrified in front of audiences 43 Student films 1995 1998 editHertzfeldt made four 16mm animated student films while studying film at the University of California Santa Barbara Ah L Amour and Genre were produced at the ages of 18 and 19 Ah L Amour won the HBO Comedy Arts Festival Grand Prize for World s Funniest Cartoon 44 His first dialogue short Lily and Jim was released in 1997 and tells the story of a disastrous blind date Its partially improvised vocal performances helped the short win twenty five awards including the Grand Prize at the New Orleans Film Festival 45 His final student cartoon Billy s Balloon is about an inexplicable attack on small children by malevolent balloons It was nominated for the Short Film Palme d Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Award at the 1999 Slamdance Film Festival In total it won thirty three awards 46 The popularity of each student short at film and animation festivals and eventually around the world from screening on MTV and other networks helped fund the next one and eventually financed the production of his first film after college Independent animation 2000 present editRejected edit Main article Rejected Soon after graduating from film school Hertzfeldt purchased his own 35mm rostrum camera and made his next animated short Rejected Released nationwide in theaters through the Spike and Mike s Festival of Animation in 2000 the short won 27 film festival awards and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film the following year Rejected is now considered a cult classic and one of the most influential animated films ever made 47 48 In the early 2000s pirated copies of Rejected turned the film into a viral video where it has been credited with shaping the surreal sense of humor of the early Internet 49 In 2018 New York Magazine wrote If there is a single piece of media that inspired what we nebulously refer to as internet humor it s probably Rejected 50 In 2009 Rejected was the only short film named as one of the Films of the Decade by Salon 51 In 2010 it was noted as one of the five most innovative animated films of the past ten years by The Huffington Post 52 Indiewire film critic Eric Kohn named Rejected one of the 10 best films of the 21st century on his list for the BBC Culture poll in 2016 47 The film presents itself as a reel of rejected commercial work by a fictional version of Don Hertzfeldt The commissioned animated vignettes grow more and more abstract and inappropriate as the animator suffers a mental breakdown until they literally fall apart Although the film is fictional and Hertzfeldt has never done advertising work he received many offers to do television commercials after Billy s Balloon drew international attention In appearances Hertzfeldt has told the humorous story of how he was tempted to produce the worst possible cartoons he could come up with for the companies run off with their money and see if they would actually make it to air Eventually this became the germ for Rejected s theme of a collection of cartoons so bad they were rejected by advertising agencies leading to their creator s breakdown and ultimately the cartoons metaphysical crisis The Animation Show edit Main article The Animation Show In 2003 Hertzfeldt created The Animation Show with Beavis and Butt head creator Mike Judge It was a biennial North American touring festival that brought independent animated short films to more movie theaters than any distributor in history The programs were personally curated by Hertzfeldt and Judge Highlights of the first theatrical program included a restored excerpt from Ward Kimball s 1957 Mars and Beyond through a special partnership with Disney the stop motion animated film Vincent by Tim Burton new cartoons by Hertzfeldt to book end the program and never before seen pencil tests and animation experiments by Mike Judge A second Animation Show edition toured throughout 2005 featuring Hertzfeldt s new short film The Meaning of Life and new work by animators Peter Cornwell and Georges Schwizgebel The third season of The Animation Show began its nationwide release in January 2007 featuring new work by animators Joanna Quinn and Bill Plympton as well as Hertzfeldt s Everything Will Be OK A stated goal of The Animation Show was to regularly free the work of these independent artists from the dungeons of Internet exhibition and bring them into proper movie theaters where most of the short films were originally meant to be seen The Animation Show meanwhile launched a supplemental DVD series of animated short films with content that varied from the annual theatrical programs These DVDs were distributed by MTV In a March 2008 entry in his blog Hertzfeldt announced he had decided to leave The Animation Show after having programmed three tours A fourth season of the program was released in theaters in summer 2008 with no involvement from him 53 The Meaning of Life edit nbsp Hertzfeldt at his desk during the production of The Meaning of LifeAlmost four years in the making Hertzfeldt s twelve minute The Meaning of Life premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and