It is a great pleasure for me to be asked to be the honorary president of Hiroshima 2008.
Since its very beginning Hiroshima has always been a very welcoming festival; although it has a lively competition program next to its animation show-case and also has a market place function for animation, it feels primarily as a meeting place for friends who share the same interest in the art of animation.
I remember going to Hiroshima for the first time in 1987 and being on the jury with that great cultured gentleman Osamu Tezuka, who, together with Kihachiro Kawamoto, showed us treasures of Japan we would never have discovered by ourselves.
The tradition of the Hiroshima festival never changed, it still celebrates the cause of peace, it still focuses on the art of animation in a country that also has a very large commercial animation industry.
Going back there in August will be like seeing an old friend again. I look very much forward to it.
Paul Driessen
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Born in 1940 in Nijmegen, Holland, Paul Driessen drew cartoons from an early age.
In 1964, he graduated from the Art Academy in Utrecht, Holland, and was offered a job as an animator at a commercial animation film & TV studio in Hilversum.
In 1967, he was invited to London, UK, to work on George Dunning's THE YELLOW SUBMARINE.
In 1970, Paul Driessen emigrated to Canada and started a freelance animation career, working mainly for the National Film Board of Canada.
Since 1976, he also animated and directed many of his films for independent producers in Holland.
Up to now Paul Driessen has won over 70 international awards for his work.
His film 3MISSES earned him an Oscar nomination in 2000.
In 1987, ASIFA Hollywood presented the ANNIE AWARD to him for "his distinguished contribution to the art of animation".
In 1994, at the Ottawa Animation Festival, the International Association of Animated Films (ASIFA) gave Paul Driessen the ASIFA-International "Life Achievement Award".
In 2002, the Zagreb International Animation Festival gave him another "Life Achievement Award".
In October 2005, in Cracow, Poland, he was given the "Special Golden Dinosaur Award for an outstanding artist and teacher".
Until recently, Paul Driessen has also taught animation on a regular basis at the University of Kassel in Germany. Under his guidance his students have won two Oscars.
Lately, he wrote and illustrated a couple of books, typical of the style which characterizes the rest of his work; they are published in English and French in Montreal.
Paul Driessen is currently working on two new films; one in Canada and one in Holland with his son Kaj, a live action director.
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