Jill Culton | |
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![]() Culton in 2010 | |
Alma mater | California Institute of the Arts |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1993–present |
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Notable work | Monsters Inc Open Season Abominable |
Jill Culton is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, and screenwriter. With her directorial debut on Sony's first animated film, Open Season , she became the first female principal director of a big budget, computer-generated feature. [1]
Previously, she studied at the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts, where she later taught animation.
She was also a storyboard artist for various Pixar films such as Toy Story , Toy Story 2 , A Bug's Life and also co-wrote the original treatment for Monsters, Inc. , and continued to become the Head of Development.
She animated on Toy Story and served as a Directing Animator at Turner Features for the film Cats Don't Dance .
Along with Anthony Stacchi, she helped to develop Curious George while working at Industrial Light & Magic. [2] [3]
In 2003, Culton joined Sony Pictures Animation, which launched a year before to produce CG animated films. [4] During her years at Sony, Culton, along with directing Open Season and executive producing Open Season 2 , also developed Hotel Transylvania .
As of 2010, Culton was at DreamWorks Animation. [5] For some time, she was writing and directing an animated film (now titled Abominable ) about a little girl and a Yeti, tentatively titled Everest, [6] [7] but by 2016, she had left the project. [8] However, in 2018, she came back to the project to write and direct once again. [9]
In June 2024, it was announced that Culton would serve as the co-director of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation's adaptation of Oh, the Places You'll Go! . [10]
Later, Universal -- concerned about a budget that topped $100 million -- scrapped plans to enlist ILM in making an animated adaptation of the children's classic "Curious George."
We have a project tentatively titled Everest, but that's a temp title. It's about a little girl and a Yeti, and the writer-director is Jill Culton.
Culton, who made her directorial debut with Sony's Open Season, is currently writing and directing a film about a young girl and a Yeti for DWA with the working title Everest.