toured film and animation festivals in 2005 2006 Though its abstract nature puzzled some critics it received mostly positive reviews The Atlanta Journal Constitution called the film the closest thing on film yet to Kubrick s 2001 A Space Odyssey 54 In the film the evolution of the human race is traced from prehistory mankind as blob forms through today mankind as teeming crowds of selfish fighting or lost individuals to hundreds of millions of years into the future as our species evolves into countless new forms all of them still behaving the same way The film concludes in the extreme future with two creatures apparently an adult and child subspecies of future human having a conversation about the meaning of life on a colorful shore In 2009 Hertzfeldt noted I don t often make the same sort of movie twice in a row It s always been whatever s next in my head From a commercial standpoint I guess I ve made some pretty inscrutable decisions like following up Rejected with a sprawling abstract film about human evolution but it s really just been whichever ideas won t go away at the time There s always a lot of new things I d like to try 55 In 2014 Time Out New York named the film one of the thirty best animated short films ever made 56 Everything Will Be OK I Am So Proud Of You and It s Such a Beautiful Day edit Main article It s Such a Beautiful Day nbsp A line around the block for An Evening with Don HertzfeldtEverything Will Be OK edit Everything Will Be OK was released in 2006 and became Hertzfeldt s most critically successful piece to date receiving his strongest reviews The 17 minute animated short was based on a character Bill from his webcomic Temporary Anesthetics 57 The Boston Globe called the film a masterpiece with the Boston Phoenix declaring Hertzfeldt a genius 58 The short film was a cover story on the Chicago Reader receiving four stars from critic J R Jones Variety film critic Robert Koehler named Everything Will Be OK one of the Best Films of 2007 59 Everything will be OK is the first chapter of a three part story about a man named Bill whose daily routines perceptions and dreams are illustrated onscreen through multiple split screen windows Bill s seemingly mundane life narrated in humorous and dramatic anecdotes gradually grows dark as we learn he may be suffering from a possibly fatal neurological disorder Scenes throughout the trilogy are often divided into multiple windows of action on the screen at once against a background of pure black Animated still photographs are also incorporated inside certain windows as well as a handful of the colorful special effects and experimental film techniques that Hertzfeldt first utilized in The Meaning of Life Like many of Hertzfeldt s films the trilogy s special effects were captured in camera Everything Will Be OK won the Grand Jury Prize for Short Filmmaking at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival the Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film at the Ann Arbor Film Festival the Grand Prize at the London Animation Festival and 34 other awards I Am So Proud of You edit I Am So Proud of You the second chapter in the story was released in autumn 2008 Upon its release Hertzfeldt traveled with I Am So Proud of You and a selection of his other films to 22 cities on a sold out American tour with two stops in the UK and three in Canada An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt presented a 35mm selection of his work followed by an onstage interview and audience chat with him 60 I Am So Proud of You also played at film festivals throughout 2009 and won 27 awards 61 It s Such a Beautiful Day edit The third and final chapter It s Such a Beautiful Day premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Hertzfeldt traveled with It s Such a Beautiful Day in 2011 and 2012 on another North American theatrical tour to 30 cities Of the trilogy Steven Pate of The Chicagoist wrote There is a moment in each installment of Don Hertzfeldt s masterful trilogy of animated shorts where you feel something in your chest It s an unmistakably cardiac event the kind that great art can elicit when something profound and undeniably true is conveyed about the human condition That s when you say to yourself are stick figures supposed to make me feel this way In the hands of a master yes And Hertzfeldt is to stick figures what Franz Liszt was to planks of ebony and ivory and what Ted Williams was to a stick of white ash someone so transcendentally expert that to describe what they do in literal terms is borderline demeaning 62 The Feature Film edit In 2012 Hertzfeldt edited together the three chapters of the short film trilogy to create a seamless new feature film of the story His first feature film the movie shares the same title as the third chapter of the story It s Such a Beautiful Day and had a limited theatrical release The film was subsequently released on DVD iTunes Netflix and on demand on Vimeo It s Such a Beautiful Day was released on Blu ray in 2015 In 2021 a remastered version was released on The Criterion Channel Critic J R Jones wrote with his humor darkness