Jul 1, 2019

More than 20% of new Academy members' invitations go to animation and VFX branches

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the organization that hands out the Oscars, invited 842 artists, filmmakers, and executives to join its organization today.

Among the Academy's 17 branches, there are two related to Cartoon Brew's areas of coverage: the Short Films & Feature Animation and Visual Effects branches. In the former branch, the Academy invited 106 people (two people less than last year), while in the latter branch, 66 people were invited (+14 from 2018). The two branches combined account for slightly over 20% of all of this year's invites from the organization.

In ten of the Academy's branches, more women were invited than men. Like last year, neither the animation nor vfx branches were among those ten. However, among the 842 total organizational invites, 50% were to women. This will raise the overall Academy membership to 32% women (up from 25% in 2015).

Additionally, among the new invites, 29% went to people of color, which will increase to 16% the number of people of color who are in the organization (up from 8% in 2015).

The 2019 list of people invited to join the Short Films & Feature Animation and Visual Effects branches are below. Names with an asterisk beside them denote someone who has been invited to join the Academy by multiple branches, and must select one branch upon accepting membership.