Irish Oscar nominated animators Nicky Phelan and Tomm Moore have received an invitation from the White House to attend the St Patrick’s Day celebrations planned next week. Nicky directed the Oscar nominated short film ‘Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty’ whilst Tomm Moore is behind the Oscar nominated feature, ‘The Secret of Kells’.
Invited to represent the growing Irish animation industry, the pair are expected to join new Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny and other Irish guests rubbing shoulders with Barack Obama at the reception when they travel to Washington next week.
Tomm Moore co-founded Cartoon Saloon animation studio in Kilkenny with Paul Young, Ross Murray and Nora Twomey in 1999. The team have since brought us project such as ‘The Secret of Kells’ which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature and an IFTA award in the category of Best Animation in 2010. Their first TV series, the IFTA award winning ‘Skunk Fu!’ sold to broadcasters in over 120 countries worldwide and the group are currently in development with feature films ‘Moon Man’ and ‘The Song of the Sea’.
Nicky Phelan currently works as a Director in Brown Bag Films, and has directed numerous shorts, commercials and TV series. ‘Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty’ was nominated for Best Animated Short Film Academy Award in 2010 and won a host of international awards that year. Nicky is currently working on a number of projects with Brown Bags Films, the group recently took new project ‘Nightglider’ to the 2011 Cartoon Movie event.
Commenting on the invitation Nicky Phelan noted that: “It’s a great honour to receive the invitation. I’m proud to be representing the team at Brown Bag Films, and the Irish animation industry as a whole. The companies here are creating high profile work for a global audience, so this acknowledgement is very welcome, and again a great honour.”
