In Brief: March 1: Oscars Edition

The film Hugo, based on Brian Selznick’s 2007 Caldecott Medal–winning children’s book The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic Press), had a great night at the Oscars, picking up five awards: Cinematography, Art Direction, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects. The film, which was released in November, was also one of the nine movies up for Best Picture, and director Martin Scorsese was a nominee in the Best Director category. Selznick (r.) attended the awards, and is seen here on the red carpet with his partner, David Serlin.

Prolific children’s book author William Joyce won an Academy Award in the category of Short Film (Animated) on Sunday night for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, an animated short film he created with Brandon Oldenburg. The film tells the story of a book-loving man in New Orleans whose life changes dramatically when a hurricane strikes; a picture book version of the story will be released by Atheneum in July. Here, Joyce (r.) and Oldenburg celebrate their win with a little “fantastic flying” of their own. Joyce’s film Rise of the Guardians, which is tied to an ongoing series of picture books and chapter books published by Simon & Schuster, is slated to arrive in theaters this November—so this may not be his last trip to the Oscars.