Peter Foldès

Born 1924-08-22 · Budapest, Hungary

Died 1977-03-29

Budapest-born Peter Foldes (1924-1977) was one of a number of Hungarian artists (another was the film's composer Mátyás Seiber) who ended up working with fellow countryman John Halas on the latter's animated films after he moved to Britain in 1946. After leaving Halas, Foldes made a number of animated films in collaboration with his British wife Joan (b. 1924), starting with the allegorical Animated Genesis (1952), On Closer Inspection (1953) and A Short Vision (1956). A Short Vision became one of the most influential British animated films ever made, when it was screened on US television as part of the popular Ed Sullivan Show. Although children were advised to leave the room while it played, it still caused outrage and alarm with its graphic representation of the horrors of nuclear war. In the film, wild creatures flee in terror as a strange missile flies overhead. As it passes over the sleeping city, the world's leaders and wise men look upwards. The missile explodes, destroying humans, wild creatures and the Earth itself. It caught the mood of the times, since the mid-1950s was the height of both the Cold War and nuclear paranoia. Foldes later moved to Paris, where he became an early pioneer in computer animation. In the 1960s, he worked for the Research Service of the ORTF. He is one of the pioneers of computer animation with his film Hunger, which received the Jury Prize in the "short film" category at Cannes Film Festival as well as an Academy Award nomination. (from WIkipedia)