philosophical yearning and insistence on drawing every line himself Hertzfeldt may be the only legitimate successor to Charles M Schulz 63 It s Such a Beautiful Day was very well received by film critics The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named it their runner up for Best Animated Feature Film of the year behind Frankenweenie Indiewire ranked Hertzfeldt the 9th best Film Director of the Year in its annual poll tied with Wes Anderson and The A V Club film critics ranked the film 8 on their list of the Best Films of 2012 7 Slate Magazine named It s Such a Beautiful Day their pick for Best Animated Feature Film of 2012 In the years that followed the film s status grew In 2014 Time Out New York ranked It s Such a Beautiful Day 16 on its list of the 100 Best Animated Movies Ever Made 8 and in 2016 The Film Stage critics ranked the film 1 on their list of The 50 Best Animated Films of the 21st Century Thus Far 9 In 2019 The Wrap named It s Such a Beautiful Day the 1 Best Animated Film of the 2010s 10 The same year the Vulture film critics ranked it 12 on their overall list of the Best Movies of the Decade 11 In 2021 IGN s CineFix gave it the 1 spot on their Top 10 Animated Films of All Time list 12 Wisdom Teeth edit In October 2009 Hertzfeldt premiered Wisdom Teeth an unannounced new five minute cartoon at the Evening with Don Hertzfeldt screening at the Ottawa Animation Festival It later screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010 and the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal where it was awarded a Special Jury Mention 53 In 2010 it appeared as part of a series on the Showtime Network called Short Stories The Simpsons edit Main article Clown in the Dumps In 2014 Hertzfeldt wrote animated and directed a surreal and futuristic two minute couch gag for the premiere episode of the 26th season of The Simpsons It was the longest opening gag in the show s history and was described by Spin Magazine as mind melting and two of the strangest minutes of television ever to air on a major network during prime time 64 65 66 The sequence depicts Homer accidentally using a time traveling remote control that regresses him to his original 1987 character model then propels him into a distant future incarnation of the show called The Sampsans where he and his family have evolved into grotesque mindless catchphrase spouting creatures Future Homer sadly remembers past futuristic episodes in which he still had an emotional connection with Marge and the children Simpsons producer Al Jean called it crazier than we thought and the most insane one we ve ever done 67 World of Tomorrow edit Main article World of Tomorrow film In January 2015 Hertzfeldt s first digitally animated short film World of Tomorrow premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize his second Illustrator Julia Pott performs the voice of the short s lead character opposite Hertzfeldt s then four year old niece who was recorded while drawing and playing Her spontaneous natural vocal reactions and questions were then edited into the story to create her character On finally making the leap to digital animation after twenty years of working with pencil and paper Hertzfeldt joked I kind of feel like it s like a rock band who traditionally was guitar guitar guitar and then for their new album they re like we re going electronic But then they only use Casio keyboards and drum machines It s not the cutting edge CG we re all used to 68 Critics were universally positive in their reviews describing the science fiction film as one of the most satisfying shorts since Chris Marker s landmark 1962 La Jetee and almost certain to be the highlight of this year s Sundance full stop 69 dazzling enthralling 70 and astonishing 71 The film next won Best Animated Short at the SXSW Film Festival Indiewire called the short film one of the best films of 2015 and The Dissolve named it one of the finest achievements in sci fi in recent memory The A V Club described the film as visionary and possibly the best film of 2015 72 in spite of its short running time The Austin Film Critics Association gave Hertzfeldt a Special Honorary Award in recognition of the film World of Tomorrow was released on demand on Vimeo in March 2015 simultaneous with its run in film festivals At the end of its film festival run the film won over 40 awards World of Tomorrow won two Crystal Awards from the Annecy Animation Festival a Special Jury Award and the Audience Award The film also won two awards from the Ottawa International Animation Festival Best Script and the Audience Award In 2016 World of Tomorrow won the animation industry s Annie Award for Best Animated Short Film In 2016 World of Tomorrow was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film at the 88th Academy Awards Hertzfeldt s second career nomination In 2016 Rolling Stone ranked World of Tomorrow 10 on its list of the Greatest Animated Movies Ever 13 World of Tomorrow Episode Two The Burden of Other People s Thoughts edit World of Tomorrow Episode Two premiered in 2017 at Fantastic Fest in Austin and received rare A reviews