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Globe and Mail
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Oscar-winning stop-motion filmmaker devoted his life to storytelling
Canadian animator Jacobus (Co) Hoedeman almost didn't make the short film that won him an Oscar at the 1978 Academy Awards ceremony. As a full-time animator at the National Film Board, Mr. Hoedeman needed the approval of a committee of NFB filmmakers before starting work on his 13-minute stop-motion animated film The Sand Castle. According to his 2021 autobiography Frame by Frame: An Animator's Journey, his whimsical story idea initially received only lukewarm support but after much debate 'the project was accepted, and I would happily play with sand for the next year or so.' After filching a supply of sand from a local farm, Mr. Hoedeman built a set at the NFB's Montreal studio and created a cast of sand characters who frolicked on a dune, dancing and shapeshifting before finally banding together to build a castle. His puppets were sculpted from a foam rubber mattress, given internal wire 'skeletons' and then soaked in latex before being coated with sand. He worked on the film full-time for more than a year and faced several setbacks, including a weekend theft of half his puppets and a pungent assault on his film set by a cat that used it as a litter box. In his autobiography he called it 'my perfect film.' His hard work was rewarded with the Oscar for 1977's best animated short film, 25 years after the NFB's previous Academy Award for Norman McLaren's stop-motion documentary short, Neighbours. (Minutes after The Sand Castle's win, the NFB won another Oscar for I'll Find a Way in the live-action short film category.) Mr. Hoedeman, an internationally renowned animator with 32 short films to his credit, died in hospital on May 26 after an eight-year battle with multiple myeloma. He was 84. Jacobus Willem Hoedeman was born on Aug. 1, 1940, in Amsterdam, less than three months after Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands. Like their neighbours, his parents, Anna-Maria (Holtkamp) and Gosen-Jacobus Hoedeman, a tailor, faced five years of brutal military occupation that included constant threat of forced-labour camps, strict curfews, and near starvation during the Hunger Winter (Hongerwinter) of 1944-45. At age four, young Co was in poor health, so he, his twin brother, Ferry, and older brother, Jos, were taken 85 kilometres east by bicycle to live in the countryside with different relatives. Mr. Hoedeman did not return to his family in Amsterdam until the country was liberated by Canadian troops in May 1945. As a youngster in peacetime, Mr. Hoedeman spent long hours with his grandfather and father at their tailor shops, doing simple jobs and playing with scissors and leftover fabrics. Those sewing chores served him well later as he designed puppets and built props. Uninterested in academics, Mr. Hoedeman left school at 15 and entered the film business as a junior animator in the 'trick-film' department of Multifilm, a multi-faceted movie studio that later grew into Cinecentrum. Here he learned stop-motion animation, where still objects were painstakingly moved infinitesimally and filmed a frame at a time; he used the technique in television commercials and movie title sequences, and as special effects in documentaries. Eager to explore his new trade, Mr. Hoedeman devoted his evenings and weekends to film and photography studies that continued through his obligatory two-year stint in the Dutch army where he was posted to a military film unit. But after returning to his old job, he became restless and dreamed of escaping the constraints of commercial work for the sort of experimental animation being produced in Canada by the NFB, whose films he had studied as a student. With his new wife, Dukke van der Werf, and a 35mm-reel of his animated clips, 25-year-old Mr. Hoedeman sailed to Montreal in November, 1965, to apply for a job at the NFB's sprawling, factorylike headquarters. He was hired within a week and eventually settled into the French-language animation department even though he barely spoke French. The newly formed French unit — which used music and sound effects rather than dialogue to better reach large audiences — attracted many immigrant filmmakers including Mr. Hoedeman's Dutch friend Paul Driessen, a cartoonist from Cinecentrum's puppet department. 'The French unit was full of inventive people who used imagery instead of language,' Mr. Driessen says. 'We never sought advice or connection with the English department. The French [animators] wanted to learn to do things their own way ... [we] were separate worlds.' It was a perfect place for Mr. Hoedeman, who developed new skills as he worked with different materials and camera technology. 'Co was one of the top people who went from one technique to another. He could improvise very well and was passionate about learning new things,' his old friend says. By the 1970s, the young couple had three children and after a few years in Hudson, Que., moved in 1974 to a rundown 100-acre farm near Alexandria, Ont., that nudged the Quebec border. Together they raised their son and two daughters, and tended a menagerie that included pigs, two horses and a cow, learning essential farm skills as the need arose. 'The farm was for fun,' recalls youngest daughter Anouk Hoedeman, now 55, who remembers her father as playful and a joker. 'But the chores started at 6 a.m.' She recalls how her father applied the same skill set on the farm as in the animation studio. 'He had patience and an innate ability to figure things out in almost an instinctive way. ... How to run the farm, the tractor, fix the baler.' Chores did not always go smoothly – a fall during a roof-patching job left Mr. Hoedeman with a broken jaw and several missing teeth. Maintaining a rustic back-to-the-land vibe, the family had no television. Movie nights were courtesy of a borrowed NFB 16-mm projector and his family had to visit a neighbour's house to watch the 1978 Academy Awards ceremony. Ms. Hoedeman chuckles at the memory of seeing her father on the small screen wearing a tux. 