The nonprofit Women in Animation launched a Talent Database with listings of an estimated 5,000 women, trans and nonbinary animation people as part of its diversity initiative dubbed “50/50 by 2025.”
The database offers a searchable collection of candidates to be considered for hiring in the animation industry. “While studios around the world have heard our call for balance and pledged to champion diversity, the reality is that most animation hires are influenced by word of mouth and proximity to the hiring parties. Increasing the visibility and accessibility of women will make it harder to deny our existence. In other words, the statement, ‘I’d love to hire women, but I don’t know where to find them’ will no longer be acceptable,” said WIA president Marge Dean.
The system allows potential employers to filter talent searches based on animation-specific hiring factors such as feature or series experience, years of work in a particular animation role and CG pipeline knowledge.
“Candidates within the database self-report their credits and our database team then verifies the information supplied before it is made accessible to employer searches, which has proven valuable to the integrity of a talent search,” explains database creator Liz Luu. Another feature is a gallery view which can be used to compare candidate art styles.
