Kristina Reed

Whether the task was a special effect-laden blockbuster or a charming piece of family animation, Kristina Reed brought it to life with narrative charisma and visual flair. Reed spent the earlier days of her career providing digital effects for action-adventure pictures like "Armageddon" (1988), and split the decade to follow between kingpin animation houses DreamWorks and Walt Disney. After 17 years breathing life into mega-hit animated features like "Shrek 2" (2004), "Madagascar" (2005), "Tangled" (2010), and "Big Hero 6" (2014), it was the short-form venture "Feast" (2014) that in fact earned Reed her first Academy Award. Kristina Reed kicked off her feature film career in the biggest way possible: with Michael Bay's apocalyptic blockbuster "Armageddon" (1998), for which she worked in the digital effects department. Reed maintained an interest in live action production for the immediate period-providing effects for "Mighty Joe Young" (1998), "Inspector Gadget" (1999), and director Brian De Palma's "Mission to Mars" (2000)-before setting her sights on the world of animation. After a brief stopover at Walt Disney Animation Studios for the box office bomb "Treasure Planet" (2002), plus one last go at live-action digital production with "Peter Pan" (2003), Reed set up shop at DreamWorks Animation. She acted as production executive on five films over the course of three years: "Shrek 2" (2004), "Shark Tale" (2004), "Madagascar" (2005), "Over the Hedge" (2006), "Flushed Away" (2006), and "Shrek the Third" (2007). She capped this string by earning a producer title on the studio's box office hit "Kung Fu Panda" (2008). Afterwards, Reed returned to Disney, working production on features like "Tangled" (2010) and "Wreck-It Ralph" (2012), as well as short films, including the duly celebrated "Paperman" (2012). Despite having her name attached to colossal projects like "Frozen" (2013) and "Big Hero 6" (2014), Reed found what might be considered her biggest stroke of success with the small, sweet, and nearly wordless short film "Feast" (2014), which she co-produced with director Patrick Osborne. The six-minute project, which centers on a Boston terrier with an insatiable appetite, won Reed her first Academy Award.