Nancy Cartwright was on hand to present the Director’s Award to David Silverman, long-time animation director of The Simpsons. Silverman was involved with the series from the very beginning, where he animated all of the original short Simpsons cartoons that aired on The Tracey Ullman Show, and went on to serve as director of animation for several years. Silverman is also the director of the The Simpsons Movie, and in 2012, he directed the theatrical Academy Award-nominated animated short, The Longest Daycare starring Maggie Simpson.
Nancy was excited and touched to present the award to David, who she believes is a phemonenal artist, largely credited with creating most of the “rules” for drawing The Simpsons. It was also a very appropriate occasion, since not only is Nancy the voice of Bart, and numerous other characters on the show, but she and David came up in the industry together. They first met and became friends at UCLA in the 1980s, and surprised each other at a meeting with all the cast and crew on the The Simpsons-Butterfinger commercial on 1988!