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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, March 9, 2017 | 28 Marta Marychuk Reporter mmarychuk@oakvillebeaver.com Aitscene `Connected to yo u r Community " Sheridan graduate Academy Award winner by Marta Marychuk Oakville Beaver Staff Sheridan College graduate Alan Barillaro took home an Academy Award for directing the Best Animated Short Film -- Piper. Barillaro, who graduated from Sheridan' s animation program in 1996 and is a long time Pixar animator, made his directorial de but with Piper. The short film tells the story of a baby bird who ventures out of his beach-side nest to the water' s edge for the first time, encoun tering a few challenges, and making some friends, along the way. Piper played in theatres in 2 0 1 6 - prior to screenings of the feature film Finding Dory. Sheridan is world-renowned for its ani mation programs, which attract students from around the world to the Trafalgar Road Campus in Oakville. Sheridan' s animation program includes the Bachelor of Anima tion and Bachelor of Game Design, as well as post-graduate certificates in computer ani mation and visual effects. "Sheridan is deeply proud of Alan, and all our alumni who contributed to films nomi Alan Barillaro, who graduated from Sheridan's animation program in 1996 and is a long-time Pixar animator, made his directorial debut with Piper. | Deborah Coleman/Pixar nated this year," said Mary Preece, President and Vice Chancellor of Sheridan, in a press release. "To see them reach such a pinnacle of success is a refl ection of the breadth and richness of our faculty, and the exceptional learning experience at Sheridan." Barillaro came to Sheridan after being in spired to work in animation during his high school years in Markham, when he worked at The Animation House. Over his 20-year career, he's also worked on films such as A Bug' s Life, Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc. He credits Sheridan, and in particular in structor Charlie Bonifacio, with helping him launch his career. "Charlie was everything you could hope for in an animation teacher and I believe he was the reason so many Sher idan grads are in feature animation today," Barillaro said, in a press release. Sheridan graduates are part of animation studios across North America and their work has long been represented at the Oscars. In 1985, John Minnis won Best Animated Short Film for Charade just two years after his 1983 graduation. In 2 0 0 3 , Eric Armstrong, a 1988 grad, won for his w ork in T he Chubbchubbs! Two years ago, three of the five films nominated for Os cars in the Best Animated Feature category were directed by animators who studied at Sheridan, including Chris Williams who won that year for his work as the director of Big Hero 6. d , film ca 9 0 5 -3 3 8 -6 3 9 7 cinemas 171 Speers Road (at Kerr) Oakville www.film.ca LOGAN (18A) M ARCH 3 KONG: SK U LL ISLAND (14A) m a r c h 10 BEA U TY A N D TH E BEAST (PG) m a r c h 17 po w er r a n g ers (s t c ) m arch THE bo ss b a b y facebook.com/filmca @FilmCaCinemas 24 (STC) M A R C H 31