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A Celebration of Excellence: Animation Magazine’s 2021 Awards

The 2021 Honor Roll

Gaumont Animation

International Studio of the Year Award

Formed in France in 1895, Gaumont is the first film company in the world, celebrating 125 years of history and innovation. With offices in Paris, Los Angeles, London, Köln and Berlin, Gaumont remains an industry leader, producing and distributing high-quality TV programming and films. Specializing in producing local stories with global appeal, Gaumont’s current slate includes talent-driven, diverse, and distinctive titles across multiple languages for the world’s leading global streaming platforms and channels.

For Netflix, the breakout sensation watched by 70 million households during its first month, and the service’s most-watched non-English series, and 2nd most-watched series over-all to date, globally, Lupin, directed by Louis Leterrier and starring Omar Sy in France – 2 seasons available with a 3rd ordered. The flagship series launching season 6 on November 5th of 2021, Narcos, F is for Family, 5th season and in production, High in the Clouds, the animated feature developed together with Paul McCartney, Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles based on the comic books by Stan Sakai, Barbarians, season 2, the period epic drama set in Germany, the global hit with 2 seasons

For Amazon Prime Video U.S., Do Re & Mi with Kristen Bell, El Presidente co-created by Armando Bó and Pablo Larraín in Latin America, 2nd season and, the action thriller Totems in France. For Apple TV+, based on the Zen Shorts book series of Jon. J. Muth and winner of the prestigious Peabody award and a Daytime Emmy® award, Stillwater.

Gaumont co-produces and distributes around ten films a year in theaters. The film library encompasses over 1400 titles from prestigious directors such as Louis Malle, Jean-Luc Godard, and more recently, Toledano and Nakache for The Intouchables, the highest-grossing French-language movie to date with over $450 million in revenue to date. www.gaumonttelevision.com

Phil Lord & Chris Miller - Executive Producers/Writers/Directors

Hall of Fame Game-Changer Award

Academy Award winning filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller are the Academy Award winning, multi-hyphenate duo behind some of today’s most successful films including Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Lego Movie, Mitchells vs. The Machines, 21 & 22 Jump Street, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Known for their unique sensibilities and maverick mindset as writer-producer-directors, Lord and Miller have spent their careers pushing the boundaries of creativity to deliver a fresh, unexpected perspective with each of their projects. Immensely talented and endlessly innovative, the pair’s projects have successfully drawn in audiences of all demographics time and time again, collectively earning over $3.3 billion at the worldwide box office.

On the features side, Lord and Miller most recently produced the Netflix animated feature, The Mitchells Vs. The Machines which premiered in April 2021 and went on to become the platform’s biggest animated film to date.

In 2018, the duo won the Academy Award for the animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The film, which Lord co-wrote and the pair produced, offers a fresh take on the Spider-Man Universe by shifting the focus of the story to the lesser-known man behind the mask, Miles Morales. It opened to an unheard-of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and was praised by critics for its groundbreaking visuals that brought comic book illustrations to life in an unprecedented way. The film won the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for “Best Animated Feature,” along with a BAFTA Award, seven Annie Awards and 20+ Best Animated Feature awards by various critics’ groups including the coveted Broadcast Film Critics Association and Los Angeles and New York critic groups.

The pair is also behind the hugely successful Lego Movie franchise. In 2014, Lord and Miller wrote and directed The Lego Movie, which debuted at #1 and remained on top of the box office for four straight weeks. The film earned over $469 million worldwide and was the 5th highest-grossing domestic feature of 2014. It earned Lord and Miller rave reviews for their imaginative and unique sensibilities, as well as the BAFTA, PGA, and BFCA Critics Choice Awards for “Best Animated Feature,” the National Board of Review Award for “Best Original Screenplay,” and The Annie Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Writing for an Animated Feature.” ‘The Lego Movie’ was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for “Best Animated Film” and was named one of the top ten films of 2014 on over 75 critics’ lists. The film inspired two spinoffs, The Lego Ninjago Movie and The Lego Batman Movie, which each opened in 2017 to rave reviews, and great box office and critic success. In 2018, the pair wrote and produced the sequel to the massively successful franchise, The Lego Movie 2.

