Manne Öhrström has been named global head of film software at Framestore. The new role will have him refining current software development practices, while also more fully integrating innovative new and emerging tech such as AI, machine learning and game engine technology into Framestore’s established film pipeline. Reporting directly to Fiona Walkinshaw, who’s global managing director, film, and executive director Matt Fox, Öhrström will work closely with global head of CG Mark Wilson and global tech director, Engine, Danny Lepage.
Öhrström has a storied career working across film, games and tech. He obtained a masters thesis in physics while working for EA. For the past few years he has worked at the intersection of art and technology, forging a successful career for the likes of Autodesk and Shotgun. He is also no stranger to Framestore, having worked for the company from 2007-08 and served as one of the key developers on 2008 animated feature The Tale of Despereaux.
Now in his second tour of duty at Framestore, Öhrström will manage a range of software development groups (including rendering, R&D, core software and AI/ML) while also scanning the horizon for partnership opportunities and innovative new software development funds.
“I feel like I’m returning to VFX and production at a really pivotal time,” said Öhrström. “The industry is undergoing significant changes thanks to advances in real-time, virtual production, machine learning and a rapidly-evolving open source culture. This is really exciting for someone who’s made a career helping align art with cutting-edge tech, and it seems like the perfect time to be back at Framestore given the global reputation for work that is both creatively and technically challenging.”
Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Cartoonist and Writer, Dies At 95
Jules Feiffer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and writer whose prolific output ranged from a long-running comic strip to plays, screenplays and children's books, died Friday. He was 95 and, true to his seemingly tireless form, published his last book just four months ago.
Feiffer's wife, writer JZ Holden, said Tuesday that he died of congestive heart failure at their home in Richfield Springs, New York, and was surrounded by friends, the couple's two cats and his recent artwork.
Holden said her husband had been ill for a couple of years, "but he was sharp and strong up until the very end. And funny."
Artistically limber, Feiffer hopscotched among numerous forms of expression, chronicling the curiosity of childhood, urban angst and other societal currents. To each he brought a sharp wit and acute observations of the personal and political relations that defined his readers' lives.
As Feiffer explained to the Chicago Tribune in 2002, his work dealt with "communication and the breakdown thereof, between men and women, parents and children, a government and its citizens, and the individual not dealing so well with authority."
Feiffer won the United States' most prominent awards in journalism and filmmaking, taking home a 1986 Pulitzer Prize for his cartoons and "Munro," an animated short film he wrote, won a 1961 Academy Award. The Library of Congress held a retrospective of his work in 1996.
"My goal is to make people think, to make them feel and, along the way, to make them smile if not laugh," Feiffer told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1998. "Humor seems to me one of the best ways of espousing ideas. It gets people to listen with their guard down."
Feiffer was born on Jan. 26, 1929, in the Bronx. From... Read More