Canadian filmmaker Colin Low has died at age 89 in Montreal

MONTREAL - Colin Low, a prolific and pioneering force in Canadian cinema who earned two Oscar nominations and inspired the likes of Stanley Kubrick, has died.

The National Film Board of Canada says the Alberta native died Wednesday in Montreal. He was 89.

The director and producer worked on over 200 titles during his six decades at the NFB, where he was a groundbreaking filmmaker and head of the animation unit.

He directed the NFB's first film to be nominated for an Oscar for best animated short, 1952's "The Romance of Transportation of Canada," which won a short film Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a special BAFTA Award.

The film's "industrial animation" style was unconventional for the NFB at the time, when Norman McLaren's auteur model was favoured.

Low earned another Oscar nomination, for his 1957 documentary "City of Gold."