Waititi was set to collaborate with Mark Gustafson to direct the upcoming stop-motion animated film "Bubbles", which was about the life of Michael Jackson seen from the perspective of his pet chimpanzee, Bubbles. However, Waititi left the project in 2019 due to a heavy work schedule. That same year, Waititi wrote and directed "Jojo Rabbit", based on the book "Caging Skies" by Christine Leunens, the 1940s-set story of a child in the Hitler Youth whose mother is secretly hiding a Jewish girl in the family home. Waititi plays Adolf Hitler as the boy's imaginary friend. For his work on the film, Waititi received two Academy Award nominations, for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, winning the latter. This made him the first person of Māori descent to win an Academy Award in a screenplay category, as well as the first indigenous person to be nominated and to win Best Adapted Screenplay.