Jun 25, 2024

56 animation professionals invited to join the Academy's Animation and VFX departments

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 487 film professionals to become Academy members for 2024. Fifty-six of these (11.5% of the total) are animation professionals, invited to join the Academy's Short Film & Feature Animation or Visual Effects categories.

Membership selection is based on professional qualifications, which the Academy claims is an "ongoing commitment to representativeness, inclusiveness, and fairness."

For the entire 2024 group, 44% are comprised of women and 41% belong to underrepresented ethnic/racial communities. In addition, 56% are from 56 countries and territories outside of the United States.

This year's short film and feature animation invitees are well balanced, with a good mix of studio and independent artists. It should be noted that seven of the invitees in the short film and feature animation categories were born in Japan. This is a significant increase over previous years and a step in the right direction considering that many of the recent nominees in the Animation Competition are from Japan. Invitees from Japan include Atsuko Ishizuka, Mari Okada, Ryo Orikasa, Shuzo Shiota, Chie Uratani, Atsushi Wada, and Masaaki Yuasa.

In the animation category, zero black animators were invited, the same number as in 2023 and 2022.

In addition to the Animation/VFX category, several people working in animation were invited to other categories. Pixar art director Don Shank was invited for the Production Design category, while the Film Editing category invited Takeshi Seyama, who has edited many of Hayao Miyazaki's films, including "The Boy and the Hare."

The following are the invitees for the Short and Feature Animation and Visual Effects categories: