Gene Deitch Video | Clips from Films Directed and Interviews

Eugene Merril "Gene" Deitch is an American illustrator, animator and film director. He has been based in Prague, capital of Czechoslovakia and the present-day Czech Republic, since 1959. His film Munro won an Academy Award for Animated Short Film in 1961, the first short composed outside of the United States to be so honored. Since 1968, Deitch has been the leading animation director for the...  MORE

Eugene Merril "Gene" Deitch is an American illustrator, animator and film director. He has been based in Prague, capital of Czechoslovakia and the present-day Czech Republic, since 1959. His film Munro won an Academy Award for Animated Short Film in 1961, the first short composed outside of the United States to be so honored. Since 1968, Deitch has been the leading animation director for the Connecticut organization Weston Woods/Scholastic, adapting children's picture books. His studio is located in Prague near the Barrandov studios where many major films were recorded. In 2003, he was awarded the "Annie" by ASIFA Hollywood for a lifetime contribution to the art of animation. Deitch married his wife Zdenka in 1960. His sons Kim Deitch, Simon Deitch, and Seth Deitch are prominent artists and writers in the underground comix and alternative comics movements. He currently resides with his wife in Prague, where he is retired but continues to write memoir material from his 65-year career in animation filmmaking. His memoir, For the Love of Prague, based on the experience of being "the only free American living and working in Prague during 30 years of the Communist Party dictatorship." LESS