Dušan Vukotić
| Dušan Vukotić | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
7 February 1927 Bileća, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) |
| Died |
8 July 1998 (aged 71) Krapinske Toplice, Croatia |
| Occupation | Film director, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1951-1995 |
Dušan Vukotić (7 February 1927 – 8 July 1998) was a Yugoslav and Croatian cartoonist, author and director of animated films of Montenegrin descent. He is the best known member of the Zagreb school of animated films.
Vukotić was born in Bileća, Bosnia and Herzegovina (at the time Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes). His grandfather Kinjo was a brother of Serdar Janko Vukotić, and died during the Siege of Scutari.[1]
In 1953 he was one of the founding members of Zagreb Film. He worked there for over four decades and directed cartoons such as Cow on the Moon.
He won an Oscar for best animated short in 1961 for Surogat ("Ersatz"), being the first foreigner to do so. Another of his films, Igra ("The Game"), was nominated for an Academy Award in 1964.
After the 1960s, he rarely made short animated films, making three full-length movies - a fantasy tale for children, Sedmi kontinent ("The Seventh Continent", 1966), an action movie, Akcija Stadion ("Operation Stadium") about the resistance of Zagreb students to the Ustaša regime in 1941, and the science fiction/horror parody Gosti iz galaksije ("Visitors from the Galaxy of Arkana", 1981). In 1963, he was a member of the jury at the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival.[2]
He also taught film directing at the Zagreb Academy for Dramatic Art from the founding of its Film department in 1967 until his retirement in the early 1990s.
After 1973, he was a member of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts.
At the time of his death, Vukotić was preparing a production of his new science fiction movie, co-written by the Croatian science fiction writer Aleksandar Žiljak.
Vukotić died in Krapinske Toplice near Zagreb at the age of 71.