Jun 28, 2015

The new invitation of the Animation / VFX department of the Academy is 95% male artists

This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences extended invitations to 322 individuals in the filmmaking community to join the 88-year-old organization. In their announcement, the Academy touted a “more diverse and inclusive list of filmmakers and artists than ever before,” but apparently that diversity did not extend to its animation and vfx branches, where over 95% of the invited artists were male.

In the Short Films and Feature Animation branch, twenty-six invites were handed out, with twenty of those individuals working in the animation industry (the other six were for live-action short filmmakers). Additionally, twenty-three invitations were handed out to people for the Academy's Visual Effects branch.

The Academy is doing little to address the gender imbalance in its animation and vfx branches. Of the 20 invitations to animation creators, just three were given to women, and only one of those women is an artist. On the vfx side, just one of the twenty-three invitations was given to a woman.

For reference, here is the complete list of invited animation members since 2004 in the Academy's Short Films and Feature Animation Branch, when the Academy started publishing the names of invited members.

SEE ALSO: Will Hayao Miyazaki Reject the Academy's Invitation Again-

The Academy's Short Films and Feature Animation branch lacks diversity in more ways than one. In that branch, at least half of the invitations were awarded to employees of the Walt Disney Company and its subsidiary Pixar. Over the last decade, the Academy's feature animation award has slowly turned into an industry joke, with the Disney Company virtually owning the category, having won the award for 7 out of the last 8 years. As long as the Academy allows the Disney Company to grow its ranks in disproportionate numbers to the rest of the animation community, don't expect the situation to change.

Here is the complete list of invitations to the animation community:

Alan Barillaro – Brave, WALL-E Kristine Belson – The Croods, How to Train Your Dragon Darlie Brewster – Curious George, The Prince of Egypt Roy Conli – Big Hero 6, Tangled Ronnie Del Carmen – Up, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Paul A. Felix – Big Hero 6, Lilo & Stitch Michael Fukushima – Me and My Moulton, Dimanche/Sunday Don Hall – Big Hero 6, Winnie the Pooh Jin Kim – Big Hero 6, Bolt Fabio Lignini – How to Train Your Dragon 2, Puss in Boots Patrick Osborne – Feast, Paperman Jerome Ranft – Toy Story 3, Ratatouille Jim Reardon – Wreck-It Ralph, WALL-E Kristina Reed – Feast, Paperman Jason Reisig – Home, Shrek Forever After Nicolas Schmerkin – Habana, Logorama Anthony Stacchi – The Boxtrolls, Open Season Isao Takahata – The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Grave of the Fireflies Michael Thurmeier – Ice Age: Continental Drift, No Time for Nuts Marlon West – Frozen, The Princess and the Frog

Nicolas Aithadi – Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men: First Class Daniel Barrett – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Stephane Ceretti – Guardians of the Galaxy, Cloud Atlas Paul Corbould – Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy Tim Crosbie – X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Wolverine Dan DeLeeuw – Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Iron Man 3 Sean Faden – Fast & Furious 6, Let Me In Joe Farrell – The Wolf of Wall Street, Hereafter Scott R. Fisher – Interstellar, The Dark Knight Rises Chris Harvey – Chappie, Fast & Furious 6 Alex Jaeger – Tomorrowland, Marvel's The Avengers Matt Kutcher – Focus, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Andrew Lockley – Interstellar, Inception Gray Marshall – Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The First Avenger Carl Miller – Jurassic World, Elysium David Nakabayashi – Tomorrowland, Avatar Rocco Passionino – Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spider-Man 2 Lou Pecora – X-Men: Days of Future Past, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Cary Phillips – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers: Dark of the Moon Ellen Poon – Frozen, Inception Edwin Rivera – 22 Jump Street, Moneyball Cameron Waldbauer – X-Men: Days of Future Past, Elysium Erik Winquist – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Avatar