Steve Jobs unveils the new MacBook Air in 2008.

Credit: AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

Are you a fan of Academy Awards?

Sign up to get the latest updates instantly.

Sign Up ► More Instant Alert Options ►

Never miss a post - sign up now to get an e-mail alert whenever
Academy Awards is updated

Close

Or

SIGN UP with Facebook

Sign Up ►

More Instant Alert Options ►

I literally posted that "Finding Nemo" item this afternoon just as the news hit that Steve Jobs had finally lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. Spooky, that. Jobs backed Pixar early on, going back to 1986 when he bought the company (then called The Graphics Group) from LucasFilm. After failing to really catch a headwind as a high-end graphics hardware developer, the company partnered with Walt Disney Pictures and the rest was history.

But that's just how Jobs brought us one of the most critically and financially successful film studios of all time. His legacy and his influence on the film industry stretches far beyond that and will be felt for years to come through the countless innovations he made in the world of computing, going all the way back to the development of the world's first personal computer in 1984. The iMac, iTunes, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad (which Francis Ford Coppola was using to edit his experimental film "Twixt" in real time at Comic-Con), the impact of these devices on the film business is considerable to say the least.

So, for pushing the industry forward, we thank you. For Pixar, we thank you. For your enthusiasm and your creative vigor, we thank you. And we hope that legacy empowers the entrepreneurs of the future to carry the baton onward.

"Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote not a half hour ago at his Facebook page. "Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you."

Here is a classy montage of Jobs's keynote addresses via CNN that provides a nice trip, not only down memory lane, but through the timeline of technological innovation:

Kristopher Tapley
Editor-at-Large

• Follow

Kristopher Tapley has covered the film awards landscape for over a decade. He founded In Contention in 2005. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Times of London and Variety. He begs you not to take any of this too seriously.