Biography
In 2001 Don Hertzfeldt was named one of the “Top 25 Directors to Watch” by Filmmaker Magazine, an honor not surprising given that he has created some of the most popular animated shorts of our time. While a college student, Hertzfeldt wrote and directed four animated shorts (one for each of his four years at UCSB) including: Ah, L’Amour (1995), Genre (1996), Lily and Jim (1997), and Billy’s Balloon (1998). Along with Hertzfeldt’s nomination for an Academy Award for his critically acclaimed animated short Rejected (2005), he has won 99 awards at film festivals for his films to date. Hertzfeldt also co-founded The Animation Show in 2003, a festival of animation that puts an unprecedented number of animated shorts into North American movie theaters.