Grant Munro

Grant Munro

Grant Munro, animator, director, producer, actor (b at Winnipeg 25 Apr 1923). Grant Munro attended the Musgrove School of Art and the Winnipeg School of Art. Earning an honours diploma from the Ontario College of Art in 1944, he joined the NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA (NFB) and worked initially on animated inserts. He left the NFB and joined Crawley Films as an animator and director, then travelled to England to work with George DUNNING (formerly with the NFB and future director of Yellow Submarine). Munro rejoined the NFB in 1961.

His most famous film is perhaps My Financial Career, a funny take on the Stephen LEACOCK short story that he made with Gerald POTTERTON (1962). It was nominated for an Oscar the same year that Christmas Cracker (1963), a short he animated with Potterton, Norman MCLAREN and Jeff Hale, was also nominated. He appeared as one of the protagonists in Norman McLaren's highly acclaimed Neighbours (1952), which he also edited. Neighbours was an Oscar winner for best short documentary in 1953, and was given a Special Award at the Canadian Film Awards. It used an inventive process of stop-action photography that became known as pixilation, a word Munro is said to have coined, although some credit it to McLaren.

Grant Munro's other notable films include Let's All Sing Together, Nos. 3 to 6 (1944Ð45), an early, innovative animated series produced by McLaren; Stanley Takes a Trip (1947) with Jim MacKay; Two Bagatelles (1953) and Canon (1964; Canadian Film Award, best arts and experimental), both with McLaren; The Animal Movie (1966) with Ron Tunis; the live-action dance film, Tour en l'air (1973); Animated Motion (1976-78), 5 films with McLaren; See You in the Funny Papers (1983), about the cartoonist Lynn JOHNSTON; and McLaren on McLaren (1983).

Munro retired from the NFB in 1988. In 2003, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City held a retrospective program of his films - "Grant Munro Rediscovered." Concurrently, the NFB released the compilation DVD, Cut-Up: The Films of Grant Munro. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Concordia University in 2007, and made an officer of the ORDER OF CANADA in 2008. In part the citation read: "One of the earliest and longest-serving members of the National Film Board of Canada, he developed innovative techniques that influenced both the film industry and other animators."