from Indiewire and Collider where it was described as another soulful sci fi masterpiece 17 The Daily Beast called it one of the best films of the year a must see animated masterpiece 18 Hertzfeldt traveled with the film to theaters on a winter mini tour in December 2017 The screenings opened with a surprise new two minute cartoon in which an animated Hertzfeldt introduces the program from the caverns of an alien planet World of Tomorrow Episode Two won the Grand Prize at Montreal s Sommets du cinema d animation an Audience Award at Fantastic Fest and a Special Jury Award from the London Animation Festival In January 2018 the film played opening night at the Sundance Film Festival World of Tomorrow Episode Three The Absent Destinations of David Prime edit World of Tomorrow Episode Three The Absent Destinations of David Prime was released on demand worldwide on October 9 2020 Unlike its predecessors it was unable to premiere in theaters due to the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic Episode Three finally appeared in theaters in 2023 as part of a special World of Tomorrow program with the Alamo Drafthouse cinemas called An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt Who Will Not Be There 73 74 Film critic David Ehrlich ranked World of Tomorrow Episode Three 3 on his list of the 25 Best Films of 2020 75 In 2021 the film was nominated for an Annie Award for Best Animated Short Hertzfeldt s 4th nomination in the category 76 Other work editIn December 2013 Hertzfeldt released a graphic novel The End of the World through independent publisher Antibookclub The 216 page book was described in his blog as containing many years of leftover film ideas reshaped into an experimental new story If the films were albums I guess these would be the B sides In 2019 Random House announced they would be printing a new edition of The End of the World in wide release 77 In 2013 Hertzfeldt created a 30 second piece called Day Sleeper on an iPad for the National Film Board of Canada It was animated using their app a tribute to experimental animator Norman McLaren In 2021 Hertzfeldt animated and directed On Memory a non fiction special feature included on the World of Tomorrow The First Three Episodes Blu ray Hertzfeldt created the animated logo for Jennifer Lawrence s production company Excellent Cadaver The logo debuted with the release of Causeway in 2022 78 Influence editHertzfeldt s work has been credited with being a prominent influence on surrealism and absurdism in animation in the 2000s including shaping Adult Swim s brand of animated comedy 79 In 2008 Comedy Central noted his work as having influenced an entire generation of filmmakers 80 In 2012 Hertzfeldt was ranked 16 in an animation industry and historian survey of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Animation 81 An animated science fiction story in the third season of Fargo was an homage to Hertzfeldt s work 82 83 In 2018 Raphael Bob Waksberg cited Hertzfeldt as an influence in the creation of the animated series BoJack Horseman 84 85 In 2021 Pete Docter acknowledged Hertzfeldt s visual influence on the Pixar film Soul 86 Hertzfeldt influenced many webcomics including Hyperbole and a Half xkcd and Cyanide and Happiness 87 88 Awards and honors editHertzfeldt has had more films play in competition at the Sundance Film Festival than any other filmmaker with eight Rejected The Meaning of Life Everything Will Be OK I Am So Proud of You Wisdom Teeth It s Such a Beautiful Day World of Tomorrow and World of Tomorrow Episode Two He returned to the Sundance Film Festival in 2013 to serve on the Short Film Jury In 1999 at the age of 22 Hertzfeldt was nominated for the Short Film Palme d Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Billy s Balloon where he was the youngest director in competition The same year Billy s Balloon won the Slamdance Film Festival Grand Jury Award In 2000 at the age of 23 Hertzfeldt was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for his fifth short film Rejected He lost to Michael Dudok de Wit for Father and Daughter In 2001 Hertzfeldt was named by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the Top 25 Filmmakers to Watch In 2002 Hertzfeldt joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences In 2007 Hertzfeldt s Everything Will Be OK won the Grand Jury Award for Short Film at the Sundance Film Festival a prize rarely given to an animated film 89 In 2007 according to the animation industry website Cartoon Brew Everything Will Be OK advanced to the final round of voting as a contender for an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short but did not make the ultimate list of five nominees In 2007 Hertzfeldt accepted an invitation from the George Eastman House s motion picture archives to indefinitely store and preserve the original film elements and camera negatives to his collected work In 2009 Rejected was the only short film named one of the Films of the Decade by Salon com 51 In 2010 it was noted as one of the five most innovative animated films of the past ten years by The Huffington Post 52 In April 2010 