Pixar Promotes Turning Red's Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins

Pixar's latest release Turning Red somehow found itself an unlikely front in the 'culture wars' as a certain section of society took against it. Yet it seems that the powers-that-be at Pixar have been very pleased with the film and how it performed, revealing that it was the biggest debut for a movie on Disney Plus yet. This was no doubt a factor in their decision to promote two of the film's creative leads- director Domee Shi and producer Lindsey Collins - to leadership roles within the company.

Collins has been with Pixar since 1998, joining production on A Bugs Life as Lighting Manager- and even before that, she worked as a production assistant on Pocahontas, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame and Hercules for Disney. She worked her way up to producer, earning credits on Wall E, John Carter and Finding Dory.  Her new role is as senior vice president of development for features and streaming, where she will help current and upcoming filmmakers at the studio to shape their stories. Collins played a key role in the studio's Spark Shorts initiative which allowed new and emerging voices to make films. She will now potentially be able to bring this approach into the world of features.

Shi's time at Pixar doesn't go back nearly as far, her first credit being a Story Artist on Inside Out. But her meteoric rise saw her go from storyboard artist to director of her own Oscar-winning short Bao, before becoming the first woman to solo-direct a feature with Turning Red. She'll now be vice president of creative, a role she will share with Pixar legends Andrew Stanton, Peter Sohn and Dan Scanlon, making up the studio's prestigious "Brain Trust", and helping filmmakers bring their vision to life.

It's fantastic to see both women in such important roles, that are testament to their success up to and including Turning Red- and it's very exciting to think that they'll be bringing their talents to more and more of Pixar's projects.

Pixar has been going through changes under the leadership of Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter, Having these two in such important roles signifies the studio's willingness to change and to move away from being the 'boy's club' of the Lassater era,

Luckily, it shouldn't preclude Shi from making more films of her own, as we don't think we will be alone in wanting to see her back in the director's chair as soon as possible.