Pixar

Pixar Animation Studios
	Logo used since 1995
	Headquarters in Emeryville, California
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Animation
Predecessor	The Graphics Group (1979–1986); Circle Seven Animation (2005–2006);
Founded	February 3, 1986 in Richmond, California
Founders	Edwin Catmull; Alvy Ray Smith;
Headquarters	1200 Park Avenue, Emeryville, California, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Jim Morris (general manager & president); Pete Docter (CCO);
Products	Computer animations
Brands	Pixar Image Computer; Pixar RenderMan;
Number of employees	1,233 (2020)
Parent	Walt Disney Studios (2006–present)
Website	www.pixar.com
	Footnotes / references;

Pixar Animation Studios (/ˈpɪksɑːr/) is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Since 2006, Pixar has been a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, a segment of the Walt Disney Company.

Pixar started in 1979 as part of the Lucasfilm computer division. It was known as the Graphics Group before its spin-off as a corporation in 1986, with funding from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs who became its majority shareholder.^[2] Disney announced its acquisition of Pixar in January 2006, and completed it in May 2006.^[4]^[5]^[6] Pixar is best known for its feature films, technologically powered by RenderMan, the company's own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan Interface Specification image-rendering API. The studio's mascot is Luxo Jr., a desk lamp from the studio's 1986 short film of the same name.

Pixar has produced 27 feature films, starting with Toy Story (1995), which is the first fully computer-animated feature film; its most recent film was Elemental (2023). The studio has also produced many short films. As of July 2023^[update], its feature films have earned over $15 billion at the worldwide box office with an average gross of $546.9 million per film.^[7] Toy Story 3 (2010), Finding Dory (2016), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Toy Story 4 (2019) all grossed over $1 billion and are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time. Moreover, 15 of Pixar's films are in the 50 highest-grossing animated films of all time.

Pixar has earned 23 Academy Awards, 10 Golden Globe Awards, and 11 Grammy Awards, along with numerous other awards and acknowledgments. Since its inauguration in 2001, eleven Pixar films have won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, including Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), the aforementioned Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4, Brave (2012), Inside Out (2015), Coco (2017), and Soul (2020). Toy Story 3 and Up were also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

On February 10, 2009, Pixar executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich were presented with the Golden Lion award for Lifetime Achievement by the Venice Film Festival. The physical award was ceremoniously handed to Lucasfilm's founder, George Lucas.

^ Cite error: The named reference PixarTimeline was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b Smith, Alvy Ray. "Pixar Founding Documents". Alvy Ray Smith Homepage. Archived from the original on April 27, 2005. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
^ Smith, Alvy Ray. "Proof of Pixar Cofounders" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
^ "Joint Press Release". www.sec.gov. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
^ "Walt Disney Company, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Jan 26, 2006" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 13, 2018. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
^ Cite error: The named reference Walt-Disney-Company-May-2006-8-K was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Box Office History for Disney-Pixar Movies". The-Numbers. Archived from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved July 17, 2019.