A Celebration of Excellence: Animation Magazine’s Hall of Fame Awards
The 2023 Honor Roll
Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Co-directors "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"
Hall of Fame Award: New Vision
Joaquim Dos Santos is a director of Sony Pictures Animation’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Alongside his fellow directors, Justin K. Thompson and Kemp Powers, the trio helmed the highly-anticipated sequel to “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which received the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature in 2019.
Previously, Dos Santos has directed, produced, and storyboarded on a variety of animated television shows such as Nickelodeon’s “The Legend of Korra” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” DreamWorks Animation’s “Voltron: Legendary Defender” and Warner Bros.’ “Justice League Unlimited” and “Teen Titans.”
Dos Santos began his career 20 years ago at Sony Pictures Television in their TV department working on animated series like “Roughneck: The Starship Troopers Chronicles” and “Men in Black: The Series.”
Dos Santos was born in Lisbon, Portugal. He moved to North Hollywood when he was four years old, but spent his summers back in Portugal which heavily influenced him as an artist. Dos Santos currently resides in Woodland Hills, California with his wife and son.
Kemp Powers is a director of Sony Pictures Animation’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Alongside his fellow directors, Joaquim Dos Santos and Justin K. Thompson, the trio helmed the highly-anticipated sequel to “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which received the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature in 2019.
Powers is a Golden Globe®-winning and Academy Award®-nominated screenwriter, playwright, producer and director who was named one of Variety’s 2020 “10 Screenwriters to Watch.” He is currently working on two separate features for Netflix – “Ireedeemable,” with Jeymes Samuels directing and Jay-Z, Samuels, and James Lassiter producing, is based on the comic series Irredeemable and Incorruptible by Mark Waid and illustrated by Peter Krause; and “Eloquent,” with Higher Ground producing, is based on David W. Blight’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.
Powers also co-wrote and co-directed the Oscar-winning “Soul” for Pixar Animation Studios. The film won two Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Animated and Best Original Score – Motion Picture. Additionally, “Soul” won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Score. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound.
In television, Powers previously wrote for the popular CBS All Access series, “Star Trek: Discovery.” His stage plays include “One Night in Miami…,” “Little Black Shadows,” “Christa McAuliffe’s Eyes Were Blue,” “The Two Reds” and “A Negro by Choice.” He received the 2013 Ted Schmitt Award for Outstanding New Play for the world premiere of “One Night in Miami…” in Los Angeles. That production also won three LA Drama Critics Circle Awards and four NAACP Theatre Awards. “One Night’s” 2016 production at London’s Donmar Warehouse earned Powers an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Play. Kemp’s upcoming stage play, “The XIXth” (The Nineteenth) premieres at The Old Globe in San Diego, March 2023.
Prior to his work in stage, television and film, Powers was a journalist for 17 years.
Justin K. Thompson is a director of Sony Pictures Animation’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Alongside his fellow directors, Joaquim Dos Santos and Kemp Powers, the trio helmed the highly-anticipated sequel to “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which received the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature in 2019.
Thompson previously served as the production designer for “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” for which he received an Annie Award from ASIFA-Hollywood for Outstanding Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production, and a nomination from the Art Directors Guild for Excellence in Production Design for an Animated Film.
Thompson also served as the production designer on Sony Pictures Animation’s “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and its sequel “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.” In his role, Thompson created the look of the beloved film series.
With over 20 years of experience in the animation industry, Thompson has contributed his work to some of the most groundbreaking television programs. Over the past ten years, he has made the transition to visual development and production design on digitally animated feature films.
Prior to joining Sony Pictures Animation, Thompson worked at The Orphanage Animation Studios, The Jim Henson Company and Lucasfilm Animation. His credits include “How to Eat Fried Worms” (art director), “The Power of the Dark Crystal” (visual development artist) and “Viking” (art director).
Thompson spent five years at Cartoon Network, receiving various credits on such television programs such as “The Powerpuff Girls” (key background design/storyboard artist) and “Samurai Jack” (key background designer). He also served as a visual development artist/background supervisor on Cartoon Network’s critically acclaimed hit, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” for which he was awarded an Emmy® for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. Thompson was also part of the creative team that brought “The Powerpuff Girls” to the big screen, serving as both visual development artist and key background designer on the feature.
Thompson has also served as a visual development artist on a number of projects at Disney Television Animation, DreamWorks SKG Television and Film Roman.
Sam Fell, Director, "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget", Aardman Animations, Netflix
Hall of Fame Award
During that time he also developed a children’s TV series called “Rabbits!” and several feature animation projects including “Flushed Away”. When “Flushed Away” was greenlit to become Aardman’s first CG project he moved to Los Angeles to direct the movie (with David Bowers) at Dreamworks Animation studios. The film was nominated for a BAFTA in 2007.
Sam Fell started his career as writer/director of the short film “The Big Cheese” for 3 Peach Animation/Channel4. He then joined Aardman as a director and animator on commercials and short projects like “Pop”, “Chump”, Peter Lord’s’ Oscar-nominated short film “Wat’s Pig”, and the BBC series “Rex the Runt”.
