Albert Lamorisse

French filmmaker, screenwriter and producer, Albert Lamorisse was born January 13, 1922 in Paris, France. He is best remembered for making the exquisite short The Red Balloon(1956), starring his son Pascal. It is a whimsical fantasy in which a French boy is befriended by a magical red balloon. The short earned him both a grand prize at Cannes and an American Oscar. Lamorisse started out as a photographer and began making short films in the late 1940s. The poetic simplicity of his short- and medium-length films gained him an international reputation. His 1952 short, White Mane, an account of how a young boy gentles an untameable wild white stallion, also took top prizes at Cannes and the American Oscars. He unsuccessfully tried his hand at feature-length films in the early ‘60s and then returned to making short documentaries. Tragically, while making The Lover’s Wind (1970) in Tehran, Lamorisse was killed in a helicopter crash. Using his production notes, the film was edited and released in 1978 and earned him a posthumous Oscar for “Best Feature Documentary.” —allmovie guide