Springfield-area man wins an Oscar thanks to a little help from his friends

Producer Brad Booker said winning the Oscar Sunday for best animated short film for "WAR IS OVER!" was "an out of body experience."

Booker, who grew up in Glenarm and graduated from Glenwood High School and Lincoln Land Community College, said something else was at work during the making of the 11-minute film.

"We saw the power in the anti-war message that John and Yoko (Lennon) put out there," said Booker in a phone interview. "It's felt like kismet from day one on this thing, like John has been part of this, like someone has been watching over us."

Booker won as a first-time Academy Award nominee.

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Booker said Universal Music Group, which administers the Beatles' recorded music output that was originally owned by EMI, had been asking Sean Ono Lennon to do a music video for "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," which was released four days after Booker was born in 1971, while Lennon wanted to do a narrative film.

A mutual friend of Lennon and Dave Mullins, Booker's creative partner at ElectroLeague animation studio, introduced the two. Mullins, the short film's director and writer, and Booker got serious with Lennon on the project shortly after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in early 2022.

In short order, Peter Jackson got involved as did James Cameron and Jon Landau, thanks to Booker's friendship with Academy Award winner Richard Baneham ("Avatar"). Booker had worked with Jackson on "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."

"(Peter Jackson) knew the power of the message and how needed it was at that moment," Booker said. "He gave us the full power of the special projects division of Wētā FX (his digital visual effects and animation company).

"The profile we got from Sean being involved and the John and Yoko brand of the peace message obviously was obviously huge."

The film is set during World War I as two soldiers on opposite sides of the conflict play a game of chess, aided by a carrier pigeon which delivers the soldiers’ board moves. The soldiers are oblivious to which side they are on in the war.

While a senior at Glenwood, Booker started attending Lincoln Land where professors like Jack Madura, Jim Murray and George Lowry, he said, took him under their wings. Booker had multiple job offers waiting for him after graduating from Ringling College of Art & Design in Florida.

Booker went on to work as an animator on "The Iron Giant" and "Osmosis Jones" and as a producer on "The Book of Life."

Sunday's win, Booker said, meant slapping backs with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, getting escorted around by Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy and invitations to the Governor's Ball and Vanity Fair party.

Booker, who is married and has two children, said he still has friends from kindergarten and his parents, Tom and Barbara, and siblings, Jill, Brandon and Jamie, all still live in the Chatham area.

"(Growing up in central Illinois) formed who I am, the work ethic and the grounded nature of relationships," Booker insisted. "In Los Angeles, good people want to work with other good people and I feel that works in my favor."

Chatham President Dave Kimsey said the village felt it was "along there with (Booker on Sunday)."

"It always means a lot to us when people remember where they grew up, where they got started and where they came from," Kimsey added. "When you bring our town into a national spotlight, it makes us all proud."

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield-area man teams with Sean Ono Lennon, wins an Oscar