Andrew Ruhemann


Andrew Ruhemann is a film producer, director and the co-founder of Passion Pictures, a double Academy Award winning independent production company.
Passion Pictures is a world leader in character animation and is known for its many award winning commercial campaigns, including Compare the Market featuring Aleksandr meerkat and the acclaimed Gorillaz music videos.
Ruhemann established Passion Pictures in 1987 in London and in the early days the company was focused exclusively on producing traditional 2D drawn animation. Today character animation is still the company’s core business, and the expanded studio offers all forms of animation from computer animation to stop frame. The company represents animation directors for commercial and film work and has offices in Paris and New York.
The company also has a division which has produced over 30 feature documentary and was previously helmed by producer John Battsek. This division was founded in 1997. Passion Planet, headed by director and producer David Allen, makes films about the environment, science and natural world and was formed in 2010.

History

Ruhemann was educated at Highgate School and studied French and Drama at Bristol University. He started his career at the Richard Williams’ Animation Studio in London in the mid 1980s, where he was a trainee producer. Within a few months he became managing director, during which time he became responsible for overseeing animation production on the feature film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, directed by Robert Zemeckis.
In 2010 Andrew made his directorial debut with an animated short entitled The Lost Thing, which he co-directed with Shaun Tan, the Australian author of the book from which the film was adapted. The Lost Thing was produced in association with Screen Australia. The film won an Academy Award for Best Short Animation in 2011, in addition to many other awards at film festivals worldwide.

Filmography