Lord and Miller also directed 21 and 22 Jump Street, which earned a combined $531 million at the worldwide box office and earned the pair praise for their innate ability to transform unlikely material into cinematic brilliance. The duo’s first feature was 2009’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which they wrote and directed. The film was loosely based on the beloved children’s book of the same name and earned Lord and Miller a Golden Globe and Critics Choice nomination for “Best Animated Feature” along with four Annie Award nominations for excellence in animation, including “Best Direction” and “Best Screenplay.”

Next up on the features side, Lord and Miller have several projects in various stages of development including the live-action feature tent-pole The Last Human for Sony, Fox’s Artemis based on the novel by Andy Weir and Project Hail Mary, an adaptation of Weir’s forthcoming novel, starring Ryan Gosling for MGM. They are currently in production on Cocaine Bear a unique character-driven thriller written by Jimmy Warden with Elizabeth Banks directing and the adult comedy Strays, a sci-fi adventure feature based on an original idea by Weir for Universal. Other projects in development for Lord Miller include a feature adaptation of Michael Lewis’ best selling novel The Premonition: A Pandemic Story, Everyday Parenting Tips starring Ryan Reynolds which is based on Simon Rich’s New Yorker short story, and 48 Hours in Vegas about Dennis Rodman’s legendary trip to Las Vegas during the Chicago Bull’s 1998 NBA finals. Additionally, they’ll reteam with 21 Jump Street star Channing Tatum to produce a monster movie for Universal and they are behind the upcoming Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 which is set for release in 2022.

On the television side, Lord and Miller are behind the Apple TV series The Afterparty which Miller also created and serves as showrunner on. The series centers on a murder mystery at a high school reunion, with each episode featuring a different character’s perspective on the same story along with a unique visual style. It was recently announced that the pair will executive produce a modern refresh of their critically-acclaimed animated comedy series Clone High for HBO Max and they continue to develop a slate of live-action and animated series in both comedy and drama, including a suite of television series based on Sony’s Marvel Characters. Lord and Miller recently served as executive producers on FOX’s animated comedy series Bless the Harts from creator Emily Spivey and were also behind the successful Fox comedy series The Last Man on Earth from actor and creator Will Forte. Lord & Miller directed the first two episodes of The Last Man on Earth, for which they received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. The pair also directed the pilot episode of the breakout hit Brooklyn Nine-Nine and served as co-executive producers on the successful CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

Lord and Miller’s collaboration began when the pair met as students at Dartmouth College. The two contend it was a mistake that landed them a job developing Saturday morning cartoons for the Walt Disney Company, which led to their stint developing primetime animated shows for Touchstone Television. In 2002, they executive produced, wrote, and directed the original Clone High, which was short-lived but highly buzzed-about. The series was critically-acclaimed for its well-developed and unique personalities as well as for its witty, fast-paced dialogue, but was probably best known for causing a hunger strike in India and being quickly cancelled. Miller voiced the characters of John F. Kennedy and Mr. Butlertron, and Lord voiced the characters of Principal Scudworth, Genghis Khan, and Geldhemoor, the Humkeycorn.

Lord graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College with a degree in Art History. His college animated short Man Bites Breakfast won “Best Animation” at the 1998 New England Film and Video Festival and was also included in several other festivals, including ASIFA East and ASIFA San Francisco. He is a native of Coconut Grove, Florida, and likes bikes.

Miller is a native of Lake Stevens, Washington. He left there to attend Dartmouth College, where he found a lifelong friend in Phil Lord while obtaining a degree in government and studio art: three achievements, two of which are useful to his career.

Tom McGrath - Director

Hall of Fame Billion Dollar Director Award

Academy Award © nominee Tom McGrath has been working in the entertainment industry for more than 30 years.  He most recently directed “The Boss Baby: Family Business,” the highly anticipated sequel to the Academy Award© and Golden Globe nominated film “The Boss Baby,” from DreamWorks Animation.

McGrath once again returns as director to the sequel, his sixth film as director for a DreamWorks Animation title, the most of any director at the studio. His films have grossed over $2.7 billion dollars at the worldwide box office.

Following the runaway success of 2005’s box-office hit Madagascar, for which he directed, co-wrote and voiced the lead penguin “Skipper”, McGrath reprised the same roles in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.  In addition, McGrath voiced Skipper for the Penguins of Madagascar TV show on Nickelodeon, and the short films; The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper, Merry Madagascar and Madagascar.

