Regina Pessoa, Joanna Quinn, Špela Čadež, Michaela Pavlátová Become Academy Members

It seems easy to assume that  (some) Academy Members have read our March 2018 editorial about the Oscar divorce from Independent Animation; or (a more rounded explanation), the issue of women representation really loomed large at the relevant Academy branches.

In consequence, there are some major names from independent animation in this year's invitees, which do not include only last year's Oscar-nominated directors.

Let's take it from the very beginning. 106 new members appear in the Short and Feature Animation branch category of theAcademy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science (928 artists were invited in all Academy categories).

These include the Portuguese animation director Regina Pessoa (Tragic History with a Happy Ending) , Mary and Max producer Melanie Coombs, and the Canadian director of Window Horses Ann-Marie Fleming, all of them certainly welcome and justified additions to the list.

In the case of the British Joanna Quinn (Girls' Night Out, Britannia, Dreams and Desires- Family Ties) and the Czech Michaela Pavlátová (Tram, Words, Words, Words)  the only question is why they have not already been in the Academy voting members' list so far. Their respective nominations for an Academy Award (Famous Fred / Joann Quinn and Words, Words, Words for Pavlátová) already occurred in the 1990s. The ones that corrected this long-held omission are surely to get a special award here.

US independent animator Suzan Pitt's outstanding work is at last acknowledged with a voting membership at the Oscars, and the new CalArts professor (and delightful animation artist) Lei Lei joins the coveted club. Another Chinese artist, the director of Have A Nice Day Liu Jian is among the invitees.

Slovenian Špela Čadež, who was criminally overlooked at the Academy Award nominations for her Nighthawk, is one of the invitation surprises here. The directors of the Oscar-nominated Loving Vincent Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman are  included, as well as last year's Oscar nominees Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter (Negative Space) and Jan Lachauer and Jakob Schuh (Revolting Rhymes). Oscar-nominated Daisy Jacobs (The Bigger Picture) also joins, as well as Canadian artist Michèle Cournoyer (another name who should have there some time ago)

Sita Sings the Blues director Nina Paley (another non-Oscar nominated artist, for Sita never played at a L.A. commercial screening to qualify for an Academy Award ) is here invited.  The director of the Annecy Cristal Man on the Chair, Korean Dahee Jeong joins the Academy. Oscar-nominated animation artist Tim Reckart (Head Over Heels) and Mexican animation artist Soifa Carrillo (who has just finished her short Cerulia) are also included.

Japanese directors Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Times) and Sunao Katabuchi (In this Corner of the World) are invited to join. And, last (but certainly not least)  Cartoon Saloon CEO, Paul Young and Swiss auteur Georges Schwizgebel.

The full list:

Short Films and Feature Animation:
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”

Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2018. New members will be welcomed into the Academy at invitation -only receptions in the fall. Let's see what the the 2019 Oscar nominations outcome will be this year.