Cordell Barker

Cordell Barker
Born	Cordell Barker 1956 (age 67–68) Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Occupations	Animator director screenwriter
Years active	1987–present

Cordell Barker (born 1956) is a Canadian animator, director and screenwriter based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He began animating in his late teens after taking on an apprenticeship at Kenn Perkins Animation. A two-time Academy Award nominee, Barker is an animation filmmaker with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).^[1]

Earlier in his career, Barker did animation work on fellow Winnipeg animator Brad Caslor's NFB short, Get a Job.^[2] He then went on to direct his own NFB animated shorts, at the NFB's Winnipeg studio. His best known NFB shorts are The Cat Came Back (1988)^[3] and Strange Invaders (2002),^[4] both of which received Oscar nominations.^[5]

He completed his third film for the NFB, Runaway, in 2009.^[6][7] Runaway was named best animated film at the 30th Genie Awards.^[8] Strange Invaders, The Cat Came Back and Runaway were included in the Animation Show of Shows.

In April 2010, he was hired as a creative consultant by the NFB to oversee its animation projects from the Canadian Prairies, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.^[9]

Barker's fourth film with the NFB is If I Was God..., a 3D film about a 12-year-old boy speculating on what he would do if he was God. The film is inspired by Barker's experiences as a 12-year-old in grade seven, dissecting and experimenting on a frog in biology class, and sensing the approaching power of adulthood after having left the confines of elementary school. Barker intends to experiment with a variety of animation techniques in this film, use stop-motion puppets along with traditional animation and other forms.^[10] The film is divided into episodes, with each sequence triggered by mental associations of typical grade seven classroom objects, such as science posters, dioramas and papier-mâché volcanoes. The director had initially contemplated also using CGI animation but abandoned the idea out of a desire to achieve an “organic hand-made feel” for the film. Barker was committed to completing the film with a much shorter production schedule than his previous works, which averaged “a disturbing and embarrassing 8½ years per film.”^[5][11] In November 2015, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that If I Was God... was one of 10 films—and two NFB productions—shortlisted for a possible Oscar nomination, however the film didn't receive a nomination.^[12]

• The Cat Came Back (1988)
• Strange Invaders (2001)
• Runaway (2009)
• If I Was God... (2015)

He has also worked on commercial campaigns for entities such as KFC, Coca-Cola, Benylin, Bell Canada, Lors, Nike, and the Government of Canada and Sesame Street.

• Cordell Barker at IMDb
• Film Reference Library biography
• Watch Cordell Barker's films online
• Animation G-man: Cordell Barker, Barker's blog entry at NFB.ca