Domee Shi

Domee Shi (; ; born 8 September 1989) is a Canadian animator, film director and screenwriter. She has directed the short film '' Bao'' (2018) and the feature films '' Turning Red'' (2022) and ''Elio'' (2025), becoming the first woman to direct a short film and then the first woman with sole director's credit on a feature film for Pixar.

Shi began working for Pixar in 2011 as a storyboard artist, contributing to multiple films, including '' Inside Out'' (2015), ''The Good Dinosaur'' (2015), and ''Toy Story 4'' (2019). She was also an additional story artist for ''Incredibles 2'' (2018).

For ''Bao'', Shi won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 91st Academy Awards, and also earned nominations for the 43rd Annie Awards, the International Online Cinema Awards, and the Tribeca Film Festival. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for ''Turning Red''.

Early life

Shi was born on 8 September 1989 in Chongqing, Sichuan (now Chongqing municipality) as an only child before immigrating to Canada at the age of two with her parents. She spent six months in Newfoundland before moving to Toronto, where she grew up learning about art from her father. She was influenced by her father, who had been a college professor of fine arts and a landscape painter in China. Shi took inspiration and guidance from her mother's personality when directing ''Bao'' and ''Turning Red''. Shi recalls that "My Chinese mom was always making sure I never wandered away too far, that I was safe." One such moment, that eventually made its way into ''Turning Red'', was when Shi was in her adolescence: at a time when she wanted to fit in with her peers, Shi and her friends were together at school when one of them spotted Shi's mother lurking behind a tree, making sure Shi was doing alright. During her childhood, Shi watched many Studio Ghibli and Disney films, which exposed her to Asian cinema and animation.

As a high school student, Shi watched anime, read manga, and became the Vice President of her school's anime club. She joined online art communities and uploaded her fan artwork to DeviantArt. This became her first exposure to an environment of like-minded people that helped her establish a network with other artists. "I could follow artists, and I could email them. In the past, you'd have to be in California or know a guy who was friends with this other guy that worked at Disney or something," said Shi. Thus Shi was inspired to enroll at Sheridan College for her post-secondary education.

At Sheridan, Shi studied animation, graduating in 2011. During her second year at Sheridan, she enrolled in a course taught by Nancy Beiman, whose class she credits for her pursuit of storyboarding. Shi created a short film for an assignment during her last year at Sheridan. In 2009, she undertook an internship with Chuck Gammage Animation as a clean-up artist, inbetweener, storyboard artist, and animator.

Career

After graduating, Shi worked briefly as a cartooning instructor with an emphasis on character design and comic book creation. In 2011, she accepted a three-month internship at Pixar as a storyboard artist. This was her second attempt (her father was the one who encouraged her to apply again), having initially been turned down by the animation studio and others, such as Disney and DreamWorks. On her internship at Pixar and eventually full-time job, Shi states, "I felt that my voice was valued early on in my career, which is rare." Shi wrote an animated webcomic series titled ''My Food Fantasies'' in 2014, in which she drew "outlandish" situations involving food. Shi later said that she developed her interest in writing stories about food while making ''My Food Fantasies''. The first feature film she worked on with Pixar was '' Inside Out'' (2015), on which she served as a storyboard artist. After briefly working on ''The Good Dinosaur'', Shi began working on ''Toy Story 4'' in 2015 (the film where she joined Pixar's Senior Creative Team). She also drew storyboards for the 2018 film ''Incredibles 2'', where she worked on a sequence featuring the characters Jack-Jack and Edna Mode.

On her career as a Chinese Canadian female director, Shi says that through her work as a filmmaker, she strives for the industry to reach the point where people are identified first as artists, and second by gender and ethnicity, stating that it gets old fast when she gets asked how it feels to be an Asian woman. "My first identity is that I'm a nerd! I just wanted to make something that I could nerd out about with my colleagues and friends, and share with other nerdy people around the world."

Directing

The short film '' Bao'' (2018) was developed as a "side-project" before and during Shi's full-time work on ''Inside Out''. ''Bao'', alongside two other projects, was eventually pitched to her mentor, Pete Docter, and Pixar for support. ''Bao'' was approved in 2015, making Shi the first woman to direct a short film for the studio. The eight-minute short debuted at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, where it preceded ''Incredibles 2'' in theaters. Shi won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for ''Bao'', becoming the first woman of color to win the award.

On May 8, 2018, it was reported that Shi was directing a feature film at Pixar. On November 26, 2018, Shi confirmed that she was working on a film at the studio. Shi also said that the film was in early stages of development, with the story still being worked on, and that she was "really excited to play in this new 90-minute film format." On January 1, 2019, Shi said that she planned the film to be "entertaining and emotional." On December 9, 2020, Shi's film was announced with the title '' Turning Red''. It was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on March 11, 2022, but due to rising cases of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, it was instead released direct-to-streaming on Disney+ on the same date. Disney said ''Turning Red'' was the number one streaming title on Disney+, and in early April 2022, Pixar promoted Shi to vice president of creative, alongside Andrew Stanton, Peter Sohn and Dan Scanlon. With ''Turning Red''s success, Shi has officially become the first woman to solo direct a film in Pixar's 36-year history.

On October 5, 2022, Shi was confirmed to be developing another original Pixar feature film. The ''Variety'' article states that Shi would not be focusing on the trials and tribulations of mother-daughter relationships in immigrant families for her new film. On June 12, 2024, Pixar's Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter revealed that Shi was working on ''Elio'', set for release on June 13, 2025. In August 2024, Shi was officially confirmed to be directing the film alongside Madeline Sharafian, replacing original director Adrian Molina. ''Elio'' was Shi's next project before her next as-of-yet untitled original film.

Influences

Shi is influenced by her father's art, as he was her art teacher while growing up. "Like, I asked him what he thought f the filmand he said, 'I really liked it, but I also have notes for you.' And I was like, Ah, that's my classic dad," Shi said.

In an interview with '' Now Magazine'', Shi said that the animated films '' My Neighbors the Yamadas'' (1999) and ''Spirited Away

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