73 People Invited To Join Academy’s Animation And VFX Branches

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the Oscars, has invited 395 artists, filmmakers, and executives to join its organization.

Among the Academy’s branches, there are two related to Cartoon Brew’s areas of coverage: Short Films & Feature Animation and Visual Effects. This year, 39 were invited to the former and 34 to the latter. Last year, those numbers were 81 and 48.

The steep drop in invitations can be seen across all 17 branches: the Academy is only welcoming 395 new members this year, as opposed to 819 last year. This was done “[t]o enable steady future growth and to ensure the necessary infrastructure, staff resources, and environment to support all Academy members,” said the organization in a statement. The proportion of invitations going to animation and vfx people has actually gone up, from 15.8% to 18.5%.

The 2021 class across all branches is 46% women, 39% underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 53% international (from 49 countries outside of the U.S.). As in previous years, the animation and vfx intakes come up notably short in terms of women: only around a third of new animation members and roughly a fifth of new vfx members identify as female. We have written in the past about this problem, and how it might reflect broader structural issues in the animation and vfx industries.

On the other hand, animation and vfx were among the ten branches to have invited the majority of their candidates from countries outside the U.S.

Below are the full lists of people invited to join the Short Films & Feature Animation and Visual Effects branches.

Short Films & Feature Animation

Rita del Rosario Basulto – Eclosión, Rain in the Eyes

Ossama Bawardi – The Present, Haneen

Will Becher – A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Jerry Beck – Wicked City, Robot Carnival

John Bryant – The Wild Thornberrys Movie, Rugrats in Paris

Réka Bucsi – Solar Walk, Symphony No. 42

Clara Chan – Over the Moon, Storks

Peilin Chou – Over the Moon, Abominable

Sharon Colman – The Croods, Badgered

Anca Damian – Marona’s Fantastic Tale, Crulic – The Path to Beyond

Philippe Denis – Trolls, Megamind

Travon Free – Two Distant Strangers

Andrew Gent – Isle of Dogs, Frankenweenie

Michael Govier – If Anything Happens I Love You, Space for Rent

Gísli Darri Halldórsson – Yes-People, Kókó the Killer Whale

SungHo Hong – Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs, Sky Blue

Joey Horvitz – Game, Friday Night

Brenden Hubbard – The Helping Hand, Cul-de-Sac

Jeanette Jeanenne – Departures, Trusts & Estates

Sebastian Kapijimpanga – Over the Moon, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

Sara Koppel – Embraces & the Touch of Skin, Seriously Deadly Silence

Christophe Lautrette – The Croods, Bee Movie

Carolina Markowicz – The Orphan (O Órfão), Tatuapé Mahal Tower

Will McCormack – If Anything Happens I Love You, Toy Story 4

Adrien Mérigeau – Genius Loci, Song of the Sea

François Morisset – Bonobo, Sin Cielo

Dana Murray – Soul, Lou

Farah Nabulsi – The Present, Nightmare of Gaza

Erick Oh – Opera, The Dam Keeper

Gennie Rim – Over the Moon, Dear Basketball

Martin Desmond Roe – Two Distant Strangers, Buzkashi Boys

Madeline Sharafian – Burrow, Onward

Tomer Shushan – White Eye, Inside Shells

Lisa Stewart – Turbo, Monsters vs Aliens

Ross Stewart – Wolfwalkers, The Secret of Kells

Erez Tadmor – Sirens, Dear God

Charles Williams – All These Creatures, Home

Nate Wragg – The Croods: A New Age, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

Carlos Zaragoza – The Emoji Movie, Gnomeo & Juliet

Visual Effects

Lance Baetkey – Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War

Peta Bayley – Dolittle, Shazam!

Dennis Berardi – Shazam!, The Shape of Water

Daniele Bigi – Aladdin, Ready Player One

Axel Bonami – Artemis Fowl, Godzilla

Genevieve Camilleri – Love and Monsters, Velvet Buzzsaw

Raymond Chen – Alita: Battle Angel, The Meg

Yeenshi Chen – Over the Moon, Life of Pi

Santiago Colomo Martinez – The One and Only Ivan, The Jungle Book

Michael Joseph Conte – Terminator Genisys, Elysium

Michael Cozens – Alita: Battle Angel, Pete’s Dragon

Ferran Domenech – Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Alien: Covenant

Benoit Dubuc – Missing Link, X-Men: Days of Future Past

Scott Edelstein – Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War

Matt Everitt – Love and Monsters, Skyscraper

Pawl Fulker – Dolittle, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

John Haley – Hellboy, The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Sherry Lynn Hitch – Mank, The Irishman

Nick Hsieh – Monster Hunt, Looper

Chia-Chi Hu – Soul, Incredibles 2

Steve Ingram – Mulan, Pete’s Dragon

Ben Jones – The One and Only Ivan, The Lion King

Shannon Justison – Spider-Man: Far from Home, Captain Marvel

Matthew Kasmir – The Midnight Sky, Paddington

Michael Kennedy – The Jungle Book, Prometheus

Ryan Laney – Welcome to Chechnya, Ant-Man

David Lee – Tenet, John Carter

May Leung – Bohemian Rhapsody, Star Trek Beyond

Viktor Muller – Voyagers, Gemini Man

Max Solomon – The Midnight Sky, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

Sheldon Stopsack – Gemini Man, Terminator: Dark Fate

Damien Stumpf – Cruella, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Stephen Unterfranz – Shadow in the Cloud, Rampage

David Watkins – The Midnight Sky, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Source： ALEX DUDOK DE WIT/CartoonBrew