From 2008 to 2009 he directed (with Rob Stevenhagen) “The Tale of Despereaux” for Universal Studios in London at Framestore.
From there Sam moved to Portland, Oregan to direct Laika’s second feature film “ParaNorman” (with writer/director Chris Butler) which was released in August 2012 and nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA in 2013.
Since then he has been directing commercials and developing long form projects
Jennifer Lee, Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney Animation Studios
Hall of Fame Award
Jennifer Michelle Lee is an American filmmaker. She is the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios. She is best known as the writer and one of the directors of Frozen (2013) and its sequel Frozen II (2019), the former of which earned her an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Lee is the first female director of a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film and the first female director of a feature film that earned more than $1 billion in gross box office revenue.
Mediawan Kids & Family
Hall of Fame Award: International Studio of the Year
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Mediawan Kids & Family is the division of Mediawan, the European independent multigenre studio, dedicated to the production and distribution of children and family content for audiences worldwide. The company is the European leader in animation and produces premium TV shows, high-end feature films and digital content for kids, tweens, young adults and families. Mediawan Kids & Family houses five production labels headquartered in France: the well-established animation label Method Animation, brand-new 2D animation TV label for kids Somewhere Animation, live-action shows for youth and family studio Elliott Studio, Joann Sfar’s Magical Society and Mediawan Kids & Family Cinema. New international companies have joined the group lately: Palomar Animation in Italy, Wildseed Studios in the UK, and Submarine Animation in the Netherlands.
Hayao Miyazaki, Co-founder, Studio Ghibli & Director, "The Boy and the Heron"
Hall of Fame Award: Lifetime Achievement
Born in 1941 in Tokyo, Japan. Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 with Isao Takahata. Among his eleven animated features, Spirited Away (2001) broke every box office record in Japan, and won the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival and the 2002 Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature Film.
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) received the Osella Award at the 2004 Venice International Film Festival. Miyazaki was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2005 Venice International Film Festival. The Wind Rises (2013) was nominated for the 2013 Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature. In 2014, the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented him with an Honorary Oscar® for Lifetime Achievement.
Floyd Norman, Animator & Disney Legend
Hall of Fame Award
With over 60 years in the industry, Floyd Norman has become an animation legend, working with such giants as Walt Disney, William Hanna, Joe Barbera, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery and the creative teams at Sesame Street and Pixar. He has served in nearly every department of animation. From cel painter to story director. Of course, he’s also an animator.
Norman was born in Santa Barbara, CA in 1935 and started his career assisting Archie cartoonist Bill Woggon on the Katy Keene comic book while still in high school. After attending the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, he was hired at Walt Disney Studios in 1956. Sleeping Beauty (1959) would become his first feature title (though he went uncredited), while also making him the first African- American artist to work for the company. After serving in the Korean War, Norman returned to Disney to work on One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), and Mary Poppins (1964). Walt Disney recommended the young artists’ move to the Story Department when he saw the gag sketches Norman was creating to entertain his colleagues. In his new position, He helped storyboard and write The Jungle Book (1967). After Disney’s passing in 1966, Norman left to form his own company, Vignette Films, with fellow animator Leo Sullivan. Vignette was one of the first companies to create live-action and animated films about Black history. These films were screened in high schools and colleges across the United States in the pre-Civil Rights era. The company also worked on fun studio projects; they created the Soul Train main title animation and animated the original pilot for Fat Albert. Finally, Norman created animated segments for Sesame Street.
In the 1970s, Norman joined Hanna Barbera, where he worked alongside the two Saturday morning cartoon pioneers to animate and write some of TV’s most notable shows including: The Smurfs, Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, among others.
Norman would return to Disney in the 1970s to animate on Robin Hood (1973). In the 1980s Floyd would join Disney Publishing where he wrote and illustrated a number of Disney children’s books, as well as pen the daily “Mickey Mouse Comic Strip.” It was a job that lasted nearly six years. He would later return to Disney Animation to work in the Story Department on The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and Mulan (1998). That same decade, Norman would begin work with Pixar on such movies as Toy Story2 (1999) and Monster’s Inc. (2001). He helped create numerous classic sequences for both films.
Norman has written about his career in several books, including Faster! Cheaper!: The Flip Side of the Art of Animation, and Animated Life: A Lifetime of Tips, Tricks, Techniques and Stories from an Animation Legend. He also contributes to the website Afro-Kids.com.
The Disney studio would honor Floyd Norman in 2007, naming him a “Disney Legend.” This top honor is only bestowed to the best and brightest of the Disney organization. Other honors include his induction into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Winsor McCay Award in 2003. He was also presented the Lifetime Achievement in Animation in 2015 from the International Family Film Festival and was honored with the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Cartoonists Society in 2019.
