By Ron Diamond
A 20 year retrospective compilation of commercials by Auteur Directors contrasting their personal work with their commissioned productions. Q & A afterwards.
Ron Diamond has been involved in the world of animation for more than twenty years. He operated his own disÂtribution company, Max Media, for six years, and later co-produced several Expanded Entertainment animation compilations, including the 20th, 21st and 22nd International Tournees of Animation, The Animation Celebration, The Second Animation Celebration and The Computer Animation Show. In 1990 Diamond founded animation production house Acme Filmworks to produce commissioned works by animators exploring unusual techniques and modes of storytelling. Acme’s directorial roster is a who’s who of international independent animation, including Michael Dudok De Wit, Chris Hinton, Aleksandra Korejwo, Raimund Krumme, Caroline Leaf, Bill Plympton, Gianluigi Toccafondo, Peter Chung, David Wasson and Wendy Tilby & Amanda Forbis.
Diamond has produced award winning campaigns for Levi’s Women’s Jeans, Weight Watchers, Hilton Hotels, Charmin, AT&T and United Airlines amongst hundreds of commercials produced at Acme. Diamond produced the Academy Award nominated short film Nibbles (2003) by Chris Hinton, two shorts films for Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project with Janet Perlman and Jeremy Clapin, and the animated feature film Drawn From Memory (1995), directed by Paul Fierlinger, which was the first feature-length animated documentary to be featured on PBS’s American Playhouse. He was also the executive producer of Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show (2004,) a 12 episode series for the WB Network. In 2010, Diamond worked with Ridley Scott to revisit the animation technique employed by Gianluigi Toccafondo at Acme in the realization of the Scott Free Logo for Toccafondo’s new production of the main title sequence for Scott’s “Robin Hood.” Diamond also produced Michal Socha’s evocative main title sequence for the miniseries “Pillars of the Earth.” has lectured at leading animation schools in France, England, and the U.S., and has served as a juror and guest speaker at numerous film events including the New York Film Festival, the London Advertising Awards, the Clios, and film festivals in Ottawa, Brussels, Holland Animation Film Festival, Anima Mundi, Annecy, Hiroshima, Cinanima, Stuttgart, Anifest in the Czech Republic and Zagreb.
Diamond travels to multiple film festivals and Universities annually to discover talented animators. Many animators’ first opportunity was through Diamonds efforts at Acme and in his annual touring program, the Animation Show of Shows, now in it’s 13th edition. Diamond is also co-founder and President of AWN.com. Diamond lives in the Los Angeles Area with his wife and two daughters, two cats and a dog.