McGrath also starred in, and executive produced, DreamWorks Animation’s Penguins of Madagascar, and directed 2010’s Megamind.

Prior to joining DreamWorks Animation in 2000, McGrath worked as a story artist and concept design artist for such feature films as Cats & Dogs and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  He also worked as an animator and story artist on such animated films as Space Jam and Cool World.  His television work includes directing on The Ren & Stimpy Show, as well as other projects for Nickelodeon.

He is a graduate from the Character Animation program at Cal Arts and also studied Industrial Design at the University of Washington.

Chris Meledandri - Founder/CEO/Executive Producer [Illumination Entertainment]

Hall of Fame Vanguard Award

Chris Meledandri, p.g.a. (Produced by) founder and CEO of Illumination Entertainment, is one of the entertainment industry’s leading producers of event-animated films.

Illumination, which has an exclusive financing and distribution partnership with Universal Pictures, is the creator of Despicable Me, the world’s most successful animated franchise in cinematic history, which includes Minions, the fourth-highest-grossing animated film globally, as well as Despicable Me 2, an Academy Award® nominee for Best Animated Feature Film of 2013. In all, Illumination’s iconic and beloved films, which are infused with memorable and distinct characters, global appeal and cultural relevance and include 2011’s Hop, 2012’s Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, 2016’s The Secret Life of Pets and Sing, 2018’s Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch and 2019’s The Secret Life of Pets 2, have grossed $6.7 billion worldwide and feature some of the world’s most renowned talent. Meledandri also oversees Illumination’s creation of content for marketing campaigns, mobile platforms, consumer goods, social media and theme parks.

Prior to Illumination, Meledandri was a senior executive at 20th Century Fox. He became the founding president of 20th Century Fox Animation, where he both created original material with the birth of the Ice Age franchise and shepherded existing brands into the feature space, including The Simpsons and Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! Meledandri has received numerous awards for his work with Illumination, including the Producers Guild of America’s Visionary Award and being named to Vanity Fair’s New Establishment list as well as Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies. Meledandri serves on Nintendo’s board as an outside director.

Chris Nee - Executive Producer/Creator/Writer

Hall of Fame Game-Changer Award

Peabody, Humanitas, NAACP and Emmy Award-winner Chris Nee is the creator and executive producer of the acclaimed series, “Doc McStuffins,” an imaginative animated series about a six-year-old girl who is a doctor to her stuffed animals and toys. She also developed for television and executive produced the hit animated series “Vampirina,” about a young vampire girl who faces being the new kid in town when her family moves from Transylvania to Pennsylvania.

In 2018 Nee began her multiyear overall deal at Netflix, where she now writes and executive produces across live action, animation, kids, teens and adults. Nee’s first five project announcements at Netflix include “Ridley Jones,” “Dino Daycare,” “Ada Twist, Scientist,” which she is producing with Higher Ground Productions, with President Obama and Mrs. Obama serving as executive producers, and “Spirit Rangers,” which is created and executive produced by Native American Karissa Valencia and staffed with an entirely Native writing staff.

Nee’s production company, Laughing Wild, is focused on uplifting up-and-coming talent with diverse points of view. The recently announced “Antiracist Baby,” a series of musical animated shorts to be created with the work of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, fits squarely within the mission of Nee’s work.

An accomplished children’s television writer, Nee has also managed to juggle a successful career as a documentary and reality TV producer. While on location in Alaska for Discovery Channel’s cult hit documentary series “Deadliest Catch,” Nee was simultaneously writing the first “Wonder Pets” Christmas Special for Nickelodeon. Nee received Emmy Award nominations for her work on both series.

Nee has received sixteen Emmy Award nominations and won an Emmy in 2002 for her work on the series “Little Bill.” “Doc McStuffins” won the Peabody Award in 2014. Her series have attracted top voice talent with series regulars Lauren Graham, Loretta Devine, Wanda Sykes, Patti LuPone and James Van Der Beek. Her series have also highlighted the voice talents of Michelle Obama, Ludacris, Carol Kane, Geena Davis, Portia de Rossi, Curtis Stone, Andrew Rannells and Audra McDonald amongst many others.

Nee began her career as an associate producer at Sesame Street International and spent time in Mexico, Finland, Israel and Jordan working on the local productions of the award-winning show, before transitioning over to writing for Sesame Workshop.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson - Supervising Director, "Love, Death + Robots"

Hall of Fame Game Changer Award

Jennifer Yuh Nelson is the supervising director of the Netflix animated anthology series “Love, Death + Robots” Volumes 2 & 3.

