Peter Foldès

Budapestborn Peter Foldes 19241977 was one of a number of Hungarian artists another was the films composer Mátyás Seiber who ended up working with fellow countryman John Halas on the latters animated films after he moved to Britain in 1946 After leaving Halas Foldes made a number of animated films in collaboration with his British wife Joan b 1924 starting with the allegorical Animated Genesis 1952 On Closer Inspection 1953 and A Short Vision 1956 A Short Vision became one of the most influential British animated films ever made when it was screened on US television as part of the popular Ed Sullivan Show Although children were advised to leave the room while it played it still caused outrage and alarm with its graphic representation of the horrors of nuclear war In the film wild creatures flee in terror as a strange missile flies overhead As it passes over the sleeping city the worlds leaders and wise men look upwards The missile explodes destroying humans wild creatures and the Earth itself It caught the mood of the times since the mid1950s was the height of both the Cold War and nuclear paranoia Foldes later moved to Paris where he became an early pioneer in computer animation In the 1960s he worked for the Research Service of the ORTF He is one of the pioneers of computer animation with his film Hunger which received the Jury Prize in the short film category at Cannes Film Festival as well as an Academy Award nomination from WIkipedia