Animation fest founder Prescott Wright dies

Posted:
Jan 2, 2007
Prescott Wright, a co-founder of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, died Thursday night at an Albuquerque hospital, said ASIFA-SF president Karl Cohen, an animation professor and historian. Wright was 73.

Wright, a founder of the ASIFA-San Francisco Chapter and its vice-president for several years, had been in slow decline for several years with Picks Syndrome, an Alzheimer-related form of dementia.

His daughter moved him to Albuquerque to live with her until he was moved to a New Mexico nursing home. He stayed there until mid-December, when he was moved to a hospital due to worsening condition.

In 2004, Wright and Co Hoedeman were co-honorary presidents of the OIAF, the largest animation festival in North America.

Wright served as designer and international director for the OIAF, and was an animation instructor at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.

For 16 years, he was the producer and distributor of The International Tournees of Animation, a feature-length package of short animated films distributed to more than 100 North American theaters.

"In the late 1960s, several of his friends with ASIFA-Hollywood decided to put together an international animation program. It was almost impossible to see quality animation in the U.S. at that time," Cohen recalled.

These friends included Bill Scott, Bill Littlejohn, Les Goldman and June Foray. They decided that the program would be shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

"Pres was active with the group and having worked previously in film distribution, he was asked to head the project when they decided to show the program in other places. He continued to organize and distribute the annual celebration until Expanded Cinema purchased rights to the program in the late 1980s," said Cohen.

Wright booked the program into other cities as the International Tournee of Animation.

Wright served on ASIFA's international board of directors during the Communist era in Eastern Europe when "the organization helped bridge the gap between East and West by helping animators from Eastern Europe attend festivals in the West, to visit studios in the Europe and North America, and to show their films in-person," said Cohen. "President David Ehrlich, Howard Beckerman, the late Charles Samu and others worked hard to further international relations and to arrange for these screenings in cities with ASIFA chapters."

He was a former employee of Disney and several other studios.

Raised in the Bronx, he moved in the 1960s to San Francisco, where he worked at Brandon Films and ran his own small film distribution company, Filmwright.

For a year, Wright was director of the Denver International Film Festival. He also served as an advisor to major animation festivals around the world, and helped start a festival at Foothill College.

In the 1990s, Wright worked for a year for Disney as a spotter and recruiter of animation talent. Afterward, he worked as an instructor, as well as an advisor with new animation studios, in the Philippines and southern India.

Prescott Wright is survived by a daughter and a brother. The family will have a small ceremony shortly in Albuquerque.

"We will dedicate some time at our Friday, January 5 ASIFA 12th Night Party to honor his memory," said Cohen.




(Picture from Cartoon Brew)