Whose History Is It?: Telling the Story of American Animation - Amid Amidi

KEYNOTE Tuesday, June 9th, 14:00-14:45

Keynote: Whose History Is It?: Telling the Story of American Animation
Amid Amidi (Animafest Zagreb Award for Outstanding Contribution to Animation Studies)

American animation history is inseparable from the corporations that produced it, and that entanglement can have consequences for how its history is told. Studios shape archives, manage reputations, and quietly determine which stories are safe to tell. Drawing on my experience as a biographer, historian, editor and journalist, this personal talk reflects on the practical difficulties of telling truthful stories about American animation in an industry that often emphasizes carefully curated narratives. Rather than proposing a new framework, I ask more basic questions: what does honesty look like when access is conditional, when silence is rewarded, and when candour carries professional risk? I consider the recurring tension between working with companies to gain access and bypassing them when access comes at the expense of honesty. Perhaps a more candid animation historiography may begin by acknowledging its own constraints.

Amid Amidi is co-founder and, from 2004 to 2025, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Cartoon Brew, an online magazine that became one of the most important platforms for information, criticism, and scholarship on animation in the twenty-first century. Amidi laid the groundwork for much subsequent research through his earlier periodical Animation Blast (1998–2007). Among his many books, the highly influential Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in 1950s Animation (2006), which earned the Theatre Library Association Award, holds a prominent place, as does The Art of Pixar Short Films (2009). His widely respected publications include The Art of “Robots” (2004) and The Art of Pixar: The Complete Colorscripts and Select Art from 25 Years of Animation (2011). In collaboration with Tee Bosustow, Amidi also authored the concise yet innovative and foundational Inside UPA (2007), a logical continuation of earlier research into modern animation. A biographical study of the American classical animator Ward Kimball, perhaps the most influential and inventive artist associated with Walt Disney Studios, is scheduled for publication in 2027.