'I didn't know what the Oscars were and wondered what was going on the next day at school when all the teachers were very excited about it.' During the 1970s, Mr. Hoedeman became fascinated by Inuit culture and travelled to the Arctic several times to research traditional stories, enlisting Indigenous artists and carvers to craft characters for his stop-action films. They worked with soapstone, skins and paper, and often stayed with his family when they travelled south during production of his four northern films. After his Oscar win, invitations poured in from around the world to attend conferences, give workshops and judge international competitions. His travels included Czechoslovakia, China, Japan, the United States, Mexico and Venezuela as well as across Canada, where he taught master classes and worked with novice filmmakers. In 2003, Cinémathèque québécoise presented a retrospective of his films. After divorcing Ms. van der Werf in the 1980s, Mr. Hoedeman moved back to Montreal and later married artist Joyce Ryckman, who joined him as a writer and artistic consultant for most of the films he made after 1989, including his 2011 passion project 55 Socks. The 55 Socks film, set to a gentle poem about the Hongerwinter in the Netherlands, came at the end of a difficult three-year contract with private producers to turn his successful short films about Ludovic the teddy bear into a 26-episode television series. Convinced that Ludovic was losing his charm to crass commercial considerations, Mr. Hoedeman battled with scriptwriters, producers and broadcasters, giving up his director role early in the three-year process. By contrast, 55 Socks allowed him to work with a new media – black silhouettes inspired by a Dutch tradition of shadow play called schimmenspel. Mr. Hoedeman worked with the NFB for half a century, continuing his relationship with the agency as a freelancer and independent producer after being laid off in 2004. He made his final film, The Cardinal, in 2016, fronting all its costs himself. A cancer diagnosis the following year inspired him finally to retire. Chris Robinson, director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, notes that 'Co's films exemplified his commitment to pushing the boundaries of animation, ... [balancing] themes that resonated with both children and adults, never shying away from complex topics.' 'His works ... invited viewers into seemingly whimsical worlds that, upon closer inspection, offered deep reflections on the human experience.' Mr. Hoedeman leaves his wife, Joyce; former wife, Ms. van der Werf, and their children, Nienke, Nathan and Anouk; stepdaughter, Jessica; five grandchildren, and five of his eight siblings. You can find more obituaries from The Globe and Mail here. To submit a memory about someone we have recently profiled on the Obituaries page, e-mail us at obit@
Canada Standard
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Canada Standard
NFB animator Co Hoedeman dies at age 84
May 27, 2025 - Montreal - National Film Board of Canada (NFB) The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is mourning the passing of distinguished animator and director Co Hoedeman, who died on May 26 in Montreal at the age of 84. Born in Amsterdam on August 1, 1940, Co was a master of stop-motion animation whose 1977 NFB production The Sand Castle received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. "Co Hoedeman was a master animator, whose long career at the NFB was distinguished by innovative filmmaking and powerful humanitarian themes. He cared deeply for the well-being of children and was also a fierce defender of the importance of public filmmaking. The NFB and the Canadian animation community have lost a dear friend and colleague. Fortunately for us, we have his legacy of beloved works, which embody so much of his unique spirit," said Suzanne Guvremont, Government Film Commissioner and NFB Chairperson. Select biography Shortly after directing his early films with the NFB, including his award-winning Oddball (1969), Co travelled to Czechoslovakia in 1970 to study puppet animation and then returned to the NFB to begin a series of stop-motion gems. Tchou-tchou (1972), created with wooden blocks, received the British Academy award (BAFTA) for Best Animated Film. During the 1970s, Co created a series of acclaimed animated films based on Inuit traditional stories, collaborating closely with artists from Nunavut and Nunavik. Following his Oscar win for The Sand Castle , he continued to experiment with a range of techniques and themes. In 1992, he worked with Indigenous inmates at La Macaza Institution to create The Sniffing Bear , a cautionary tale about substance abuse. In 1998, he began work on a beloved children's series about Ludovic, a young teddy bear, available in the NFB collection Four Seasons in the Life of Ludovic . After completing his final film with the NFB, Marianne's Theatre (2004), Co began a busy independent animation career. He collaborated with the NFB on the co-production 55 Socks (2011), a deeply personal project drawing on his childhood memories during a dark period of Dutch history, the Hunger Winter of 1944-45. He would also adapt his Ludovic character into a popular children's TV series. In 2003, the Cinemathque quebecoise and the NFB paid tribute to Co and his importance to Quebec cinema with an exhibition entitled "Exposition Co Hoedeman - Les Jardins de l'enfance." The exhibition was presented the following year at the Musee-Chteau d'Annecy in France. Co was interviewed in 2013 for the NFB online anthology Making Movie History and was the subject of the 1980 NFB documentary Co Hoedeman, Animator . All of his NFB films are available online free of charge at - 30 - Stay Connected Online Screening Room: NFB Facebook | NFB Twitter | NFB Instagram | NFB Blog | NFB YouTube | NFB Vimeo Curator's perspective | Director's notes About the NFB
