Variety’s 10 Animators to Watch and Creative Impact in Animation Honorees to Be Celebrated at Virtual Event

William Earl
·2 min read
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Variety will celebrate its seventh annual 10 Animators to Watch with a virtual event on Oct. 19 in partnership with Nickelodeon. The event will also honor Academy Award-winning filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller with the annual Creative Impact in Animation Award.

Lord and Miller have spent their careers pushing boundaries to find new ways of telling unique visual stories and are responsible for some of animation’s biggest franchises, including “The Lego Movie” and Academy Award-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” This year they produced “The Mitchells vs. The Machines,” which was released on Netflix in production with Sony Pictures Animation.

Guests will receive a virtual experience kit curated by Variety and Nickelodeon. Kits will include food and beverage items, and a pair of keepsake wine glasses.

“I am so excited that we can all come together for the seventh year to see Variety’s 10 Animators to Watch event continue to grow and celebrate animation. A huge congratulations to the 10 artists spotlighted, especially Nickelodeon’s very own Sung Shin and Yashar Kassai for their incredible work on ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ and ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Next Chapter,’ respectively,” said Ramsey Naito, president of animation at Paramount and Nickelodeon.

“Phil and Chris have made one of the biggest impacts on our industry with so many landmark achievements, and I’m honored to present them with this year’s Creative Impact Award as they continue to create the very best work on screen,” Naito continued.

This year’s 10 Animators to Watch include:

Joaquín Cociña & Cristóbal León (“The Wolf House”)

Chris Copeland & Justin Copeland (“Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts”)

Aphton Corbin (“Twenty Something”)

Emma de Swaef & Marc James Roels (“The House”)

Lucy Heavens & Nic Smal (“Kiff”)

Yashar Kassai (“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”)

Lindsey Olivares (“The Mitchells vs. The Machines”)

Sung Shin (“Star Trek: Prodigy”)

Gaelle Thierry (“Summit of the Gods”)

Victoria Vincent (“We the People”)

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