Academy’s New Invites in Animation/VFX Branches Are 95% Male Artists
This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences extended invitations to 322 individuals in the filmmaking community to join the 88-year-old organization. In their announcement, the Academy touted a “more diverse and inclusive list of filmmakers and artists than ever before,” but apparently that diversity did not extend to its animation and vfx branches, where over 95% of the invited artists were male.
In the Short Films and Feature Animation branch, twenty-six invites were handed out, with twenty of those individuals working in the animation industry (the other six were for live-action short filmmakers). Additionally, twenty-three invitations were handed out to people for the Academy’s Visual Effects branch.
The Academy is doing little to address the gender imbalance in its animation and vfx branches. Of the 20 invitations to animation creators, just three were given to women, and only one of those women is an artist. On the vfx side, just one of the twenty-three invitations was given to a woman.
For reference, here is the complete list of invited animation members since 2004 in the Academy’s Short Films and Feature Animation Branch, when the Academy started publishing the names of invited members.
SEE ALSO: Will Hayao Miyazaki Reject the Academy’s Invitation Again?
The Academy’s Short Films and Feature Animation branch lacks diversity in more ways than one. In that branch, at least half of the invitations were awarded to employees of the Walt Disney Company and its subsidiary Pixar. Over the last decade, the Academy’s feature animation award has slowly turned into an industry joke, with the Disney Company virtually owning the category, having won the award for 7 out of the last 8 years. As long as the Academy allows the Disney Company to grow its ranks in disproportionate numbers to the rest of the animation community, don’t expect the situation to change.
Here is the complete list of invitations to the animation community:
Short Films and Feature Animation
Alan Barillaro – Brave, WALL-E
Kristine Belson – The Croods, How to Train Your Dragon
Darlie Brewster – Curious George, The Prince of Egypt
Roy Conli – Big Hero 6, Tangled
Ronnie Del Carmen – Up, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
Paul A. Felix – Big Hero 6, Lilo & Stitch
Michael Fukushima – Me and My Moulton, Dimanche/Sunday
Don Hall – Big Hero 6, Winnie the Pooh
Jin Kim – Big Hero 6, Bolt
Fabio Lignini – How to Train Your Dragon 2, Puss in Boots
Patrick Osborne – Feast, Paperman
Jerome Ranft – Toy Story 3, Ratatouille
Jim Reardon – Wreck-It Ralph, WALL-E
Kristina Reed – Feast, Paperman
Jason Reisig – Home, Shrek Forever After
Nicolas Schmerkin – Habana, Logorama
Anthony Stacchi – The Boxtrolls, Open Season
Isao Takahata – The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Grave of the Fireflies
Michael Thurmeier – Ice Age: Continental Drift, No Time for Nuts
Marlon West – Frozen, The Princess and the Frog
Visual Effects
Nicolas Aithadi – Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men: First Class
Daniel Barrett – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Stephane Ceretti – Guardians of the Galaxy, Cloud Atlas
Paul Corbould – Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy
Tim Crosbie – X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Wolverine
Dan DeLeeuw – Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Iron Man 3
Sean Faden – Fast & Furious 6, Let Me In
Joe Farrell – The Wolf of Wall Street, Hereafter
Scott R. Fisher – Interstellar, The Dark Knight Rises
Chris Harvey – Chappie, Fast & Furious 6
Alex Jaeger – Tomorrowland, Marvel’s The Avengers
Matt Kutcher – Focus, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Andrew Lockley – Interstellar, Inception
Gray Marshall – Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The First Avenger
Carl Miller – Jurassic World, Elysium
David Nakabayashi – Tomorrowland, Avatar
Rocco Passionino – Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spider-Man 2
Lou Pecora – X-Men: Days of Future Past, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Cary Phillips – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Ellen Poon – Frozen, Inception
Edwin Rivera – 22 Jump Street, Moneyball
Cameron Waldbauer – X-Men: Days of Future Past, Elysium
Erik Winquist – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Avatar
