Nina Paley, the animator and producer of animated feature SITA SINGS THE BLUES, has been nominated as "Someone to Watch" for this year's Film Independent's 24th Annual Spirit Award.
Paley is a longtime veteran of syndicated comic strips, creating FLUFF (Universal Press Syndicate), THE HOTS (King Features), and her own alternative weekly NINA'S ADVENTURES. In 1998 she began making independent animated festival films, including the controversial yet popular environmental short, THE STORK.
In 2002 Paley followed her then-husband to Trivandrum, India, where she read her first RAMAYANA. This inspired her first feature, SITA SINGS THE BLUES, which she animated and produced single-handedly over the course of five years on a home computer. Paley teaches at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan and is a 2006 Guggenheim Fellow.
Paley is up against Lynn Shelton for her second feature film, MY EFFORTLESS BRILLIANCE, and Barry Jenkins for his first feature film MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY (both live action).
The Spirit Awards will be given out in Santa Monica, California on February 21, 2009.
