Robert Verrall

Biography

Robert Verrall (born January 13, 1928, in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian animator, director and film producer who worked for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) from 1945 to 1987. Over the course of his career, his films garnered a BAFTA Award, prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, and six Academy Award nominations.

One of the first to join the NFB's fledgling animation unit, under Norman McLaren, Verrall would work as animator on such notable NFB animated shorts as The Romance of Transportation in Canada and produce such shorts as Cosmic Zoom, Hot Stuff as well as the Academy Award-nominees The Drag and What on Earth!. His NFB animation credits as executive producer included The Family That Dwelt Apart and Evolution, also Oscar nominees.[1][2][3][4]

Verrall was named director of English-language NFB animation in 1967, and director of NFB's English-language production overall, in 1972. In the 1980s he acted as executive producer on a number of NFB co-productions, including the film adaption of The Wars, and The Tin Flute. His documentary production credits include Alanis Obomsawin's 1986 Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child. He is the father of David Verrall, who would himself go on to head the NFB's English-language animation unit.