The directors behind Disney and Pixar’s Oscar-nominated animated film Elio are opening up about the sci-fi and horror influences that shaped the movie’s unique tone, from Steven Spielberg to John Carpenter.
Directors Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian, along with director Adrian Molina, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards for the film, which follows an 11-year-old boy who desperately wants to be abducted by aliens.
A Love Letter to Classic Sci-Fi
“This movie is a love letter to the sci-fi movies we grew up with, and we put our own spin on the genre,” Shi said. “We hope it can fit into the library of classic sci-fi films like Contact and E.T., or that it could even be like a kid’s introduction to John Carpenter.”
“Elio is step one,” Sharafian added. “A few more steps later, you can watch The Thing.”
Sharafian said she and Shi rewatched “all the classic Spielberg movies” for inspiration while developing Elio, their first sci-fi project. “There’s a nostalgic romance to them,” she said. “They’re about aliens and space, where things are unsettling but also beautiful, and I wanted to capture that feeling.”
Blending Thrills into Pixar’s Storytelling
“It was fun to start Elio off with the warm familiarity you get from a classic Spielberg film and then twist it to surprise the audience,” Shi said. “At Pixar, our films tend to make people cry or laugh, so we thought this could be a great opportunity to get some thrills, some tension, and some gasps out of the audience.”
The nomination marks the second for Sharafian, the third for Shi (who previously won for the short film Bao in 2018), and the first for Molina and producer Mary Alice Drumm.
“It’s great that the Academy has recognized Elio,” Shi said. “Being nominated has almost given this movie a second life, a chance for even more people to discover it and enjoy it.”
Elio is one of several Pixar projects generating buzz this year, alongside Hoppers, which opens March 6, and Toy Story 5.
The 98th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien, air March 15 on ABC and stream on Hulu.
Source: The Walt Disney Company
