Two Sheridan College graduates invited to join Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Two graduates of Sheridan’s renowned animation program have been invited to join the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Comprised of more than 7,000 accomplished professionals working in cinema, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the world's preeminent movie-related organization. Members of the Academy are eligible to vote for the annual Oscar awards.

Graham Annable, who graduated in 1991, made his directorial debut with the 2015 Oscar-nominated feature The Boxtrolls for LAIKA Studio. His other credits for LAIKA include the award-winning stop-motion films Coraline and ParaNorman.

As a supervising animator at Disney Animation Studios, Michael Surrey worked on The Princess and the Frog and The Lion King, among other hit feature films.  A 1987 Sheridan graduate, Surrey is currently a supervising animator and storyboard artist at DreamWorks Animation.

There are now seven Sheridan alumni who are members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Chris Williams won an Oscar in 2015 for directing the feature film Big Hero 6 for Disney Animation. The 1993 graduate also received a nomination for Bolt in 2009. Alan Barillaro, who graduated in 1996, is a director and supervising animator at Pixar. Oscar nominee and 1997 graduate, Michael Thurmeier (No Time for Nuts, 2006), is a director at Blue Sky Studios. Rex Grignon, a 1984 alumnus who was most recently the head of character animation at DreamWorks, is co-founder and chief creative officer of the cloud-based animation platform, Nimble. Michael Fukushima, who graduated in 1985, is executive producer of the National Film Board’s English Animation Studio. 

Top right: Alumni Graham Annable (left) and Michael Surrey, presenting at the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International in 2015. Michael's photo by Grayden Laing, Canadian Animation Blog.