Filmmaker Dave Mullins premiered his Oscar-nominated animated short, “War is Over!” at the Orinda Theatre. This is the Pixar veteran’s second Academy Award nomination.
Filmmaker Dave Mullins’ “War is Over!” is Nominated for an Oscar
The Animated Short is based on the Song by John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Lamorinda filmmaker Dave Mullins spent 20 years making movie magic at Pixar, animating films like “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles” and “Monsters, Inc.” But his most thrilling story to date may be his own race against the clock – how he and Orinda Theatre owner, Derek Zemrak, hustled to make the deadline for his latest film to qualify for the 2024 Academy Awards.
How do you know Derek?
When I made my last short film, “Lou” [in 2017], we did a screening at the Orinda Theatre. I met Derek and we hit it off. He’s a lover of cinema and just a really great guy, so we kept in touch. My team and I owe Derek special thanks because of how he helped us on “War is Over!,” which was amazing.
Tell us about it.
It’s absolutely a bananas story! We had finished the film in October and we wanted to qualify for the 2024 Oscars. There are very strict rules around showing your film in a festival or having it in a theater run that’s accessible to the public by a certain date, so we were tracking that.
One Thursday night, my producer and business partner called me and said we had been looking at the wrong dates. “Oh my God, Dave, we screwed up,” he said. “We have to start a seven-day run at a theater by tonight.”
It was seven o’clock at night. First, I massively panicked. Then I knew what to do. I called Derek and he was in the middle of a soccer game. I told him I had a movie emergency and explained the situation. Our film had to start showing in the theater that night.
Derek said, “I’m on it. I got you.”
We both raced to the theater. He got the film into their system and printed tickets. I grabbed five people who were in the lobby and said, “Hey, do you want to see a film? I have an 11-minute movie and we need an audience.”
I asked them for a quarter and I made receipts on the back of a popcorn bag. Two hours after I got the call from my producer we started our theatrical run. It was insanity!
How did this project come together?
The project was Sean Lennon’s idea and is based on John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s song, “Happy Xmas (War is Over).” Sean produced an album for a friend of mine from Pixar and he asked him if he knew any directors. My friend connected us and we decided to meet.
Within an hour and a half, we had a working story. I went off that night and wrote the 10-page script and showed it to Sean the next day, and he said, “We’re making it.”
How did you come up with the story?
Sean started explaining to me the idea behind the song. He told me you think it’s a Christmas song, but it’s really a song about war, race and culture. The song was written during the Vietnam War and it’s a protest song. Sadly, here we are 50 years later and it is just as relevant now as when it was written.
We thought about how you get two groups who are so certain that the other is evil to connect and realize they’re actually a lot closer than they thought. If people could put away their paradigms and their walls, whether political, geographical or cultural, and talk, nine times out of 10, they would realize they’re all good people who might just look at things a little differently.
The film is about the possibility of opposing forces finding a common ground to overcome their differences. We use chess as the metaphor for war and the pawns of war are the soldiers. We tell the story of a chess game being played via carrier pigeon by soldiers on opposite sides.
You worked for Pixar for 20 years during the time when Steve Jobs was at the helm. What was that like?
It was a dream. I applied for five or six years before I got hired at Pixar.
We were like this pirate ship up against the corporate monsters, and every day it felt like that. It was a very Steve Jobs thing. Everybody was there because they loved films.
I’ll tell you a funny story. When Jobs announced in 2005 that he was selling Pixar to Disney I knew what was going to happen. Pixar was this little company that could take risks and, while Disney would give a lot of support to the films, it was a bigger company and the choices would get safer.
That night I got so mad I punched a hole in the wall because the Pixar I knew was gone. (They had a bar in the animation offices, so that might have had something to do with it.)
The next day I was so embarrassed. I walked in the room with a kit to patch up the wall.
One of my friends got there before me and put a frame around it. He said we had to remember this moment because of how passionate I was about Pixar and holding onto what it was. It’s still there today.
What’s your best advice for someone starting out in the movie/animation business?
Talent only gets you so far. Perseverance is a much more important quality. Work on your craft. Surround yourself with really smart people who are good at their craft.
Don’t get discouraged when people say no to you. You’re going to hear no’s and you’ll have all sorts of obstacles, but just keep going.
I always tell my kids: do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. I’ve always done what I loved and it never felt like work. I’m very lucky.
How can people see the film?
For a short time, starting in mid-February, there will be a theatrical release of all the nominated short films.
Set in an alternate WWI reality where a senseless war rages on, two soldiers on opposite sides of the conflict play a joyful game of chess. A heroic carrier pigeon delivers the soldiers' chess moves over the battlefield as the fighting escalates. Neither soldier knows his opponent as the game and the war builds to its climatic final move. Whoever wins the game, one thing is for certain: there are no winners in war. For more info and to see a trailer, go to warisover.com.
