January 30th, 2024 
Jerry Beck 
The Animation Educators’ Forum (AEF), a nonprofit association of teachers and scholars whose focus is the art of animated film, announce the selection of its 2023 Hall of Fame recipients. The AEF will announce a new group of recipients each January. It you wish to suggest a worthy candidate, please visit: https://animationeducatorsforum.org and send your suggestions to Tom Sito, administrator.
This virtual hall is dedicated to the artists and scholars whose teaching influenced the history of animation.
The Animation Educators Hall of Fame, Class of 2024:
Charles Csuri (1922-2022) Producer, director, educator. Dubbed “The father
of digital art and computer animation” by Smithsonian Magazine, he was
a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge, and a painter who exhibited with Roy
Lichtenstein and George Segal. Csuri created The Advanced Computing
Center for Art and Design at The Ohio State University, where he mentored
Animators like Chris Wedge.
Tony Eastman (1942-2020) Animator, director. Tony animated Beavis &
Butthead and directed Doug. Tony was the lead animator for TV
Funhouse on Saturday Night Live. He taught animation at the Philadelphia
College of Art.
Dave Hilberman (1911- 2007) A layout artist at the Walt Disney Studios, Dave
was an art director on Bambi. He was a social activist and a leader in the 1941
Disney animators’ strike. He later helped start UPA and Tempo Productions.
Blacklisted, he continued to work into the 1980s on He-Man and The Smurfs.
Dave taught at San Francisco State University, where he influenced a
generation of young artists.
Eric Larson (1905-1988) Animator. One of Disney’s Nine Old Men. In 1973 he
was put in charge of the Disney Studio’s artists training program where, until
his death, he mentored many of the future stars of the animation renaissance of
the 1990s — Brad Bird, Don Bluth, Henry Selick, John Musker and Ron
Clements, Tim Burton, Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, Lorna Cook, Bill Kroyer.
Boris Morkovin (1882- 1968) Sociologist, psychologist. Prof. Morkovin studied
in Moscow and Prague before coming to the US. At the University of Southern
California, he was the first chair of its Cinema Department and did some of the
first lectures on Disney animation in 1932. Walt Disney hired him to teach his
artists the theories of humor from 1935 until 1939. He was also a pioneer in the
science of film demographics. In 1935 he oversaw the creation of the first
Greek letter fraternity for the motion picture industry, Delta Kappa Alpha.
Roger Noake (born 1941) Educator. British senior lecturer on the animation
course at Farnham, The University for the Creative Arts, UCA. Roger retired in
2009 after 35+ years of teaching. His students included Michaël Dudok de
Wit. Between 1980 and 1984 he helped conduct workshops at India’s National
Institute of Design, which led to the establishment of its animation program. He
is the author of several important books on animation techniques and practices.
Ishu Patel (born 1942) Director, animator, educator. Best known for award-
winning experimental films made for the National Film Board of Canada, such
as The Bead Game and Paradise. He began teaching at India’s National
Institute of Design before joining the NFB, coming back each summer to teach.
He also did workshops for the NFB around the world. He later taught at USC
and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981) German-British filmmaker. Lotte was known
for her silhouette stop motion animated films, including the feature-length
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). After World War II she moved to
England, where she became a pioneer in TV animation. Over the course of her
extensive career, she regularly conducted workshops – educating and
demonstrating her techniques at various organizations, campuses and
museums, aligned with her numerous exhibitions featuring her distinctive work.
Lotte was recently selected to receive the Winsor McCay award at the annual
Annie Awards™.
Raoul Servais (1928-2023) Director, educator. Award-winning Belgian
animator and filmmaker best known for his short film, Harpya. Raoul was the
founder of the animation faculty of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent,
which was the first school of its kind in continental Europe. Servais and the
school were a big influence on European animators for decades.
Bill Shull (1902-1989) Animator, educator. Bill, a former Disney animator
(Dumbo and Fantasia), established the UCLA Animation Workshop in 1948
with a focus on “one person, one film.”
ASIFA-Hollywood is the world’s 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 (Association Internationale du Film d’Animation), supports a range of animation activities and preservation efforts through its membership. Current initiatives include the Animation Archive, Animation Aid Foundation, Animation Educators Forum, animated film preservation, animation open source support, special events, screenings and of course, the annual Annie Awards™.
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