at the age of 33 Hertzfeldt received the San Francisco International Film Festival s Persistence of Vision Lifetime Achievement Award for his unique contributions to film and animation and for challenging the boundaries of his craft 90 Hertzfeldt was the youngest director named in the They Shoot Pictures Don t They list of The 100 Important Animation Directors of all time 91 In 2012 Hertzfeldt received the Ted M Larson memorial award from the Fargo Film Festival for his contributions to film culture 92 In 2015 Hertzfeldt won the Grand Jury Award for Short Film a second time at the Sundance Film Festival for World of Tomorrow In December 2015 Hertzfeldt received a special award from the Austin Film Critics Association in celebration of a career of remarkable short filmmaking and contributions to animation spanning two decades with 2015 s award winning World of Tomorrow being recognized as his best work to date Hertzfeldt has been nominated for four Annie Awards for Best Animated Short Film He lost for Rejected in 2001 and Everything Will Be OK in 2007 and won for World of Tomorrow in 2016 World of Tomorrow Episode Three The Absent Destinations of David Prime was nominated in 2021 and lost In 2016 World of Tomorrow was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 88th Academy Awards Hertzfeldt s second nomination He lost to Bear Story DVD and Blu ray releases editHertzfeldt owns the rights to all of his work and has self distributed his films under the moniker Bitter Films since the 1990s 58 Bitter Films first DVD release was a 2001 limited edition DVD single of the short Rejected The DVD included a deleted scene audio commentary and a few hidden pages It is now out of print Don Hertzfeldt Volume One 1995 2005 was released in 2006 collecting the first 10 years of his work All of the short films were remastered and restored in high definition from their original film negatives The DVD was made available only to fans via the Bitter Films website with the first 750 pre orderers receiving an exclusive mystery gift either a 35mm clipping from Rejected that was autographed by Don or a unique drawing by Don on a Post it note This DVD marked the first time his student films such as Genre and Lily and Jim were made widely available to the public Many of these works were only previously found on limited release VHS collections of animated shorts long out of print The special features for Don Hertzfeldt Volume One 1995 2005 included a time lapse documentary of the making of The Meaning of Life called Watching Grass Grow The Animation Show Trilogy cartoons Lily and Jim deleted dialogues and outtakes Rejected trivia captions The Meaning of Life special effects audio commentary an over 140 page archive section of rare footage from Hertzfeldt s earliest cartoons original pencil tests deleted sequences abandoned footage and sketch to scene comparisons Lily and Jim audio commentary Rejected audio commentary and a retrospective booklet with liner notes by Hertzfeldt In 2007 Everything Will Be OK was released as another DVD single Special features on this release included over a hundred pages of archival material sketches storyboards deleted materials and a hidden feature that played a narration free version of the film Fans who pre ordered the DVD received a unique 35mm film strip clipped from one of the film s theatrical prints I Am So Proud of You was released as a similar single in 2009 It featured a similar 148 page archive of production materials as well as the hidden narration free feature Fans who pre ordered the DVD received a unique 35mm film strip clipped from one of the film s theatrical prints Don Hertzfeldt Volume 2 2006 2011 a DVD collection of all work from 2006 2011 including the feature film version of It s Such a Beautiful Day was released in November 2012 Special features for the release included over 40 minutes of live Q amp A material from the touring program the cartoon Wisdom Teeth a deleted scene from It s Such a Beautiful Day and a 24 page booklet Fans who pre ordered the release also received a unique 35mm film strip clipped from a theatrical print of It s Such a Beautiful Day and other free gifts In 2015 Hertzfeldt ran a Kickstarter campaign to help fund future productions with the Blu ray debut of It s Such a Beautiful Day and World of Tomorrow as the central pledge reward The campaign raised over 215 000 With rising pledges he restored and remastered additional short films The Meaning of Life Rejected Wisdom Teeth and student films Billy s Balloon and Lily and Jim adding them to the Blu ray as well Also included on the disc was an interview his piece from The Simpsons and the first preview of World of Tomorrow Episode Two 93 94 In 2021 a second fundraiser campaign raised over 450 000 for future productions The main pledge reward was the Blu ray release of World of Tomorrow The First Three Episodes a collection of the first three World of Tomorrow short films plus a booklet of production notes a deleted scene and a related new animated short called On Memory 95 Other rewards included signed prints original production artwork from It s