CSU grad produces Oscar-nominated animated short

The dam keeper's job was to keep the darkness away, but Duncan Ramsay's was to make sure "The Dam Keeper" came out.

Ramsay, a CSU graduate and Fort Collins native, was a producer for the "The Dam Keeper," an animated short film that's up against four others in the best short film (animated) category at the 87th Academy Awards.

The almost 18-minute film is a tale of friendship that follows a lonely pig who runs a large windmill dam to keep poisonous clouds out of his town. "The Dam Keeper" is the product of a collaboration between animation artists Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi and is made up of about 8,000 single-frame painted Photoshop files.

Ramsay, 30, who graduated from CSU in 2007 with a journalism degree, met Kondo and Tsutsumi while working at Pixar Animation Studios. After six years at Pixar — where he worked on films like "Toy Story 3," "Monsters University," and the upcoming "Inside Out" — Ramsay moved on and has been living in London ever since.

As one of two producers for "The Dam Keeper," Ramsay said he served as, "the bridge between the director's vision and getting it done." Production started in April 2013 with just a few people on board and was finished that fall. After all was said and done, Ramsay said more than 70 people had helped with the film — many of whom were volunteers.

Ramsay found out about the Oscar nomination on Thursday while in a Google "hangout" with the film's directors, editor and other producer. Once he saw "The Dam Keeper" on the list for best short film (animated), "I don't really remember what happened next," he said, adding that his phone soon "imploded" with incoming video calls, texts and notifications.

Some of those notifications came from his twin sister, Cameron Ramsay, who was "elated" and is also a 2007 CSU graduate. She now works for Walt Disney Animation Studios in Los Angeles, her brother said.

Although the film is completed, Ramsay said he's still working on the project by helping with promotions for the film. It's been accepted to more than 90 film festivals across the world, he said.

So far, it's won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Kids Audience Award at the New York International Children's Film Festival and was an official 2014 selection at the Berlin International Film Festival, or the Berlinale.

The Lyric Cinema Cafe, 300 E. Mountain Ave., will show the nominees in the animated short category, including "The Dam Keeper," starting Feb. 6. Distribution elsewhere for "The Dam Keeper" is still in the works, but Ramsay said to check in on the film's Facebook page for news of its release.

The 87th Academy Awards

When: 4 p.m. PST, Feb. 22

Other animated short film contenders:

•"The Bigger Picture" -Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees

•"Feast" -Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed

•"Me and My Moulton" -Torill Kove

•"A Single Life" -Joris Oprins