Recipient of the
2023 Annie Awards/ASIFA – June Foray Award
Given to individuals who have made a significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation.
"Mindy receives this award for her continued research into the women of early animated cinema, for making positive changes in animation, and inspiring those around her."
Mindy Johnson
Creative
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“Mindy Johnson has a talent for discovering intriguing stories that cast a light on the human experience. She deftly takes her readers on extraordinary journeys into unexplored realms of our collective past.”
— Speaker Series, Los Angeles
Bio
Award-winning author, historian, filmmaker, educator, musician and more, Mindy Johnson’s creative accomplishments reflect the diversity of her talents and experience. A leading expert on women’s roles in animation and film history, Mindy writes and speaks on early cinema, animation, women’s history, and creativity.
A recipient of the prestigious ASIFA-Hollywood June Foray "Annie" Award, given to individuals who've made a significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation. Mindy's honors also include the Academy Film Scholar Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences/Oscars.org, and the ASIFA–Hollywood AEF Grant, for continued research and writing on the contributions of the earliest women within our collective animated past. With several forthcoming volumes underway, Mindy's groundbreaking discoveries continue to cast light on the invisible narrative of women’s presence within the first century of the motion picture industry. Her latest landmark breakthrough is the discovery of Bessie Mae Kelley and her surviving films believed to be the earliest surviving hand-drawn animation, animated and directed by a woman, forever busting the myth of women no longer present at the dawn of the animation industry.
A sought-after speaker, Mindy explores a wide range of subjects within her presentations and appearances at numerous studios, campuses, international festivals and conferences including: The Smithsonian Speakers Series, Ottawa International Animation Festival, NAFF Festival Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lucasfilm, Dreamworks, TCM Classic Film Festival, Film Forum-NYC, D23 Expo, ABC-Network Specials, San Diego ComiCon, CTN Expo, World Animation Festival and more.
Mindy has produced record-breaking global campaigns, creative content, exhibitions and events for a growing list of clients including: The Walt Disney Company, AMPAS/Oscars.org, WNET/American Masters, Stage Nine Productions, The Walt Disney Family Museum, SPARK Animation Festival, Film Forum-NYC, SiriusXM Radio, and Horipro Entertainment.
In addition to her continuing research, various literary efforts, and consulting, Mindy is also an award-winning playwright, songwriter, and contributing artist on several internationally acclaimed recordings and published compositions. Mindy teaches film and animation courses in the Los Angeles area, including a first-of-its-kind course on the history of women in animation based on her continued ground-breaking research, at CalArts — California Institute of the Arts; as well as a balanced approach to Animation History at UCLA School of Theatre Film & Television in Los Angeles, and Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA.
ACADEMY FILM SCHOLAR
