Co Hoedeman, 84, on May 26. Born in Amsterdam, Hoedeman was a master of stop-motion animation whose 1977 NFB production The Sand Castle received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Shortly after directing his early films with the NFB, including his award-winning Oddball (1969), he travelled to Czechoslovakia to study puppet animation and then returned to the NFB to begin a series of stop-motion projects, including Tchou-tchou (1972), created with wooden blocks, which received the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for Best Animated Film. During the 1970s, he created a series of acclaimed animated films based on Inuit traditional stories, collaborating closely with artists from Nunavut and Nunavik. After completing his final film with the NFB, Marianne’s Theatre in 2004, Hoedeman began an independent animation career. He collaborated with the NFB on the co-production 55 Socks (2011), a deeply personal project drawing on his childhood memories during a dark period of Dutch history, the Hunger Winter of 1944–45. He would also adapt his Ludovic character into a popular children’s TV series. In 2003, the Cinémathèque québécoise and the NFB paid tribute to Co and his importance to Quebec cinema with an exhibition entitled “Exposition Co Hoedeman – Les Jardins de l’enfance,” which was presented the following year at the Musée-Château d’Annecy in France.