The New York Times Op-Docs Debuts ‘Living With a Visionary’

The New York Times Op-Docs, the award-winning platform behind 2022 Academy Award winner "The Queen of Basketball" and 2025 nominee "Instruments of a Beating Heart," has debuted the short animated documentary "Living With a Visionary" from Stephen P. Neary. Watchthefilmhere.

Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, the Academy Award-winning directors of the 2025 hit film "KPop Demon Hunters," the most watched movie in Netflix's history, have boarded the film as executive producers in advance of its premiere with The New York Times.

"Stephen's film feels like a sketch of the human soul. This assembly of lines that somehow captures love, grief, hallucination and connection. I got to live inside Cromwell's narration and experience the heartache of being alive alongside the enduring power of love. A truly special piece of documentary filmmaking," said Appelhans.

"Somehow while working full-time on 'KPop Demon Hunters' and raising a family, Stephen found the time to make this heartbreaking, beautiful film. I don't know how he did it and honestly I'm worried he doesn't sleep enough, but we're so excited for more audiences to see 'Living with a Visionary.' The world needs unique stories in animation and often the most impactful ones come from the least expected places," said Kang.

"It means the world to have Maggie and Chris support this small film I spent years drawing on paper. 'KPop Demon Hunters' and 'Living with a Visionary' are, stylistically, worlds apart. But I believe there's a throughline of raw, emotional honesty in both these works capable of bringing a needed catharsis to viewers from a place they least expect it - animation," said Neary.

"Living With a Visionary," recent winner of the Grand Jury Award for Animation at AFI Fest and recipient of the Short Film Jury Award for Animation at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, is a bittersweet reflection on John's relationship with his beloved wife, Diana, and how it is transformed by the effects of her Parkinson's treatment. As Diana's medication besets her with vivid, often beautiful hallucinations, John, now her caregiver, adapts to her imaginary world. The film, written, directed and animated by Neary, is an adaptation of John Matthias's memoir of the same name. It is produced by Neary and Mireia Vilanova. The film consists of thousands of drawings, illustrated by hand on intersecting layers of vellum, all drawn over the course of three years of nights and weekends while Neary worked full-time as a story artist and taught classes at California Institute of the Arts.

Neary is best known as the creator and showrunner of "The Fungies!" on Cartoon Network and HBO Max, as well as the supervising producer on the Annie-nominated show "Clarence." As a story artist, his credits include "KPop Demon Hunters," "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," "Rio" and "The Peanuts Movie."

"Living With a Visionary" joins eight other films on Op-Docs' 2026 slate of awards contenders, including "The Revolution Against Death" by acclaimed filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, which premiered at the Tampere Film Festival; "The Tuners," winner of a Silver Dragon at the 2026 Krakow Film Festival; and "A Wolf in the Suburbs," which joins three other Op-Docs on the IDA Shortlist this year and premiered at SXSW this year.

About Op-Docs

Op-Docs, The New York Times's award-winning short documentary film series features works by both renowned and emerging filmmakers. The collection of more than 450 short films have sparked global conversations, influenced national policies and garnered an array of industry distinctions, including Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards and an Oscar. Alexandra Garcia is the series' executive producer, Mahalia Cohen is the senior producer and Yvonne Ashley Kouadjo is the producer.

Press Contacts

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