was shown on the closing night of the festival. In 2000, he began work as director on Ratatouille, a European-flavoured, ultimate-outsider tale based on his original story. This was to have been his feature film debut and the first Pixar film beyond the terms of the then-expiring Pixar-Disney franchise. In 2005, Pinkava was replaced as main director by The Incredibles director Brad Bird. In an interview given in 2006, Pinkava had "no comment" about this turn of events and for two years staunchly refrained from comment on the genesis of the film. At the time when he was replaced, Pinkava had written the core storyline of the film and created the styling, key characters, and sets. Following his departure from the project, Pinkava initially undertook other duties and then left the company. In the final film, Pinkava is credited for his original story idea and as the co-director. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a nomination for Pinkava (along with Jim Capobianco and Bird) in the Best Original Screenplay category. He subsequently worked as a director at LAIKA on his new film Little White Lie, but left in 2011; along with Claire Jennings, the studio's head of entertainment. In 2013, as a creative executive in Motorola Mobility, he came up with a new, in-phone, interactive animation genre. From 2014 to 2019, Pinkava was a Creative Director of Google Spotlight Stories, an experimental unit involved in the making of 360° interactive shorts. Personal life He is the third-born of four children of the Czech polymath Václav Pinkava alias Jan Křesadlo. He has two sons, named Thomas and Edward. Filmography Short films Feature films References External links Pinkava's website (in Czech) Jan Pinkava interview at the official Pixar website Jan Pinkava interview at ASIFA-SF March 1998, shortly before his Oscar Computer Arts interview ITWales interview from 2012 1963 births Alumni of Aberystwyth University British animators Czech animators British animated film directors Czech animated film directors Directors of Best Animated Short Academy Award winners English people of Czech descent Living people People educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School Pixar people Google employees