Jun 25, 2018

The Academy invites 928 new members, including more than 150 of the branches of animation and VFX

Kobe Bryant didn't make the cut, but a record 928 artists, filmmakers, and executives were invited today to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the organization that hands out the Oscars.

The Academy has made big strides in the last few years to become a more inclusive organization, announcing in 2016 that it would aim to double the number of women and diverse members of the organization by 2020. This year, the Academy points out that 49% of its new invites were given to women. Since 2015, the Academy's overall membership has increased from 25% female to 31% female.

Additionally, 38% of the invites were given to people of color this year. Since 2015, the Academy's overall membership has increased from 8% people of color to 16% people of color.

Among the Academy's 17 branches, there are two related to this site's areas of coverage: the Short Films & Feature Animation and Visual Effects branches. In the former branch, the Academy invited 106 people, while in the latter branch, 52 people were invited.

In nine branches, more women were invited than men. Neither the animation nor vfx branches were among those nine, however, the list of invitees this year is still extremely hopeful. It thankfully looks nothing like just three years ago, when we criticized the invite list for the animation/vfx branch for being almost entirely male.

A few notes on the animation membership:

The number of independent women filmmakers is notable. There are some invitees whose names you see on this year's list, and it's shocking to realize that they hadn't already been invited. For example, no one had thought of inviting Joanna Quinn, ?Michaela Pavlátová, and Suzan Pitt all these years- They're joined by a who's who of contemporary female talent: ?Rose Bond, Spela Cadez, Sofia Carrillo, Martine Chartrand, ?Michèle Cournoyer, Daisy Jacobs, Dahee Jeong, Ru Kuwahata, Nina Paley, and Regina Pessoa, among them. Also worth mentioning: a number of super-experienced women on the industry side who finally received their invites, such as Allison Abbate, Jill Culton, Karen Disher, Yvette Kaplan, and Kathy Zielinski.

The Short Film & Feature Animation branch is still overwhelmingly feature and industry-slanted, but having more independent voices in the mix – both female and male – will go a long way in helping the Academy identify short films that are worthwhile, instead of honoring unremarkable and generic animated works like Piper and Dear Basketball. This effort to balance out the disproportionate presence of industry artists in the branch with respected short filmmakers will hopefully result in short nominees that more accurately reflect the high level of craft and content in contemporary short filmmaking.

Another interesting aspect of this year's animation invitees is that some of the invited filmmakers are the same ones who have been criminally overlooked by the Academy in recent years. It's a nice olive branch by the Academy and something that we haven't seen them do before. Filmmakers who fall in this category include Spela Cadez, whose film Nighthawk was widely considered to be one of the best shorts of recent vintage; the perennially ignored Japanese masters (?Mamoru Hosoda, Sunao Katabuchi, Makoto Shinkai); and Swiss filmmaker Georges Schwizgebel, who unbelievably has never been nominated in his remarkable 50-year filmmaking career.

The Academy's Short Film & Feature Animation branch should be applauded for this year's sincere effort to create a balanced and representative list of animation invitees. The 2018 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.

