The Department of Animation was established in 2002, and it is one of the earliest units engaged in animation teaching and research in China. In 2004, it was awarded with the title of the "National Animation Teaching and Research Base" by the National Radio and Television Administration. Animation was listed as a provincial key discipline.
The Department of Animation always focuses on the artistic characteristics of animation, emphasizes realistic observation, and encourages students to experiment with narrative strategies, techniques, and media. It aims to cultivate high-level animation film talents and scholars with certain aesthetic accomplishment and social observation ability, comprehensive painting and modeling ability, and mastery of film and television audio-visual technology in the context of the current era. The undergraduate teaching emphasizes practice, covers various types of extended courses and workshops, encourages students to collaborate in other disciplines and art fields, and cultivates innovative and versatile talents with a broad international perspective and a solid foundation in Chinese traditional culture.
With almost 20 years of experience, the Department of Animation has made remarkable achievements in teaching, standing out in China's animation education industry and showing its strength in the international animation education field. Since the first undergraduate class graduated from the Department of Animation in 2006, students' works have been selected for more than 1,200 animation film festivals and illustration and comic festivals at home and abroad, winning a total of 724 awards. The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in Japan, the Berlin International Short Film Festival, the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, and the Feinaki Beijing Animation Week have all set up a special "CAA Animation Department Works Exhibition" section. The China Academy of Art has become the only Chinese university to have a special showcase of its works on these platforms.
It is particularly noteworthy that the work Seahorse of an undergraduate student from the Animation Department won the Crystal Award in the student creation category at the 2021 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, while a master student's graduation design Stray Dog on the Bridge won the Jury Award in the student creation category at the 2022 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The works of students from the Department of Amination have won awards consecutively at the world's top animation film festivals, breaking the record for awards received by students from CAA, as well as creating a new record in China's animation history.
The Department of Animation currently has 11 full-time specialty teachers of officially budgeted posts, including Koji Yamamura, an internationally renowned animation director, Annecy Crystal Award winner, and professor in the Film Research Lab at Tokyo University of the Arts. In addition, Gerben Schermer, a senior judge and curator from internationally renowned animation film festivals, has been appointed as a distinguished professor and mentor to master students. Together with the faculty of the Animation Department, a mentor team with significant industry influence has been formed.
In the future, the Department of Animation, guided by the principle of blazing a nationalized path for contemporary Chinese animated films, will focus on creative practices in new reality animation and continue to explore the interactions between animation imagery and new technologies and media.
