Brandon Oldenburg, left, and William Joyce, jump with their awards for best animated short film for “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” during the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (Associated Press)

SMU alum William Joyce took home an Oscar gold last night at the 84th annual Academy Awards.

Joyce won the trophy for his short film “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” in the Best Animated short category. He beat out stiff competition from Pixar’s “Luna” and three other short films to take home the trophy.

Joyce graduated from SMU in 1981 and has worked on such projects as “Robots” and Disney’s “Meet the Robinsons.”

Joyce’s winning film “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” pays homage to Joyce’s homestate of Louisiana and alludes to the devastation that Hurricane Katrina brought to the state.

“Look, we’re just these two, like swamp rats from Louisiana and this is incredibly grand,” Joyce said in his acceptance speech Sunday night.

“We [ Joyce and his co-creator Brandon Oldenburg] love the movies. We love the movies more than anything. It’s been a part of our lives since we were both kids.”

Joyce currently resides in Shreveport, La where he and Oldenburg owns MOONBOT studios, the animation studio that produced “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.”

Joyce is currently working on the computer animated film “Rise of the Guardians.”

When Joyce isn’t directing or creating films, the Oscar winner is writing children books. In fact, Joyce has written a total of 15 children books.

“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” as well as Joyce’s other short films can be downloaded on iTunes.