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Co Hoedeman, Oscar-Winning Canadian Animator, Dies at 84
Co Hoedeman, the Canadian animator and director best known for winning an Oscar for best animated short in 1977, has died. He was 84. Hoedeman died Monday in Montreal, the National Film Board of Canada, for whom he directed 27 films during his career, said. No cause of death was specified. More from The Hollywood Reporter Rick Derringer, Singer-Songwriter Known For 'Hang On Sloopy' and 'Rock And Roll, Hoochie Coo' Dead at 77 Marilyn Howard Ellman, Daughter of The Three Stooges' Curly Howard, Dies at 86 Taina Elg, Actress in 'Les Girls' and 'The 39 Steps,' Dies at 95 'Co Hoedeman was a master animator whose long career at the NFB was distinguished by innovative filmmaking and powerful humanitarian themes,' Suzanne Guèvremont, government film commissioner and NFB chairperson, said in a statement. 'He cared deeply for the well-being of children and was also a fierce defender of the importance of public filmmaking. The NFB and the Canadian animation community have lost a dear friend and colleague. Fortunately for us, we have his legacy of beloved works, which embody so much of his unique spirit.' A master of stop-motion animation, Hoedeman earned his Academy Award statuette for Le Chateau de Sable (The Sand Castle), a 13-minute puppet animation short for the NFB. The film features a sandman and the creatures he sculpted out of sand. The creations then build a castle and cheer the completion of their new home, only to be interrupted by an uninvited guest. Born in Amsterdam on Aug. 1, 1940, Hoedeman as a child enjoyed using his hands to make puppets, kites and other figures. In his 2021 biography, Frame by Frame: An Animator's Journey, he wrote: 'At a time when there was no television and little access to any kind of entertainment, puppet shows were the most brilliant experience imaginable. Puppet theatre and puppet animation have a lot in common. The animator and his team, just like the puppet master in a puppet show, are in control of everything: the storyline, the movements, the sets, the puppets, the animation and the emotions of the audience.' Hoedeman started his career working in TV commercial production in Holland. But after seeing the films of NFB pioneer Norman McLaren at an animation festival, he came to Montreal in 1965 with not much more than a film reel in hand to possibly work for Canada's publicly funded film producer in its animation unit. 'I fell in love with [NFB films]. I was fascinated by the making of experimental films. We decided to emigrate to Canada,' Hoedeman recalled in the 2013 short documentary Making Movie History: Co Hoedeman. In the film, he recalled not being especially fazed by the Oscar nomination for The Sand Castle: 'So what? Perhaps it's my Dutch character, being overly pragmatic, perhaps. I don't know.' His reticence extended to the Oscars when Hoedeman thought another nominated NFB film in that year's competition, Ishu Patel's Bead Game, had been announced as the winner. 'So I got up to congratulate him. But no, no, no. It wasn't him. It was me!' Hoedeman recalled of that dramatic moment he became an Oscar winner. After directing his early films with the NFB, well before the age of computer-generated animation, including his award-winning Oddball (1969), Hoedeman traveled to then-Czechoslovakia in 1970 to study puppet animation. Returning to the NFB, he began a series of iconic stop-motion films for the Canadian producer, using old-school techniques like a 35mm camera on a tripod and a film set. Those included the 1972 film Tchou-tchou, which was created with wooden blocks and received a BAFTA for best animated film. During the 1970s, Hoedeman created a series of animated films based on Inuit traditional stories, working closely with artists from Nunavut and Nunavik. Following The Sand Castle, Hoedeman continued to experiment with a range of filmmaking techniques and themes. In 1992, he worked with Indigenous inmates at the La Macaza Institution to create The Sniffing Bear, a cautionary tale about substance abuse. In 1998, he began work on a beloved children's series about Ludovic, a young teddy bear, available in the NFB collection as Four Seasons in the Life of Ludovic. His final film for the NFB was Marianne's Theatre in 2011. That was followed by collaborations between the NFB and Hoedeman, now an indie filmmaker, including the 2011 film 55 Socks. That project drew on his childhood memories in Holland during World War II and especially during the Hunger Winter of 1944–45. He would also adapt his Ludovic character into a popular children's TV series. In 2003, the Cinémathèque Québécoise and the NFB paid tribute to Hoedeman with the exhibition Exposition Co Hoedeman – Les Jardins de l'Enfance in Montreal. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
Winnipeg Free Press
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Dutch-Canadian animator Co Hoedeman has died, National Film Board says
MONTREAL – The National Film Board of Canada says Academy Award-winning animator Co Hoedeman has died. The NFB says the Dutch-born Canadian filmmaker died in Montreal on Monday at age 84. The organization is remembering him as a 'master of stop-motion animation,' who in 1977 took home the best animated short Oscar for 'The Sand Castle.' The 13-minute film follows a sandman who sculpts living creatures out of the sand. Hoedeman also won the BAFTA for best animated film for 1972's 'Tchou-tchou,' which was made using wooden blocks. Hoedeman went on to create the character of Ludovic the teddy bear, who appeared in four NFB shorts starting in 1998 and was adapted into a TV series in 2009. NFB Chair Suzanne Guèvremont says Hoedeman's career was 'distinguished by innovative filmmaking and powerful humanitarian themes.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2025.
