The Animation Educators’ Forum (AEF | animationeducatorsforum.org), a nonprofit association of teachers and scholars whose focus is the art of animated film, announce the selection of its 2024 Hall of Fame recipients. This virtual hall is dedicated to the artists and scholars whose teaching influenced the history of animation.
This year’s inductees are:
Charles Csuri (1922-2022). Producer, director, educator. Dubbed “the father of digital art and computer animation” by Smithsonian Magazine, he was a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge and a painter who exhibited with Roy Lichtenstein and George Segal. Csuri created The Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design at Ohio State University, where he mentored animators like Chris Wedge.
Tony Eastman (1942-2020). Animator, director. Eastman animated Beavis & Butt-head and directed Doug. Eastman was the lead animator for TV Funhouse on Saturday Night Live. He taught animation at the Philadelphia College of Art.
Dave Hilberman (1911- 2007). A layout artist at the Walt Disney Studios, Hilberman was an art director on Bambi. He was a social activist and a leader in the 1941 Disney animators’ strike. He later helped start UPA and Tempo Productions. Blacklisted, he continued to work into the 1980s on He-Man and The Smurfs. Hilberman taught at San Francisco State University, where he influenced a generation of young artists.
Eric Larson (1905-1988). Animator. One of Disney’s Nine Old Men. In 1973 he was put in charge of the Disney Studio’s artists training program where, until his death, he mentored many of the future stars of the animation renaissance of the 1990s — Brad Bird, Don Bluth, Henry Selick, John Musker and Ron Clements, Tim Burton, Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, Lorna Cook and Bill Kroyer.
Boris Morkovin (1882- 1968). Sociologist, psychologist. Prof. Morkovin studied in Moscow and Prague before coming to the U.S. At the University of Southern California, he was the first chair of its Cinema Department and did some of the first lectures on Disney animation in 1932. Walt Disney hired him to teach his artists the theories of humor from 1935 until 1939. He was also a pioneer in the science of film demographics. In 1935 he oversaw the creation of the first Greek letter fraternity for the motion picture industry, Delta Kappa Alpha.
Roger Noake (born 1941). Educator. British senior lecturer on the animation course at Farnham, The University for the Creative Arts, UCA. Roger retired in 2009 after 35-plus years of teaching. His students included Michaël Dudok de Wit. Between 1980 and 1984 he helped conduct workshops at India’s National Institute of Design, which led to the establishment of its animation program. He is the author of several important books on animation techniques and practices.
Ishu Patel (born 1942). Director, animator, educator. Best known for award-winning experimental films made for the National Film Board of Canada, such as The Bead Game and Paradise. He began teaching at India’s National Institute of Design before joining the NFB, coming back each summer to teach. He also did workshops for the NFB around the world. He later taught at USC and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981). German-British filmmaker. Reiniger was known for her silhouette stop-motion animated films, including the feature-length The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). After World War II, she moved to England, where she became a pioneer in TV animation. Over the course of her extensive career, she regularly conducted workshops, educating and demonstrating her techniques at various organizations, campuses and museums, aligned with her numerous exhibitions featuring her distinctive work. Reiniger was recently selected to receive the Winsor McCay award at the annual Annie Awards.
Raoul Servais (1928-2023). Director, educator. Award-winning Belgian animator and filmmaker best known for his short film, Harpya. Servais was the founder of the animation faculty of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, which was the first school of its kind in continental Europe. Servais and the school were a big influence on European animators for decades.
