A College of the Canyons (COC) cinema instructor is set to receive the June Foray Honor at the 50th Annie Awards Saturday. 

 Mindy Johnson is the expected recipient of the juried award, which is given to individuals who have made a significant impact on the art and industry of animation. 

“I was completely gobsmacked,” said Johnson about hearing the news. “I did not expect it at all. When I got the call, I was in complete shock.”

Johnson is being recognized for her research into the earliest women and under-represented groups in the animation film industry. 

Johnson’s recent discovery happens to be the earliest surviving hand-drawn animation, animated and directed by a woman: Bessie Mae Kelley, a pioneering animator who worked with Bray Studios in 1917.  

Kelley’s grandnephew had stored the film, enabling Johnson to restore two of Kelley’s surviving films.

“This discovery completely changes our entire cinematic history,” said Johnson. “It challenges the myth that women were not present at the dawn of the animation industry.” 

Johnson’s book “The Only Woman Animator: Bessie Mae Kelley & Women at the Dawn of an Industry” introduces Kelley’s work to the world and highlights her early contributions to the animation industry.

Johnson has been teaching film studies and film history at COC as an adjunct professor for 20 years and also teaches animation history at CalArts and Drexel University. 

“The cinema studies program and the School of Humanities are so very proud to count Mindy among our ranks,” said Andy McCutcheon, dean of the college’s School of Humanities. “I can’t think of a more deserving recipient of this prestigious award. Mindy is not only a ground-breaking, recognized scholar in her field, she is also an amazing teacher who inspires our students through her example, especially women who aspire to a career in the fields of cinema studies, animation, or filmmaking.”

Other recipients who have received this award previously demonstrate  a wide diversity of abilities and talent:  film historian Leonard Maltin, Nickelodeon executive Linda Simensky, animator Dave Master and experimental animation expert Dr. William Moritz.

“It’s still sinking in,” said Johnson. “To receive that acknowledgment industry-wide is profound. I am deeply honoured. It will continue to reverberate for years to come.” 

Johnson is expected to receive the award on Saturday, Feb. 25, at UCLA Royce Hall. 

For more information about the college’s cinema department click here. 

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