The National
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
The Sand Castle review: Nadine Labaki and Ziad Bakri film is a beautiful but frustrating watch
The beauty of the allegory is its capacity to take a difficult topic and present it in a digestible and stirring form, and that is what the new thriller The Sand Castle, now streaming on Netflix, aims to do. The film, which made its premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival, revolves around a family of four stranded on an island. The mother of the family, Yasmine, played by Nadine Labaki, routinely scans the horizon for signs of a boat. The father, Nabil, portrayed by Ziad Bakri, dutifully tries to radio for help. The couple's two children, Adam and Jana, depicted by Capernaum stars Zain and Riman Al Rafeea, meanwhile explore the island in their own way. Adam, weary of their situation, is withdrawn from the family, listening to music and smoking his father's cigarettes. Jana scampers along the rocky shoreline, building sandcastles and letting herself be taken by her imagination. The island seems idyllic at first, with tall and lush stalks growing in one part, and the sea waves breaking furiously but beautifully against the coral cliffs. Yet, it quickly becomes evident that not all is as it seems. There is an eeriness to it and the family seems keen to keep the island's secrets from their youngest member, Jana. The cast is the film's most alluring element. Each actor delivers a riveting performance, with Riman Al Rafeea taking the spotlight as Jana with an emotional and layered portrayal. The film's director, Matty Brown, also offers several tastefully composed scenes, moving from painting-like arrangements to more dizzying and experimental frames as the movie progresses. Nevertheless, The Sand Castle can be a frustrating watch, especially as the seams between reality and fiction are tattered to the point where there are no certainties to anchor to. That is, perhaps, its main drawback. From the onset, the film is clearly an allegorical take on a pressing topic, but what it aims to reflect remains steadfastly elusive until the latter third of the film. While the joy of watching such a film is to try to piece the puzzle together, it becomes a disheartening viewing experience when pieces of the jigsaw at hand continuously change shape, making it increasingly difficult to attain any concrete image. The film flounders as it tries to establish a focus, introducing several visual elements that it never manages to return to. A number of themes are also brought up, but instead of delving and exploring them, it only superficially grazes them. These include the experiences of parents who try to provide their children with a better future; the uncertainty of refugees as they leave behind their war-torn nations in search of a more stable life; or, on a more universal note, the need to protect the innocence of children from looming horrors. There are several poignant exchanges between the family members that underline the film's urgency. One of which is a scene between Nabil and Adam, as the father witnesses his son taking his place at the radio and trying to get the light of the lighthouse working again. 'When you lose your voice, lose your dignity, you lose everything you fought for and only the sea remains,' says a weary and injured Nabil. It is an evocative monologue, which brings to mind the plight of refugees who took to the uncertainty of the high seas, in both literal and metaphorical sense, trying to find a dignified existence behind the waves. Ultimately, it becomes clear that the film is an artistic reflection upon the suffering of children across the Levant. It is at, this point, that The Sand Castle begins to find solid ground, and yet, it buckles again as the film once again withdraws from any plot-related certitudes. It is this hesitance to establish at least a few anchoring moments that is the film's greatest folly. Even once it becomes clear that the film is attempting to address the trauma incurred by children as they try to face the horrors of war, it seems to be doing so diffidently and without any meaningful reflection. By the end of The Sand Castle, and after a suffocating viewing experience, you're left with fragmented puzzle pieces and a faint idea of the film's intent. One all is said and revealed, and the credits start to roll, the allegory, though beautifully shot and with a stellar cast, is every bit as incomprehensible as the topics it attempts to tackle. Maybe that is the point. The Sand Castle is now streaming on Netflix
