Charlie Mackesy won even more hearts with his Instagram message on a napkin to his 1.8million followers from the Oscars – more specifically, from inside the toilet where he was hiding prior to his category being announced.
Now the winner of the award for best animated short film – for his heartwarming tale The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse – has told the crowd at Latitude Festival that he was too petrified by the cameras and crowds of people to stay in the auditorium in the minutes leading up to the announcement.
The BBC reports Mackesy telling the audience:
“I didn’t think I could even go on stage. I was quite daunted by it.”
And Mackesy added of receiving his Oscar:
“Sometimes I don’t even like to look at the statue, I’ve just got it at home wrapped in a t-shirt. It hasn’t sunk in and I don’t think it ever will.”
The film, starring the voices of Idris Elba, Tom Hollander and Gabriel Byrne, was adapted from Mackesy’s book of the same name and tells the story of four animals who help a lost boy find his way home, and the author shared how he had been inspired to bring the story in his head to life.
“I wanted it to feel like the characters had walked off the page. I would lie in bed staring at the ceiling and I started to see the characters moving across it.
Every frame of the 35-minute film was hand drawn, with Mackesy collaborating with 130 animators during lockdown – spending thousands of hours working together on Zoom calls.
The film also won a BAFTA for best British short animation, but Mackesy said his greatest gratification was the correspondence he continues to receive from fans.
“I get emails every single day. On a daily basis someone makes me weep. That is the greatest award for me. They might have watched the film over a cup of tea with their mum or there’s a father and son who had a hug after watching it. The small things in life are the big things.
“At the top of each page in the script I wrote why we were making the film – to create something that makes people feel a bit less alone and more themselves.”
Of a possible sequel to the hit book and film, Mackesy said he had some ideas featuring the same characters, plus “some other creatures on this planet who are struggling.”
