a number of prominent animators. In 1988 they founded Pilot, the first private animation studio in the USSR where they relocated along with their students. In 1989 Igor directed his first auteur film Hen His Wife which became an international success and gained him his first Grand Prize at the 1990 Ottawa International Animation Festival. During that time he was invited to the United States to meet with students at the Disney studio. He was noticed by Gábor Csupó who immediately offered him a place at Klasky Csupo. Kovalyov turned down the offer and returned to Moscow to finish Andrei Svislotskiy. Csupó continued to contact him and guaranteed that he would be able to produce auteur films, and under a pressure from his first wife and the overall crisis in animation Igor finally agreed. American period In the summer of 1991, just 20 days before the August Coup, Kovalyov and his family left for Los Angeles. He started working as an animator on The Simpsons, then moved to work on Rugrats as a director and character designer. The series eventually turned into one of the most popular children's TV shows. Kovalyov also contacted some of the leading Pilot animators and suggested them to join him. This greatly upset Alexander Tatarsky who was convinced that Gábor Csupó was enticing his best staff. Nevertheless, Igor visited Tatarsky every year till his death in 2007 and discussed future plans. In 1993 Kovalyov was offered to direct the Aaahh!!! Real Monsters pilot. As he later recalled, this was his only studio project where he was given almost full artistic control after he and Csupó had shown Investigation Held by Kolobki to the producers who became very impressed with it and asked for a similar style. Igor also rewrote the screenplay along the way, filling it with specific jokes and gags. In 1998 he co-directed The Rugrats Movie which grossed $141 million, breaking the box office record for a non-Disney animated film, although Kovalyov was left unhappy with it, claiming there was a heavy pressure from producers this time around and many of his ideas didn't make into the movie. Csupó also kept his promise and allowed him to work on his auteur films. Bird in a Window (1996), Flying Nansen (2000) and Milch (2005) gained a number of awards at international film festivals, although the latter was finished when the studio was already in