56 Animation Pros Invited To Join Academy’s Animation And VFX Branches

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 487 film industry figures to join its ranks as part of the class of 2024. Fifty-six of those people – or 11.5% of the total – are animation professionals who have been invited to join the Short Films & Feature Animation or Visual Effects branches of the Academy.

Membership selection is based on professional qualifications with, what the Academy claims is “an ongoing commitment to representation, inclusion, and equity.” The overall 2024 group is composed of 44% women, and 41% belong to underrepresented ethnic/racial communities. Also, 56% are from 56 countries and territories outside the United States.

The short films and feature animation invitees are well balanced this year, with a good mix of studio and independent artists. Notably, seven of the people invited to the Short Film and Feature Animation branch were born in Japan, a significant increase over previous years and a step in the right direction considering how many contenders in the animation categories hail from Japan nowadays. The Japanese invitees are Atsuko Ishizuka, Mari Okada, Ryo Orikasa, Shuzo Shiota, Chie Uratani, Atsushi Wada, and Masaaki Yuasa.

Zero Black animation artists were invited into the animation branch, the same number as 2023 and 2022.

In addition to those invited into the animation/vfx branches, several people involved in animation were invited to other branches. The production design branch invited Pixar art director Don Shank, while the film editors branch invited Takeshi Seyama, who has edited many of Hayao Miyazaki’s films, including The Boy and the Heron.

Below are the people invited to join the Short Films & Feature Animation and Visual Effects branches:

Short Films and Feature Animation

• Dan Abraham – Once upon a Studio, Planes
• Abigail Addison – The Debutante, I’m OK
• Michael Andrews – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Megamind
• Brad Booker – War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko, The Book of Life
• Sarah Helen Cox – Heavy Pockets, Plain Pleasures
• Louie Del Carmen – Luck, The Star
• Amit R. Gicelter – Letter to a Pig, Black Slide
• Alan Hawkins – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Mitchells vs. the Machines
• Atsuko Ishizuka – Goodbye, Don Glees!, No Game No Life: Zero
• Tal Kantor – Letter to a Pig, In Other Words
• James Mansfield – Zootopia, Hercules
• Patrick Mate – Smurfs: The Lost Village, Puss in Boots
• Yegane Moghaddam – Our Uniform, On the Cover
• Maral Mohammadian – Impossible Figures and Other Stories I, Shannon Amen
• Mari Okada – Maboroshi, Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms
• Ryo Orikasa – Miserable Miracle, Datum Point
• Frank Passingham – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Kubo and the Two Strings
• Ülo Pikkov – ’Til We Meet Again, Empty Space
• Troy Quane – Nimona, Spies in Disguise
• Shuzo Shiota – Blame!, Muybridge’s String
• Justin K. Thompson – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
• Theodore Ty – Nimona, Lilo & Stitch
• Chie Uratani – In This Corner of the World, Summer Wars
• Viviane Vanfleteren – Titina, The Secret of Kells
• Atsushi Wada – Bird in the Peninsula, The Great Rabbit
• Virgil Widrich – Fast Film, Copy Shop
• Masaaki Yuasa – Inu-Oh, Mind Game

Visual effects

• Gerardo Aguilera – Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers: Endgame
• Stephen Hugh Richard Clee – Avatar: The Way of Water, Ant-Man and the Wasp
• Simone Coco – Napoleon, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
• Ian Comley – The Creator, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
• Tim Dobbert – The Creator, Kong: Skull Island
• Emile Ghorayeb – Nope, Alita: Battle Angel
• Michael Grobe – Dune: Part Two, Fast X
• Trevor Hazel – The Creator, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor among Thieves
• Tamara Kent – Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire, The Flash
• Julius Lechner – The Batman, Spider-Man: Far from Home
• Allan Magled – Bad Boys for Life, Geostorm
• Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet – Napoleon, Cruella
• Raymond McMillan – Little Children, Dracula 2000
• Lori C. Miller – Nyad, Avatar: The Way of Water
• Johnathan Nixon – Nyad, Avatar: The Way of Water
• Tatsuji Nojima – Godzilla Minus One, Ghost Book Obake Zukan
• Rick Walter O’Connor – Bumblebee, A Quiet Place
• Stephane Paris – The Commuter, Guardians of the Galaxy
• Laura Pedro – Society of the Snow, A Monster Calls
• Pietro Ponti – The Marvels, Terminator Genisys
• Kyle Robinson – The Flash, Black Panther
• Kiyoko Shibuya – Godzilla Minus One, Ghost Book Obake Zukan
• Kathy Siegel – Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Ford v Ferrari
• Orde Stevanoski – Smurfs: The Lost Village, Alice through the Looking Glass
• Masaki Takahashi – Godzilla Minus One, Parasyte
• Alexis Wajsbrot – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
• Alex Wuttke – Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• Takashi Yamazaki – Godzilla Minus One, Parasyte
• Dennis Yoo – The Batman, War for the Planet of the Apes