Chris Butler

2013 was a year of firsts for the Liverpool-born writer and director Chris Butler. Not only did his directorial debut, the stop-motion animated film "ParaNorman," hit theaters, but it was also the year he received his first Oscar nomination. Pixar's "Brave" (2012) took home the Academy Award that year, but the experience alone - the culmination of well over a decade of hard work - inspired Butler to continue his lifelong love for telling great stories. Shortly after receiving the news in a hotel room in Los Angeles, Butler told an interviewer that the long journey to seeing his movie made was at times difficult and exhausting, but also one he's glad he had the courage to take.