Oscar-winning stop-motion filmmaker devoted his life to storytelling

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Open this photo in gallery: In his autobiography, Jacobus (Co) Hoedeman called The Sand Castle ‘my perfect film.’National Film Board of Canada Canadian animator Jacobus (Co) Hoedeman almost didn’t make the short film that won him an Oscar at the 1978 Academy Awards ceremony. As a full-time animator at the National Film Board, Mr. Hoedeman needed the approval of a committee of NFB filmmakers before starting work on his 13-minute stop-motion animated film The Sand Castle. According to his 2021 autobiography Frame by Frame: An Animator’s Journey, his whimsical story idea initially received only lukewarm support but after much debate...