Jennifer is the first woman to solo direct a major animated feature with DreamWorks “Kung Fu Panda 2” for which she received an Oscar nomination. She also directed “Kung Fu Panda 3” and the live-action feature “The Darkest Minds,” among many other credits spanning her career that started in design and storyboarding.

Bruce W. Smith - Creator/Executive Producer

Hall of Fame Game Changer Award

Bruce W. Smith is creator and executive producer of Disney+’s “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,”the long-anticipated revival of the groundbreaking animated series “The Proud Family.”

Bruce W. Smith is creator and executive producer of Disney+’s “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,”the long-anticipated revival of the groundbreaking animated series “The Proud Family.”

An accomplished director, producer and animator, Smith has been part of the animation industry for over three decades. He is best known for creating and executive-producing Disney Channel’s hit series “The Proud Family” and “The Proud Family Movie.” Most recently Smith served as one of three directors of the Academy Award-winning short “Hair Love.”

During his tenure at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Smith supervised animation on many animated feature films including “The Princess and the Frog,” specifically for evil villain Dr. Facilier;”Winnie the Pooh;””Tarzan” and “The Emperor’s New Groove.” His gift for unique character design led him into visual development for the Studio’s other projects such as “Wreck-It-Ralph” and “Frozen.” He was also lead animator on the short film “Tangled Ever After.”

Smith co-founded Jambalaya Studio, an animation company whose goal is to generate both racially and ethnically diverse projects for all mediums, for the production of over 50 episodes for Disney Channel’s “The Proud Family” and “The Proud Family Movie.”

His additional credits include “Space Jam,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “A Goofy Movie,” “Bébé’s Kids” and “Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child.”

A California Institute of the Arts alumni, Smith resides in Los Angeles, California.

Cree Summer - Actress/Voice Over Actress

Hall of Fame Game Changer Award

Known for her charming and unique voice, Cree Summer Francks is one of the most in-demand voice actresses working in animation today. With over 340 roles on her IMDB profile, she has been working continuously since she landed the role of Penny in the 1980s’ Inspector Gadget show when she was only 13.

Fans recognize her for lending her voice to characters as distinctive and varied as Suzie Carmichael in Rugrats, Elmyra Duff in Tiny Toon Adventures, Cleo the Poodle in Clifford the Big Red Dog, Miranda in As Told By Ginger, Foxxy Love in Drawn Together, Dulcy the Dragon in Sonic the Hedgehog,  Valerie Gray in Danny Phantom, Numbuh Five in Codename: Kids Next Door, Tiff from My Life as a Teenage Robot, Granny May in Wordgirl, Blackarachnia in Transformers: Animated, Disney’s first princess of color, Princess Kida in Atlantis: The Last Empire, Chilly Cooper in The Real Ghostbusters, Ace in Dinotrux and many more.

Summer received an Annie nomination for her role as Elmyra in Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain, a Daytime Emmy nom for voicing Cleo in Clifford the Big Red Dog, three Image Awards and five Behind the Voice awards. In recent years, animation lovers have enjoyed her performances as  Witch Hagar in Voltron: Legendary Defender, Catwoman in DC Super Hero Girls, Zoe on Harvey Girls Forever, Lore Mastra on Tigtone, Crushroom in Big Hero 6: The Series, Paula/Tiger Master in The Loud House, Edna in Vampirina, Bunny Star in The Patrick Star Show, Queen Xhan in Kid Cosmic,  Ana in Puppy Dog Pals, Skeeter in Muppet Babies, Priestess in Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Star Wars: Detours, The Tom and Jerry Show, Lazur Wolf and many others.

Cree has also enjoyed a great music career, having released a solo album titled Street Faerie, produced by Lenny Kravitz in 1999. She sings for many of the characters, including Priscilla in Sherriff Callie’s Wild West, Foxxy Love in Drawn Together and Edna in Vampirina.

Cree has also enjoyed a rich career in the live-action arena: Fans remember her memorable starring role as Winifred Brooks on the NBC sitcom A Different World (1987-1993). She

Continues to star in acclaimed live-action sitcoms and dramas such as What We Do in the Shadows, Woke, Better Things and Queen Sugar.

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