Sanjay Patel, whose much awaited short feature Sanjay’s Super Team will be played across theaters in India with Disney-Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur releasing on 4th December 2015, has bagged a place on the coveted Oscar shortlist for short films!
Sanjay’s Super Team has been shortlisted with nine other titles out of a total sixty films to advance in the voting process for the 88th Academy Awards.
As tradition goes, there is always a short film attached to every PIXAR film upon its release, eagerly anticipated by fans, this is the first time an Indian animator’s film will be attached and played with a PIXAR film in theaters. Also this is the first time two PIXAR movies are releasing in one year (Inside Out and now, The Good Dinosaur). Sanjay Patel has been with Pixar for almost 20 years. The Good Dinosaur has also been shortlisted in the animation category.
Synopsis:
In Sanjay’s Super Team, the new short film from Pixar Animation Studios, accomplished artist Sanjay Patel uses his own experience to tell the story of a young, first-generation Indian-American boy whose love for western pop culture comes into conflict with his father’s traditions. Sanjay is absorbed in the world of cartoons and comics, while his father tries to draw him into the traditions of his Hindu practice. Tedium and reluctance quickly turn into an awe-inspiring adventure as the boy embarks on a journey he never imagined, returning with a new perspective that they can both embrace. Directed by Sanjay Patel and produced by Nicole Paradis Grindle, Sanjay’s Super Team opens in theaters on November 25, 2015, in front of Disney-Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur.
About Sanjay Patel
Sanjay Patel (Director) joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1996 an animator on A Bug’s Life. Since then he has animated on many of Pixar’s feature films, including Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Cars, Toy Story 3 and Monsters University. In addition to animating, Patel also storyboarded extensively for Monsters Inc., The Incredibles and Toy Story 2. For the Cars Toons Mater’s Tall Tales, Patel stepped up to act as animation supervisor on many of the shorts in the series.
Growing up in San Bernardino, Calif., in a Gujarati family, Patel’s earliest artistic influences stemmed from two very different worlds: comic books and Saturday morning cartoons, and the Hindu gods and spiritual culture that came to define his upbringing. After pursuing his artistic interests at the Cleveland Institute for the Arts, Cal-Arts and Pixar, Patel eventually turned his attention back to his roots, creating art, graphic novels and picture books that re-envisioned Hindu mythology in a modern, pop-culture way.
Sanjay’s Super Team is Patel’s personal story and a “mostly true” chronicle of his journey to understand the Hindu world so important to his parents. Patel resides in Oakland with his fiancé and their son.
