January 26, 2024 – Sheridan College’s legacy of success continues with alumni receiving some of the highest honours across multiple fields. After seven Sheridan Alumni won Emmy awards earlier this month, more accolades are being piled on Sheridan grads at the Annie Awards, the COPA Awards, and the 2024 Metropolitan Design Challenge.
Sheridan Grads Up For Best Character Animation, Best Character Design, and Best Production Design Nominations
Three alumni receive nominations for the 51st Annual Annie Awards, the animation industry’s top honor. The International Film Society (ASIFA – Hollywood) will present the awards on February 17, 2024, in Los Angeles.
Mike Beaulieu (Animation ’00) earned a nomination for Best Character Animation – Live Action for Disney+’s Ahsoka. This isn’t Beaulieu’s first time at the Annies; he previously received nominations in 2013 and 2021. Nikolas Ilic (Bachelor of Animation ’11) is nominated for Best Character Design – Feature for his work on Amazon Prime Video’s Merry Little Batman. Patrick O’Keefe, a former Bachelor of Illustration student, is recognized for Best Production Design – Feature for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Graduates also contributed to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Shape Island, both nominated in their respective categories. Mark Jones, Dean of the Faculty of Animation, Arts, and Design, expressed pride in the graduates, stating, “The Annies are the highest honor in the animation industry, a testament to the exemplary education Sheridan provides.”
Sheridan alumni have a rich history of success at the Annies, Oscars, Emmys, and Canadian Screen Awards. In 2021, Trevor Jimenez (Animation ’07) won for Best Storyboarding, and Dean DeBlois (Animation ’90) secured top honors for Best Animated Feature and Outstanding Achievement – Directing.
The recognition of Sheridan alumni’s hard work inspires current students, reinforcing the college’s reputation as a powerhouse in animation education.
Sheridan’s ‘Stories of Home’ Nominated for Best Multicultural Story
Sheridan College’s collaborative project, Stories of Home, is a finalist for the Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPA) in the Best Multicultural Story category under the Academic division. This recognition further highlights Sheridan’s commitment to diversity and storytelling.
The joint effort between Sheridan’s English Language Studies, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL Plus), and Journalism diploma programs aims to amplify the voices of ESL and TESOL Plus students, faculty, and staff. The project provides a platform for sharing personal stories, fostering connectivity, empathy, and understanding.
Started as a 2021 Spring-Summer ESL Club initiative, Stories of Home received a $10,000 Scholarship, Research, and Creative Activities (SRCA) grant in 2022. The project encourages students to share their experiences in creative forms, promoting pride in one’s heritage and identity while championing equity and inclusion.
Diana Catargiu and Nataly Shaheen, faculty members involved in the project, emphasize the importance of recognizing the shared humanity in these stories. Despite language barriers, they aim to create a space where students’ diverse experiences become an integral part of Sheridan’s collective memory.
The Stories of Home creative project showcases the power of storytelling through various mediums—written pieces, images, audio, and video material. This recognition at COPA reflects the project’s success in highlighting and celebrating the richness that diversity brings to the educational experience at Sheridan College.
Sheridan Students Triumph in 2024 Design Challenge
Metropolitan Floors announced the winners of the 2024 Metropolitan Design Challenge at Toronto’s Interior Design Show (IDS), with three talented Sheridan College students emerging victorious. Jenny Bae Huggon, Gigi Lombardo-Dybalski, and Natalie Guberney showcased their winning design, titled “Origins,” inviting interaction from attendees through a map, encouraging them to document their own origins.
Open to Ontario students enrolled in post-secondary interior design programs, the challenge aligns with Metropolitan’s commitment to giving back to the design community. The theme, “Crafted with Conscience,” drew inspiration from Metropolitan’s Clean Floors program, emphasizing sustainability and ethical manufacturing.
The winning students expressed their inspiration, with Gigi Lombardo-Dybalski stating, “We were really inspired by how Kentwood knows the origins of their wood.” Natalie Guberney added, “We wanted to symbolize our connection to the earth but also to each other.” Jenny Bae Huggon shared the hope that their piece would provoke meaningful conversations among viewers.
