AFI Awards celebrates Disney-Pixar’s Soul today (Sunday, Feb. 21) with brand-new content featuring actress Tina Fey and director Pete Docter. Fey accepts the AFI Awards honor on behalf of the creative ensemble and introduces the film to the AFI Movie Club audience, while Docter takes the audience “Behind the Scene” and talks about the influence of jazz and appreciating both music teachers and performers in the film.
“Soul is a modern movie miracle. This ambitiously imaginative burst of life finds the spark of spirituality in American cinema – and delivers it to audiences of all ages in equal parts entertainment and enlightenment. Pete Docter and his talented team at Pixar tackle issues of the highest plane – death, regret, acceptance – and place their answers in the talented voices of Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey. The alchemy that results invites audiences to look to the future without fear – and to find the joy in their soul.” – The American Film Institute
AFI Movie Club‘s (www.afi.com/movieclub) film selection of the day for February 21, Soul was selected by the American Film Institute to receive an AFI Award as one of its AFI Movies of the Year — the only animated title of 2020 to be included in the list of honorees, which also includes Da 5 Bloods, Judas and the Black Messiah, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Mank, Minari, Nomadland, One Night in Miami…, Sound of Metal and The Trial of the Chicago 7. AFI Movie Club is toasting each of these films as well as its tops 2020 TV program picks in a series of showcases with special guests and “Behind the Scene” conversations with the filmmakers and performers who brought them to life.
With her trademark self-effacing humor, Fey introduces the movie with the inside scoop on how she voiced 22 — “Like most people at work in 2020, I was wearing board shorts and shower shoes.” — before offering heartfelt thanks to AFI for the honor.
Let’s leave 2020 behind and look forward to a new year, and new projects at Blender. To recap: in 2020, Blender saw huge developments, both technically and creatively. There were no less than four releases, including one Long-Term Support release. On the Studio side, a new Open Movie called Sprite Fright was greenlit, and is currently in the early stages of production. And this year, there are a bunch of other innovations coming up. Here, we share just a few. Everything Nodes This is a blockbuster project. By the time it’s matured, there will be whole new ways to create within Blender. As the name suggests, Everything Nodes allows you to use nodes to make almost all aspects of your projects, procedurally. Think of how nodes are currently used to craft shaders and materials, but then vastly expanded. So… why should you want to make everything with nodes? Well, this approach means that flexibility and granular control get a massive bump, ensuring that complex results are eas