Allison Abbate – Frankenweenie, The Iron Giant? Kim Adams – Rain or Shine, Small Fry ?Ali Asgari – Gaze, The Silence Katja Benrath – Watu Wote/All of Us, Tilda Rose Bond – Electroflux, Cerridwen's Gift Jongnic Bontemps – The Big Chop, There Are Ghosts? Paul Briggs – Big Hero 6, Frozen? Nick Bruno – The Peanuts Movie, Ice Age Continental Drift Spela Cadez – Nighthawk, Boles? Sofia Carrillo – Cerulia, La Casa Triste (The Sad House) Scott Carroll – Ferdinand, The Peanuts Movie? Martine Chartrand – MacPherson, Black Soul (Ame Noire)? Bruno Chauffard – Despicable Me 3, The Secret Life of Pets? Yarrow Cheney – The Secret Life of Pets, Despicable Me? Teresa Cheng – Shrek Forever After, Madagascar Pedro Collantes – Serori, Eskiper Melanie Coombs – Mary and Max, Harvie Krumpet Michèle Cournoyer – Accordéon, The Hat? Jill Culton – Open Season, Monsters, Inc.? Cassidy Curtis – How to Train Your Dragon, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Jennifer Dahlman – Coin Operated, Penguins of Madagascar? Kevin Deters – Olaf's Frozen Adventure, The Ballad of Nessie Karen Disher – Rio, Surviving Sid Ann Marie Fleming – Window Horses (The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming), Blue Skies Nick Fletcher – Trolls, Home Kirk Garfield – Ferdinand, Rio 2 Danis Goulet – Barefoot, Wapawekka Carlos Grangel – Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Shark Tale Hamish Grieve – Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie, Rise of the Guardians? Nicole Grindle – Incredibles 2, Sanjay's Super Team Yasser Hamed – Moana, Big Hero 6 Atsuko Hirayanagi – Oh Lucy!, Mo Ikkai? Harry Hitner* – Ferdinand, Rio Brent Homman – Olaf's Frozen Adventure, Big Hero 6 Mamoru Hosoda – The Boy and the Beast, The Girl Who Leapt through Time Daisy Jacobs – The Full Story, The Bigger Picture? Jeong Dahee – Man on the Chair, The Empty? Yvette Kaplan – Ice Age, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America? Sunao Katabuchi – In This Corner of the World, Mai Mai Miracle? Dorota Kobiela – Loving Vincent, Little Postman Ru Kuwahata – Negative Space, Something Left, Something Taken? Jan Lachauer – Revolting Rhymes, Room on the Broom Josh Lawson – The Eleven O'Clock, After the Credits Pierre Leduc – Sing, Minions Lei Lei – Hand-Colored No. 2, Recycled? Anthony Leo – The Breadwinner, Todd & the Book of Pure Evil: The End of the End Alexander Levenson – Ferdinand, The Peanuts Movie Li Jie – Coal Story, Three Pieces of Sincere Advice? Liu Jian – Have a Nice Day, Look at This Man? Adolph Lusinsky – Moana, Big Hero 6? Maggie Malone – Big Hero 6, The Princess and the Frog? Joe Mancewicz – Alvin and the Chipmunks, Happy Feet? Pam Marsden Siragusa – Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Dinosaur? Mauro Mueller – A World for Raúl, Ge.hen'nah Vincent Di Nguyen – The Peanuts Movie, Surviving Sid Fredrik Nilsson – The Boss Baby, The Croods? Kevin M. Ochs – How to Train Your Dragon 2, Kung Fu Panda 2 Ngozi Onwurah – Hang Time, The Body Beautiful Mauricio Osaki – My Father's Truck, The Dust of Your Photos? Chris Overton – The Silent Child, Dalston Heath? Sergio Pablos – Rio, Despicable Me? Nina Paley – Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, Sita Sings the Blues Michaela Pavlátová – Tram, Reci, Reci, Reci… (Words, Words, Words) Ruben Perez – The Boss Baby, Penguins of Madagascar? Regina Pessoa – Kali the Little Vampire, Tragic Story with Happy Ending Suzan Pitt – Pinball, Visitation Bobby Podesta – Cars 3, Toy Story 3? Max Porter – Negative Space, Something Left, Something Taken? Carlos Fernandez Puertolas – The Boss Baby, Home Joanna Quinn – Dreams and Desires: Family Ties, Famous Fred Eric Ramsey – Trolls, Turbo Vanitha Rangaraju – The Boss Baby, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted Jeffrey R. Ranjo – Frozen, Surf's Up Timothy Reckart – The Star, Head over Heels? Tobias Rosen – Watu Wote/All of Us, Feuerkind? Farnoosh Samadi –Gaze, The Silence? Gini Cruz Santos – Coco, The Good Dinosaur Jakob Schuh – Revolting Rhymes, The Gruffalo? Georges Schwizgebel – Erlking, Romance Yuriko Senoo – The Star, The Pirate Fairy Carla Shelley – Early Man, Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit Rachel Shenton – The Silent Child, The Winter's Club? Makoto Shinkai – Your Name, Children