ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Educators Forum (AEF) is proud to announce its scholarship recipients for academic year 2025-26. Six students were selected, one graduate student and five undergraduates, from the United States, Canada and Spain. The scholarships awarded this year totaled $26,800. and will be used to cover costs for necessary software and hardware, creative and academic research, and tuition.

The AEF scholarships are merit-based and designed to support college students in continuing their education in the field of animation. Each individual student’s written proposals, letters of recommendation from faculty, and demo reel/still art were taken into consideration as part of the selection process. 

The 2025-26 AEF Scholarship recipients are: 

Gyumin Choi – California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA

Undergraduate Student – Creative Animation Project

Ella Hiebert – Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC

Senior Undergraduate Student – Creative Animation Project

Rachel Lee – Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

Senior Undergraduate Student – Creative Animation Project 

Felix Lipp – California Institute for the Arts, Valencia, CA

Undergraduate Student – Creative Animation Project 

Paola Mariana Patino Padilla – U-tad Centro Universitario de 

Tecnologia y Arte, Madrid, Spain

Junior Undergraduate Student – Creative Animation Project 

Ziyun Xiao – University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Graduate Student – Animation Studies/Research 

AEF is proud to support these six animation students on their journey towards membership in the global animation community. Now more than ever, animation in      its many forms provides a way to communicate across cultures and across borders.

     ASIFA-Hollywood is the world’s first and foremost professional organization dedicated to promoting the Art of Animation and celebrating the people who create it. Today, ASIFA-Hollywood, the largest chapter of the international organization ASIFA, supports a wide range of animation activities and preservation efforts through its membership. Current initiatives include the Animation Archive, Animation Aid Foundation, Animation Educators Forum (AEF), animated film preservation, open source software support, special events, classes, screenings, and the annual Annie Awards™.

For more information about ASIFA-Hollywood, please visit www.asifa-hollywood.org.