In 2016, Norman’s storied career was the focus of the feature documentary Floyd Norman: An Animated Life. The movie premiered on Netflx and was in consideration for the 2017 Oscars. It won top honors at numerous film festivals including the San Diego Comic Con International Film Festival and the Bentonville Film Festival created by actress Geena Davis to bring attention to diversity in film and TV production.
At 88 years of age, Floyd Norman remains the picture of perseverance. Not one to retire, he continues to have an impact on animation as a filmmaker and mentor, taking on freelance work in and outside of Disney. Recently, Floyd returned to Sesame Street for their 50th Anniversary to direct and write a new animated segment for the classic series. Like the show, Floyd shows no sign of calling it quits.
Gina Shay, Producer, "Trolls Band Together"
Hall of Fame Award
Gina Shay has over 25 years of experience producing animated films, which includes a full decade of films and specials for DreamWorks Animation. She produced Trolls Band Together, and most recently produced Trolls World Tour In addition to developing and producing Trolls and Trolls World Tour, she produced the box-office hit Shrek Forever After, the fourth installment of the wildly successful Shrek franchise.
Her list of shorts include Shrek the Halls, Shrek’s first-ever original animated holiday special, and aired to an enthusiastic response in November of 2007 on ABC.
Before joining DreamWorks Animation, Gina spent another decade producing for Paramount Pictures serving as executive producer of The Spongebob Squarepants Movie. She was also the co-producer on Paramount Pictures’ and Nickelodeons Movies’ first CG Oscar®-nominated animated feature film, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Prior to that she was the line producer on the highly acclaimed, award-winning, CG animated feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, where her responsibilities included putting together a digital animation studio in just two months’ time in order to accommodate the feature’s demanding production schedule.
Gina began her professional career in filmmaking as a production manager on Ralph Bakshi’s and Paramount Pictures’ feature film Cool World. She then moved on to Disney to serve as associate producer on two films, Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin and Pocahontas: Journey to a New World. She also worked on the virtual attraction The Spiderman Ride for Universal Studios Theme Park.
Gina attended Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, New York.
Shuzo John Shiota, President, Polygon Pictures
Hall of Fame Award
Shuzo John Shiota was raised in the United States and is a graduate of the Sophia University Faculty of Law, Department of International Legal Studies. After joining the Nippon Steel Corporation in 1991, Shiota went on to participate in the launch of Dream Pictures Studio in 1997.
He moved to Polygon two years later and in 2003 assumed the position of President and CEO. As studio head Shiota has spearheaded efforts to cultivate Polygon’s overseas presence, helping the studio to become a leading developer of TV series and content targeted at the foreign market. Shiota has also served as a judge at major Japanese and international film festivals including Prix Ars Electronica (AUS), SIGGRAPH (U.S.) and the Annecy International Animation Film Festival (France). In 2008, he was selected as one of the “25 Toon Titans of Asia” by popular industry publication Animation Magazine. He also presided as conference chair for SIGGRAPH Asia in December 2021, and in 2022 received a Special Acheivement Award at the 25th Japan Media Arts Festival. His hobbies include playing in a band.
Tara Sorensen, Head of Creative Development, Children’s Programming, Apple TV+
Hall of Fame Award
The Presenters
Presenters coming soon!
Master of Ceremonies
Eric Bauza, Voice-over Artist
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Eric Bauza started his career in animation as a character designer working with a few production studios in Hollywood. It was this introduction to the animation world that led him to a successful career as one of the most in demand voiceover artists in town.
In 2022 he won an Emmy for Outstanding Voice Performance in an Animated Program for his work as Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian, Daffy Duck, and Tweety in the “Looney Tunes Cartoons” series. He has also received Emmy and Annie Award nominations for his work as the title character in “The Adventures of Puss in Boots” and “Muppet Babies” as well as for Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in “Looney Tunes Cartoons.” His other television credits include “Looney Tunes Cartoons”, “Unikitty”, “Archibald’s Next Big Thing”, “The Rocketeer”. “Ballmastrz: 9009,” “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Turtles,” Disney’s “Star vs. The Forces of Evil,” “Breadwinners,” “Uncle Grandpa,” “Atomic Puppet,” “The Powerpuff Girls,” “The Fairly OddParents,” “Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production,” “Ultimate Spider-Man,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Transformers: Robots in Disguise,” “Sanjay and Craig” “Mighty Magiswords” and the voice of Fozzie Bear, the big-hearted comedian, in Disney Junior’s reimagined “Muppet Babies” television series.
On the big screen, Bauza is known for voicing Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd, and Marvin the Martian in “Space Jam: A New Legacy”. He has voiced characters in “The Book of Life,” and “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water”, as well as Woody Woodpecker in the “Woody Woodpecker” feature film for Universal Studios. He has also voiced characters in commercials such as Lucky the Leprechaun for Lucky Charms cereal, Trix Rabbit for Trix cereal and Marvin the Martian for Nike. Most recently, he voiced Marvin the Martian for Walmart commercial, “Famous Visitors”. Originally from Toronto, Ontario Canada, Bauza currently resides in Los Angeles. In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his family and friends.