Who Chase Lost Voices Amy Lawson Smeed – Moana, Tangled Tony Smeed – Zootopia, Frozen Keith L. Smith – Post Life, Island Song Patrick Smith – Puppet, Handshake? Josh Staub – Inner Workings, Feast Stacey Steers – Edge of Alchemy, Night Hunter Chris Stover – Turbo, Foodfight Mark Swift – Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie, Penguins of Madagascar Shannon Tindle – Kubo and the Two Strings, Curious George? Karen Rupert Toliver* – Ferdinand, Rio? Cilia Van Dijk – The Last Words of Dutch Schultz, Anna & Bella? Cesar Velazquez – Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph? Dina Velikovskaya – About a Mother, My Strange Grandfather John Walker – Incredibles 2, The Incredibles Dick Walsh – The Boss Baby, Shrek Forever After? Dave Walvoord – How to Train Your Dragon 2, Kung Fu Panda 2? Hugh Welchman – Loving Vincent, Peter & the Wolf? Stevie Wermers-Skelton – Olaf's Frozen Adventure, The Ballad of Nessie Carey Williams – Emergency, Cherry Waves Larry Y. Wu – Moana, Big Hero 6? Paul Young – Song of the Sea, The Secret of Kells ?Jennifer Yu – Moana, Wreck-It Ralph? Kathy Zielinski – The Road to El Dorado, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Gregory Anderson – The Wall, The Warrior's Way Angela Barson – Tulip Fever, Me before You? Jay Barton – The Fate of the Furious, Furious 7 Geoffrey Baumann – Black Panther, Doctor Strange Joel Behrens – Ready Player One, Pixels Jean Bolte – Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Age of Ultron? Glenn Campbell – Repentance, Walking with the Enemy? Jeff Capogreco – Kong: Skull Island, Transformers: The Last Knight Trent Claus – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Doctor Strange? Patrick Conran – Avengers: Age of Ultron, Pacific Rim? Jonathan Egstad – The Boss Baby, Trolls? Mark Elendt Jonathan Fawkner – Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy? Audrey Ferrara – Alien: Covenant, Passengers Lucinda Foy – Ouija, Death Race? Eric Frazier – Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Nocturnal Animals Florian Gellinger – Black Panther, The Dark Tower Larry Gritz – Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Emoji Movie Charlie Iturriaga – Chappie, Gone Girl Paul Kavanagh – Transformers: The Last Knight, Star Trek Into Darkness Michael Koperwas – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rango Gene Kozicki – Big Miracle, Moneyball? Paul Lambert – Blade Runner 2049, The Huntsman: Winter's War Kevin Martel – Avengers: Infinity War, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Aaron McBride – Kong: Skull Island, Marvel's The Avengers Ken McGaugh – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, The BFG ?Scott Meadows – Ready Player One, Black Panther? Yvonne Muinde – Rampage, Black Panther Mike Mulholland – Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Avengers: Age of Ultron? Gerd Nefzer – Blade Runner 2049, The Grand Budapest Hotel? Erik Nordby – Passengers, The Amazing Spider-Man 2? Jessica Norman – Wonder Woman, World War Z? Kaori Ogino – Kong: Skull Island, Jurassic World Russell T. Paul – Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Philip Peterson – Mars Needs Moms, Star Wars: The Clone Wars Andrew Roberts – Independence Day: Resurgence, Snow White and the Huntsman Rachel Rose – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Noah Sue Rowe – The Legend of Tarzan, Independence Day: Resurgence Daryl Sawchuk – Black Panther, Doctor Strange Nelson Sepulveda – Kong: Skull Island, Marvel's The Avengers Thrain Shadbolt – Rampage, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes? Matt Sloan – Maze Runner: The Death Cure, X-Men: Apocalypse? Greg Steele – Avengers: Infinity War, Guardians of the Galaxy? Sandra Stewart – Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island Nigel Sumner – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Pacific Rim Hanzhi Tang – Thor: Ragnarok, Independence Day: Resurgence Corey Turner – Monster Trucks, Transformers: Dark of the Moon Todd Vaziri – Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Chris Waegner – Spider-Man: Homecoming, Suicide Squad Joel Whist – War for the Planet of the Apes, The BFG? Sheila Wickens – On Chesil Beach, The Limehouse Golem? Alison Wortman – Dunkirk, Alice through the Looking Glass