Kaj Pindal Award
The Kaj Pindal Animated Person of the Year award is given in honour to an individual or a group of individuals who make a lasting impression and uplift the world of animation through their work.
Past recipients include namesake Kaj Pindal, Ray Harryhausen, Marv Newland, and Dean DeBlois.
Attend Closing Ceremonies, Sunday February 16 at 3:45 and help us celebrate Blair Kitchen
Blair Kitchen | 1976-2020
TAAFI is proud to posthumously award Blair Kitchen as The Kaj Pindal Person of the Year. His family will be receiving this award in his honour.
Kitchen’s classical skills were honed in the studio of Chuck Gammage on classically animated commercials for your favourite breakfast cereals. Kitchen’s series and feature animation credits include Stickin’ Around (Nelvana), Kronk’s New Groove (Disney) and Curious George (Universal). Never to be confined to one department, Kitchen was a talented designer and story artist chalking up scenes and credits on Troll Hunters (Netflix), Ferdinand (Fox/Blue Sky) and the Nickelodeon series Welcome to the Wayne.
Passionate about the next generation of talent Kitchen enthusiastically served as animation teacher at Seneca College and animation mentor at Sheridan College, appearing in hundreds of short film credits over his tenure.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, Kitchen also created and self published The Possum comic series and kids book Copy Cat (Possum Press). At the time of his passing Kitchen was animation supervisor on Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham (Netflix) at Yowza Animation.
Though a much-loved and respected artist and educator, Kitchen’s greatest love was spending time with his family, Blair Kitchen is survived by his wife, artist Rochelle Ansley Kitchen, and their three children.
“...He was such a nurturing and kind mentor that I’m sure his legacy as an artist and teacher will be felt for generations to come. May we all leave a legacy like his”- Jorge Gutierrez, director Book of Life
Kaj Pindal | 1927-2019
Born and raised in Denmark, animation great Kaj Pindal spent most of his long career in Canada, where he is best known for award winning work ranging from such NFB shorts as What on Earth, to the PBS series based on his most beloved character, Peep. He is also well remembered and deeply missed as a teacher of animation, particularly for his time on faculty at Sheridan where he inspired 100’s of students to, themselves, strive for greatness.