Such a Beautiful Day World of Tomorrow jigsaw puzzles and original drawings Since the 1990s Hertzfeldt has annually auctioned off rare animation artwork and original film props to raise money for local charities 96 97 Other artwork has been occasionally given away through the Bitter Films online store through special promotions Because Hertzfeldt does not often do signings his animation artwork is rare for collectors and fans to own The 2023 charity auction marked the first time original animation drawings from It s Such a Beautiful Day had ever been made available 98 View on advertising editHertzfeldt has been offered numerous lucrative advertising deals including ad campaigns for Cingular Wireless and United Airlines which he has declined He has made various comments over the years about his dislike of corporate America and says he will never be involved with the advertising world 22 He has said The goal isn t to try and make as much money as I possibly can the goal is to try and make good movies In a 2015 Vanity Fair interview Hertzfeldt said Many people in our industry would see advertising work as the ultimate goal which really illustrates the sad state of affairs that s set up for many young animators They re basically being taught that their own work has no value Their personal projects even when Oscar nominated and whatnot are perceived as just a way to attract some empty corporate advertising gig where they can maybe make enough money to fund another personal project that s maybe dropped on YouTube loses money and forgotten about It s a terrible cycle Artists shouldn t be making art on the side it should be their job We need to retrain audiences who ve grown used to the free YouTube model that short films are worth paying for 99 In a March 2009 blog entry Hertzfeldt compared filmmaking to his love of hiking and exploring new places something he does just because he enjoys doing it and will probably always enjoy doing it He compared doing advertising to being paid to not go explore the woods but to walk around someone s house eight hours a day wearing a sandwich board with a picture of a product on it Money s not the reason I take walks It doesn t really factor into it I take walks because I enjoy doing it It s something I d do if I was rich and it s something I d do if I were poor 100 In the commentary for Rejected on the Bitter Films Vol 1 DVD Hertzfeldt stated that You never want to lie to your audience you can trick them you can disturb them you can annoy them but you can never lie to them To me commercials are nothing but lies 101 Nevertheless several international ad campaigns have borrowed heavily from his unique style and bear enough resemblance to Hertzfeldt s work as to be mistaken for it The most well known instance of this is a series of television ads for Kellogg s Pop Tarts which use black and white stick figures squiggly animation surreal humor and even an occasional crumpling paper effect all very similar to Hertzfeldt s style Despite all these similarities Hertzfeldt was not involved in any way 102 In Canada the not for profit corporation Encorp has used a Hertzfeldt like style of short animation clips on TV and the Internet to promote its Don t Mess With Karma campaign to encourage recycling 103 One of the latest ad campaigns to use an art style similar to Hertzfeldt s is Krystal fast food restaurant to promote their Blitz Energy Drink 104 Filmography editAh L Amour 1995 student film Genre 1996 student film Lily and Jim 1997 student film Billy s Balloon 1998 student film Rejected 2000 Welcome to the Show Intermission in the Third Dimension The End of the Show 2003 cartoons created to book end the first Animation Show program The Meaning of Life 2005 Everything Will Be OK 2006 I Am So Proud of You 2008 Wisdom Teeth 2010 It s Such a Beautiful Day 2011 It s Such a Beautiful Day 2012 feature film version The Simpsons 2014 episode Clown in the Dumps two minute couch gag World of Tomorrow 2015 World of Tomorrow Episode Two The Burden of Other People s Thoughts 2017 Intro 2017 cartoon created to introduce a Hertzfeldt theatrical program World of Tomorrow Episode Three The Absent Destinations of David Prime 2020 On Memory 2021 Blu ray animated special feature ME 2024 105 References edit Sundance Film Festival sundancefest December 9 2014 donhertzfeldt has had more films play in competition at Sundance than any other filmmaker w seven including his latest WORLD OF TOMORROW Tweet Retrieved August 8 2019 via Twitter Savlov Marc November 11 2011 Beautiful Bitter The Austin Chronicle Retrieved August 8 2019 Ehrlich David January 20 2015 Sundance 2015 Don Hertzfeldt Little White Lies Archived from the original on October 17 2015 Retrieved August 8 2019 Ehrlich David November 17 2017 Don Hertzfeldt on World of Tomorrow Episode Two and Expanding Upon the Best Short Film of the Century IndieWire Retrieved August 8 2019 Leitch Will October 26 2020 Don Hertzfeldt Is Back With Another Stick Figure Film That Will Break Your Heart GQ Retrieved June 8 2021 Cavalier Stephen 2011 The World History of Animation a b Rabin Nathan et al December 19 2012 