Next up in our Red Carpet interviews, Sarah Smith, writer/director Arthur Christmas. (see all our BAFTA coverage and other interviews here)
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Congratulations, it’s an astonishing achievement to be nominated against Steven Spielberg and Gore Verkinski certainly.
‘It’s hilarious that it happens to be the year that those two people made movies, but it’s hilarious to be up there in that company.’
Obviously there’s been some contention over whether Tintin is an animated film or not. Putting aside the fact that you’re in the same category, what are your views on that?
‘I don’t object to any director using any method to tell the story they want to tell. At the same time, I have a huge admiration for what animators do, which is take a lifeless puppet and make them live, and that isn’t the same to me as mo-cap, so I don’t have any problem with people using mo-cap, but I also love and respect what animation is, and I wouldn’t want people to say ‘it’s easier and cheaper, let’s use mo-cap’, because to me it’s not the same art. Effectively you’re following the art of the actor, and animation follows the art of the animator.’
Do you feel it’s a shame the category has only got three nominees?
‘No, given that I’m one of the three, I think that’s plenty to be going on with.’
What are you following up with?
‘At the moment I’m completely not. It takes five years to make an animated movie, and we only finished about five minutes ago it feels like, so I’m just taking a gap and trying to imagine ever doing it again.’
