As I'm sure you're all aware, we're now in the middle of Oscar season - an exciting time for all filmmakers and film fans.

The last time I was nominated was in 1987, for my animated short "Your Face". It was an exciting experience for me, and I quickly found out how important recognition from the Academy is to a film career. All of a sudden, agents start calling, advertising art directors want to give you work, the press wants to interview you and your name becomes twice as long: "Academy Award Nominee Bill Plympton".

I didn't win the statuette that year, but I had a ball and decided to enter a short film every year for Oscar consideration. So, despite 17 years of great commercial success with my short films, I haven't had the good fortune to return to the famed ceremonies. Perhaps one reason is that a lot of the films I submitted over the years were too raunchy - films like "How to Make Love to a Woman"or both "Sex & Violence" shorts were maybe too risque for the primarily elderly Academy members.

So, I had practically given up on ever returning to Oscarland until I got an e-mail from an Academy member, Cathy Karole Crowther. She had never met me before, but she liked "Guard Dog" and had seen it at the giant nomination screening. She told me that, lo and behold, the academy members like "Guard Dog" so much they applauded at the end, which is a very rare occurence, I've heard. In any case, her e-mail blew me away - might the dog be my long sought-after return to the Oscars?

I called a number of my friends who are Academy members and queried them about that important screening. They showed around 40 animated shorts - some of the best from around the world and they confirmed the earlier report that the dog was a funny favorite.

I knew for certain about 3 weeks later, when the Academy asked for another print of "Guard Dog" that it had survived the first cut and advanced to the short list. Yeah!!!

The screening of the short-listed films took place in New York in late January. Thankfully, being an Academy member, I was invited to the screening, and was able to bring a number of friends and fans. It was an all-day (Saturday) affair. They showed the 10 animated and 10 live-action short finalists with a wonderful buffet in the middle.

All the animation members were there, plus the creme-de-la-creme of animation society. I packed the place with my fans in order to get a good buzz going for "Guard Dog", but when it screened, very few people laughed. Now, I don't know whether this was because they were afraid of being accused as "plants" or they had already seen the film so many times that the jokes weren't fresh any more - I believed that the shorts with the best chance were "Ryan" (the leader of the pack), "Lorenzo", "Ward 13", "Gopher Broke", and perhaps "Guard Dog". Afterwards, we all got together at the lunch and discussed our views - I believe that generally those 5 films were the most popular.

The next big screening was in L.A. - I felt I really had to maximize my chances for "Guard Dog" so I decided to book a flight to attend the screening. It would also be a great opportunity to see a lot of old and new animation friends from Hollywood.

Also, Ron Diamond was gracious enough to set up a number of appearances for me while I was in L.A. My first stop was USC, where I showed a number of my shorts and talked about my career. Other appearances were at Dreamworks (thanks to Frank Gladstone), Disney, Electronic Arts, and Film Roman.

Saturday (again) was the big day in L.A. - the judging was set up identical to the New York screening, only this time I couldn't vote. I ran into so many wonderful friends there - June Foray, Ron Diamond (whose "Suite for Freedom" was in the running), John Andrews, Mark Kausler (whose "It's the Cat" was also in the running), Craig Bartlett (of "Hey Arnold!"), Bob Kurtz, Bob Balser ("Yellow Submarine"), Don Hertzfeldt ("Billy's Balloon"), David Silverman, Carol Shelly Abrams, and many others.

My film came on second, and it went over very big - I think because it was fresh and the audience had never seen it before (unlike New York) - or perhaps the audience was full of dog owners. In any case, I was feeling great flying back to New York, and now I only had to wait for the bean-counters at Price Waterhouse to tally the results -

I called my buddies in San Francisco, where they held the last screening, and apparently "Guard Dog" did very well there also.

It wasn't until January 25 that they announced the nominations - needless to say, it was tough for me to sleep the night before, sorta like Christmas Eve. I awoke early to watch the 8:30 am telecast from L.A. Of course, they didn't announce the smaller categories - and since I'm not too good with the computer I had to wait for John Holderried to check his home computer to find out the nominees.

The final list was "Ryan", "Lorenzo", "Gopher Broke", "Birthday Boy" and "Guard Dog." So, for two days my phone and e-mail were going nuts. It was all that my staff and I could do to just keep up with all the well-wishers.

We decided to have a celebratory drink that evening at Live Bait, my local dive. The usual crowd of Jimmy Picker (Oscar winner), Biljana, Karen Skurka, Pes, Sarah, Pat Smith, Olivia, Barbara, Alexy Budovsky, Delphine, Signe, and Sturgis - it was a lot of fun.

Of course, six months ago I had no idea that "Guard Dog" would be nominated - although I did feel that it was my most successful film in terms of audience response. So, I had booked a number of festival appearances, assuming my schedule would be clear in February. WRONG!!

Now that everyone wanted to meet with me and talk about "Guard Dog", I had to leave for France for the famous Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. I'd heard great things about this 25-year-old gathering - but nothing I'd heard prepared me for the experience. It's a middle-sized city in central France, famous for being the home of Michelin tires. The people there love their culture, as do most of the French, and they've built a very large Maison de Culture to show short films.

Consequently, each show of international shorts is immediately sold out, and the largest of 6 screening venues (which seats 1,300 people) is packed to the gills. I did 5 shows of my short film in a smaller 500-seat cinema - and people were fighting to get a seat to those screenings. I felt so terrible about the folks who didn't get in.

I received prolonged audience ovations at the screenings, and even had fans waiting for me at my hotel. I felt like one of the Beatles. Now, where in America is there a festival for short films that gets that kind of audience response and love?

A lot of people like to make fun of the French, but I wish that here in the U.S. I could get just half of the press and recognition I receive in France.

Next issue of my scrapbook, I'll be able to report first-hand the events leading up to and including the Oscars. Also, don't forget to go see The Animation Show appearing soon in your local cinema. The wonderful compilation includes "Guard Dog".

This issue's cartoon is called "The Religious Nut" - I think it was influenced by the Jim Jones Kool-Aid mass suicide that took place in Guyana - I like the idea but I feel that there's too much dialogue. I should have designed it without all those damn words.

Bill