The best films of 2012 The A V Club Retrieved August 8 2019 a b Calhoun Dave Rothkopf Joshua eds March 29 2016 The 100 best animated movies ever made Time Out New York Archived from the original on June 26 2019 Retrieved August 8 2019 a b The 50 Best Animated Films of the 21st Century Thus Far The Film Stage June 16 2016 Archived from the original on August 9 2019 Retrieved August 8 2019 a b 10 Best Animated Films of the 2010s From Frozen to Spider Verse December 29 2019 Retrieved June 8 2021 a b Edelstein David et al December 11 2019 Every Movie of the 2010s Ranked Vulture New York a b Top 10 Animated Films of All Time A CineFix Movie List YouTube April 3 2021 a b Adams Sam et al June 28 2016 40 Greatest Animated Movies Ever Rolling Stone Retrieved August 8 2019 Murray Noel April 13 2015 A cartoon about a clone from the future may be 2015 s best film The A V Club Retrieved August 8 2019 Ehrlich David et al July 22 2019 The 100 Best Movies of the Decade IndieWire Retrieved August 8 2019 Erbland Kate et al November 7 2020 The Best Sci Fi Movies of the 21st Century from Children of Men to Her IndieWire a b Foutch Haleigh December 29 2017 World of Tomorrow Episode 2 Review Another Soulful Sci Fi Masterpiece from Don Hertzfeldt Collider Retrieved August 8 2019 a b Han Karen December 9 2017 World of Tomorrow Episode Two Is a Must See Animated Masterpiece Daily Beast published December 10 2017 Retrieved August 8 2019 Ehrlich David October 9 2020 World of Tomorrow Episode Three Review The Best Sci Fi Series of the 21st Century Goes Epic Retrieved June 8 2021 Roan Brian October 23 2020 World of Tomorrow Episode Three Review An Aesthetically Inventive and Narratively Complex Evolution Retrieved June 8 2021 Egan Toussaint October 9 2020 World of Tomorrow 3 is an epic about star crossed lovers Polygon Retrieved June 8 2021 a b frequently asked questions Bitter Films Archived from the original on January 25 2007 Retrieved January 24 2007 a b Lenburg Jeff 2006 Who s Who in Animated Cartoons Milwaukee Wisconsin Hal Leonard Corporation p 138 ISBN 978 1 55783 671 7 Retrieved April 8 2015 a b Timberg Scott February 2002 Don Hertzfeldt is the most inventive underground animator in America Will he ever make his peace with Hollywood New Times LA Los Angeles Archived from the original on March 31 2015 Retrieved April 8 2015 a b De Benedetti Chris January 16 2007 Bay Area films keep it real at Sundance festival Oakland Tribune Oakland California Retrieved April 8 2015 don hertzfeldt filmmaker AMA Reddit September 17 2012 Retrieved September 8 2017 Wells Paul 2008 Re Imagining Animation AVA Publishing Parks Finnegan October 15 2007 A Conversation With Don Hertzfeldt Part Four BridgeRack Archived from the original on February 26 2008 Retrieved October 30 2007 Magruder Joan February 15 2001 UCSB Grad Nominated For Academy Award UC Santa Barbara Retrieved October 10 2014 Rejected Archived from the original on June 29 2014 Retrieved October 10 2014 10 Confessions from Rejected Cartoons Animator Don Hertzfeldt VICE Ebert interview Don Hertzfeldt s Top 10 Current The Criterion Collection 100 Greatest Animated Shorts Everything Will Be OK Don Hertzfeldt Skywigly Animation Magazine Sight and Sound poll Jones J R February 8 2007 Truth in Doodling Chicago Reader Sun Times Media the Meaning of Life Bitter Films Rejected Bitter Films Biography for Don Hertzfeldt Internet Movie Database Amazon com Archived from the original on February 10 2008 Retrieved March 23 2007 Don Hertzfeldt bitter films volume one 1995 2005 audio commentary DVD Archived from the original on April 9 2007 Anderson John November 30 2008 Contemporary Animators Rely on Traditional Techniques New York Times Retrieved May 1 2010 i am a don hertzfeldt filmmaker AMA Reddit April 4 2015 don hertzfeldt filmmaker AMA Reddit September 17 2012 Ah L Amour Bitterfilms com Bitter Films Archived from the original on September 3 2011 Retrieved October 15 2011 Hertzfeldt Don May 12 2011 LILY AND JIM YouTube Alphabet Inc Retrieved October 15 2011 Billy s Balloon Bitter Films Retrieved October 15 2011 a b Sharf Zack November 1 2018 Don Hertzfeldt Releases 4K Restoration of Iconic Short Rejected Remastered from the Original 35mm Film Watch indiewire com Retrieved November 7 2018 Interview with Don Hertzfeldt Archived from the original on February 25 2008 Rejected 20 Years Later December 21 2020 The Cartoon That Invented Internet Culture Gets a High Definition Rerelease November 2018 a b Films of the Decade Archived from the original on 4 January 2010 a b Morenobunge Sophia December 26 2010 Films of the Decade Huffington Post a b journal page 32 Bitter Films Retrieved July 23 2013 the Meaning of Life Bitter Films Retrieved September 30 2014 An Interview with Don Hertzfeldt Trap Door Sun Archived from the original on November 15 2009 Retrieved November 12 2009 Dudok de Wit Alex April 14 2014 The 30 best animated short films ever made Time Out temporary anesthetics Bitter Films Retrieved July 23 2013 a b everything will be ok Bitter Films Retrieved July 23 2013 Koehler Robert Robert Koehler s Best of 2007 Archived from the original on