Chris Meledandri — Movies, TV Shows & Producing Credits

The essay

Reading Chris Meledandri

Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.

Why this filmmaker matters

Chris Meledandri has 0 productions in the Nutevio catalogue. Christopher Meledandri (/mɛləˈdɑːndri/; born May 15, 1959) is an American film producer and founder and CEO of Illumination. He previously served as president of 20th Century Fox Animation and has worked as the producer for the film series Ice Age, Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets and Sing. In 2021, he joined Nintendo's board of directors after working with the video game company on The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Meledandri also collaborates with Illumination's corporate sibling, DreamWorks Animation. Description above from the Wikipedia article Christopher Meledandri, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Signature style

The recognisable elements are rewatchability, visual style, originality. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same eye, re-tuned for different registers. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is staged.

Legacy

Meledandri set terms other filmmakers now work against: the structures, the pacing and the refusal to explain. Awards bodies have often been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.