Anne Jolliffe facts for kids

Anne Comrie Jolliffe (born October 17, 1933 – died August 27, 2021) was an amazing Australian animator. She was the first Australian woman to work in animation! Anne was famous for her work on the movie Yellow Submarine (from 1967–68) and the Oscar-winning film Great! (1975). Even though she didn't go to a special animation school and faced challenges because she was a woman in the industry, she loved her job and kept working hard.

Early Life and Learning

Anne Jolliffe started drawing when she was just four years old, encouraged by her dad. She saw her first animated film, a Donald Duck cartoon, when she was very young. Later, at about eight, she watched Fantasia. Both movies really inspired her to become an animator.

She loved art and was so good that local newspapers even published her drawings! In 1949, Anne moved to Melbourne, Australia. She studied art at Swinburne Technical College. There weren't any courses for film or animation back then. So, she completed a Diploma in the Art of the Book. This course taught her a lot about drawing realistically and how to do illustrations and printing.

Starting Her Animation Career

After finishing college, Anne worked as an illustrator. She was inspired by an English cartoonist named Bob Godfrey. She decided to go to London and try to get a job at an animation studio called Halas and Batchelor. But they said no because they believed "women don't animate."

However, John Halas, one of the studio owners, sent her a book called How to make animated cartoons when she returned to Melbourne. Using what she learned from the book, Anne got a job in the animation department at the CSIRO Film Unit. Here, she helped create films about science and education.

Breaking into Commercial Animation

In the 1950s, Anne's career in making animations for commercials really took off. She joined a new animation department in Melbourne. This department was set up by an American company called Fanfare Film and GTV9. As a woman in this field – and at that time, the only woman animator in Australia – she had to "work twice as hard as the men, be twice as good and fight."

After five years at this local studio, Anne had enough examples of her own work. She decided to try going back to London. Luckily, she met an old friend, Pat Matthews, who needed help with a project. This led to her getting a job as an animator at Halas and Batchelor, the same studio that had turned her down before!

But after working on several projects, she realized she was being paid less than her male co-workers, even those with less skill. So, she left the company and found more secure work at Television Cartoons.

Working on Famous Cartoons

At TVC in the 1960s, Anne Jolliffe worked on two series of The Beatles animated cartoons. After that, she and her team continued to animate the famous movie Yellow Submarine. This film became very well-known in the animation world. For a while, Anne was the highest-paid animator in London! Her son, Ned, was born while she was working on Yellow Submarine, and she even brought him to the studio with her.

Later, Anne worked with Bob Godfrey, the cartoonist who had inspired her. They worked together to create a film called Great!. This film won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1976! Anne was recognized as one of the two main directors of the film.

In 1979, Anne returned to Melbourne to work for Fanfare Film again. Later, she moved to Sydney and started her own company called Jollification Studio. She wanted to work on her own projects, but it was hard to find money for animated films at that time.

Anne preferred traditional hand-drawn animation. Even as new computer animation technology came along, she believed that computers "can't fully convey the drama of animation."

Awards and Recognition

Anne Jolliffe won the 1976 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film with Bob Godfrey for their film Great!.

Notable Projects

Overcoming Challenges as a Woman in Animation

Anne Jolliffe faced many challenges because she was a woman working in animation. She was often paid less than men doing the same job. People even told her, "women don't animate." She was turned down for a job at Halas and Batchelor Studio just because of her gender. When she worked for Fanfare Studio in the 1950s, she wanted to be in the Animation department. But she was given a job in the Trace and Paint department instead.

However, things slowly started to change in the 1960s. When she worked at Television Cartoons (TVC), she was an animator on big projects like Yellow Submarine. She wasn't the only female animator there anymore.

In 1975, she co-directed the Oscar-winning animated short film Great! with Bob Godfrey. This earned her a respected place in the animation world. Anne said it was a huge victory for her. She went from being a woman who supposedly "can't animate" to winning an Oscar for her animated film!

Anne even started her own studio in Sydney called Jollification. Some of the animations made by her studio focused on strong female characters and important women from history. For example, she created a series of biographies about "unsung Australian women," The Tale of the Space Travelling Housewife, and Bunyip. Anne Jolliffe became a big inspiration for future generations of Australian female animators, like Lucinda Clutterbuck.