Academy Award winning animator Eunice Macaulay, who retired to Vankleek Hill, is being posthumously given a significant animation award in Hollywood.
Macaulay died on July 8, 2013 at age 90, but on Saturday, February 8, she will be honoured with the Winsor McCay Award for career achievement at the 52nd Annie Awards for animation in Hollywood. The award is presented by ASIFA-Hollywood/International Animated Film Society.
Macaulay was born in St. Helens, Lancashire in England in 1923 and, during the Second World War, served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRENS) as a radio technician. In the 1950’s she became a graphic artist and greeting card designer and after emigrating first to the US, and then to Canada in the 1960’s.
Macaulay embarked upon a highly successful career in film animation. She worked at the National Film Board (NFB) of Canada for 17 years in the art department and as producer, winning the Academy Award for ‘Best Animated Short Film’ in 1978 for “Special Delivery”. She co-wrote Ishu Patel’s Academy Award-nominated NFB short Paradise (1984), and was Oscar nominated as producer on Alison Snowden and David Fine’s animated short George and Rosemary (1987). As NFB producer, Macaulay was also instrumental in developing the Just for Kids series of shorts for children.
In 1990, Macaulay retired to Vankleek Hill. She volunteered as a reader at Heritage Lodge as well as being a long serving member of the Stardale Branch of the Vankleek Hill Women’s Institute and a member of the local and self-titled “Ancient Brits Club”.
Eunice Macaulay’s daughter Lesley Macaulay, and Eunice’s granddaughter Zoë will be traveling to Hollywood for the award ceremony on February 8. Past winners of the Winsor McCay award include the biggest names in animation history such as Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng of Looney Tunes, Walt Disney, Walter Lantz of Woody Woodpecker, Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera of The Flintstones and Yogi Bear, and Mel Blanc, who voiced cartoon characters ranging from Bugs Bunny to Barney Rubble.