February 3 2008 Retrieved January 10 2009 An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt originalalamo com Archived from the original on October 6 2008 Retrieved October 6 2008 i am so proud of you Bitter Films Retrieved July 23 2013 Pate Steven February 28 2012 Don Hertzfeldt at the Music Box Chicagoist Gothamist Archived from the original on August 19 2015 Retrieved September 30 2014 Chicago Reader November 20 2012 Unterberger Andrew October 13 2014 Cat Stevens Tea for the Tillerman Replaces Normal Simpsons Couch Gag SPIN Billboard Music Retrieved April 16 2015 Koch Cameron September 29 2014 Last night s Simpsons couch gag was the longest in the show s history Tech Times Retrieved October 10 2014 Reilly Claire September 29 2014 The mysterious voyage of Homer Don Hertzfeldt s Simpsons couch gag CNET Retrieved October 10 2014 Simpsons producer talks character s death in premiere EW com Retrieved June 8 2021 McLevy Alex April 14 2015 Filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt on his Simpsons couch gag and the pains of animation A V Club Ehrlich David January 29 2015 5 Sundance shorts that knocked us out Time Out Archived from the original on April 17 2015 Retrieved April 16 2015 Cusumano Michael January 29 2015 Hertzfeldt s WORLD IF TOMORROW Twitter Archived from the original on February 2 2016 Retrieved April 16 2015 The Dissolve January 23 2015 Our Sundance Day One Twitter Retrieved April 16 2015 Murray Noel April 13 2015 A cartoon about a clone from the future may be 2015 s best film A V Club Retrieved April 16 2015 Hertzfeldt Don WORLD OF TOMORROW EPISODE THREE Youtube Retrieved August 3 2020 Alamo Drafthouse The 25 Best Films of 2020 January 11 2021 Giardina Carolyn March 3 2021 Soul Wolfwalkers Lead Annie Awards Animated Feature Noms The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved June 8 2021 The End of the World Retrieved June 8 2021 via www randomhousebooks com Excellent Cadaver gt Clark Craig J April 12 2007 Aqua Teen on the Big Screen Interview with Matt Maiellaro amp Dave Willis Animation World Network p 5 Archived from the original on October 22 2012 Retrieved January 26 2012 Tobey Matt May 29 2008 Don Hertzfeldt The CC Insider Interview Comedy Central Archived from the original on May 31 2008 Retrieved June 1 2008 The Top 100 Most Influential People in Animation Animation Career Review March 8 2012 Archived from the original on March 22 2013 Retrieved April 16 2015 Fargo Director Talks Bringing Minnesota Nice to Los Angeles The Hollywood Reporter May 3 2017 Hertzfeldt Don January 5 2018 hi it s don hertzfeldt filmmaker how are you AMA Retrieved January 5 2018 BoJack Horseman Creator Raphael Bob Waksberg on the Show s 10 Biggest Influences Rolling Stone September 12 2018 15 Trivia Tidbits About BoJack Horseman Cracked June 6 2023 Don Hertzfeldt Talks the Present and Future of World of Tomorrow His Incredible Sci Fi Animated Series Gizmodo March 4 2021 Authors Google Randall Munroe of xkcd Transcript Vids Home November 12 2007 Retrieved September 8 2017 O Shea Tim March 29 2010 Talking Comics with Tim Cyanide amp Happiness Kris Matt amp Dave Comic Book Resources Retrieved September 8 2017 2007 Sundance Film Festival Announces Jury and Audience Awards PDF Sundance Institute January 27 2007 p 5 Archived from the original PDF on February 26 2007 Retrieved March 28 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award San Francisco Film Society April 23 2012 Archived from the original on April 24 2012 Retrieved April 16 2015 100 Important Directors of Animated Short Films alsolikelife August 27 2009 Retrieved August 30 2009 Ted M Larson Award Movie Making Wiki Archived from the original on November 1 2012 Retrieved April 16 2015 HERTZFELDT ON BLU RAY Kickstarter Retrieved September 9 2017 hertzfeldt on blu ray Bitter Films Archived from the original on March 22 2016 Bitter Films Tweet Tweet Tweet Carter Spike May 27 2015 Oscar Nominee Don Hertzfeldt on the Disappearing Art of Short Films Vanity Fair Retrieved June 8 2021 journal page 33 Bitter Films Retrieved July 23 2013 Hertzfeldt Don March 31 2011 REJECTED with text commentary YouTube Retrieved April 16 2015 Killer Rabbit w info on Dark Crystal 2 Pan s Labyrinth Hellboy Animated Choose Your Own Adventure amp more Ain t It Cool News July 27 2006 Retrieved August 8 2006 Don Hertzfeldt did not do those Pop tart commercials He is looking into ligation about it Don t Mess With Karma Encorp ca Archived from the original on November 1 2012 Retrieved April 16 2015 Blitz from Krystal Krystalblitz com Archived from the original on August 1 2015 Retrieved April 16 2015 Hertzfeldt Don December 27 2023 i am happy to report that my next film ME will at long last be released next year Twitter Retrieved December 27 2023 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Don Hertzfeldt Bitter Films official site Don Hertzfeldt at IMDb American Film Institute 2009 interview Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Don Hertzfeldt amp oldid 1216558670, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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