Annie Awards to Honor Trio of Groundbreaking Animators
When the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood) presents its 48th Annie Awards virtually on April 16, a trio of influential artists will be bestowed Winsor McCay Awards for career contributions: Willie Ito, Bruce Smith, and a posthumous honor to Sue Nichols, whom ASIFA describes as one of the few women who had a voice in the development of films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan and Brave. Ito says he knew his career path when he first saw Disney's 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but World War II meant that his family would be among the Japanese Americans sent to internment camps.