Hall of Fame Awards

This year’s honorees, who will be presented with their awards at the opening night gala on Sunday, Nov. 7, are:

Gaumont Animation: International Studio of the Year. Award presented to U.S. President Nicolas Atlan and Exec VP of Creative Content Terry Kalagian.

Phil Lord & Chris Miller. The innovative producers of Sony Pictures Animation’s critically acclaimed features Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse and this year’s The Mitchells vs. the Machines. Award presented by Sony Pictures Animation President Kristine Belson. Tom McGrath. The acclaimed director of DreamWorks Animation’s two Boss Baby features, three Madagascar features and Megamind will receive the Hall of Fame: Billion Dollar Director Award.

Chris Meledandri. Founder/CEO of Illumination Entertainment and creator of Despicable Me, the world’s most successful animated franchise in cinematic history, which includes Minions, the fourth-highest-grossing animated film. Other career highlights include being the founding president of 20th Century Fox Animation and producing the Ice Age movies, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax and The Grinch, The Secret Life of Pets movies, Sing and this year’s Sing 2. He will receive the 2021 Vanguard Award.

Chris Nee. Creator of Disney’s Peabody Award-winning series Doc McStuffins, Vampirina and Netflix’s We the People, Ridley Jones and Ada Twist, Scientist. Award presented by animation veteran Jorge R. Gutierrez, creator of Maya and the Three and The Book of Life.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson. Oscar-nominated director of Kung Fu Panda 2 and supervising producer of Netflix’s acclaimed anthology series Love, Death + Robots Volume 2. Award presented by Victoria L. Howard, producer of Love, Death + Robots, Robot Chicken and BoJack Horseman.

Bruce W. Smith. Trailblazing creator of The Proud Family and

the upcoming Disney+ series The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder and director of Bébé’s Kids. Award presented by Ralph Furquhart, producer, The

Proud Family and Da Jammies.

Cree Summer. Beloved animation voice actress, best known for her work on Rugrats, Kid Cosmic, Muppet Babies, DC Super Hero Girls, Vampirina, Voltron Legendary Defender, Dawn of the Croods and many others.

The awards ceremony will be hosted by animation voice actress and Annie Awards regular Dina Sherman.