SCHOLARSHIP
2024-2025 WIA Scholarship Recipients
For the 2024-2025 academic year, WIA has awarded scholarships to 55 global recipients—the largest cohort to date. The WIA Scholarship Program supports talented students who demonstrate artistic excellence, financial need, and a strong commitment to careers in animation, VFX, or gaming. Open to WIA student members worldwide, the program aims to foster the next generation of diverse industry leaders.
The scholarship pool totals $18,500 along with $92,819 in workshops, tutoring opportunities, animation equipment, and software packages for recipients of the 2024-2025 cycle from industry partners:
WIA Scholarship Program
The WIA Scholarship Program is devoted to furthering the academic efforts of deserving animation students who demonstrate creative talent, a passion for animation, a financial need, and a promising future in our industry. This program runs annually in the US fall season.
Applicants who have identified themselves as women, non-binary, or a person of underrepresented gender identity* and who are enrolled in schools all over the world to pursue various aspects of animation production are encouraged to apply.
Please send questions to [email protected]
Eligibility Requirements
- Must be an active WIA Maker-level member (at minimum) that is active through March 2025. You can read more about our membership levels on our JOIN PAGE.
- Must be an enrolled and active student at the time of submitting your application. If your school year has not started or you only have an acceptance letter by the time applications are submitted then you are not eligible.
- If attending an accredited formal college or university (Undergrad/Graduate Degree Program):
- The applicant must be registered during the 2024-2025 academic school year as an undergraduate student in the sophomore, junior or senior year of study, or a graduate student.
- If the applicant is taking formal courses (online or in person):
- All formal courses must be a minimum duration of 3 to 6 months long. Find a running list of approved online schools HERE. This includes whether they provide a transcript or certificate of completion.
- All applicants must provide proof of at least one previous course they have taken that meets the outlined requirements above within the previous (2023-2024) academic year.
- All applicants must provide proof of current enrollment in class for the duration outlined above, within the current academic year.
- Major: any field and aspect of art or animation production – with the intent of working in the animation, gaming, or VFX industry.
- Cumulative GPA of 2.85 minimum on a 4.0 scale
- Applicants do not need to be US citizens or permanent residents to apply. In compliance with U.S. federal regulations, any non-U.S.citizen who receives a scholarship from WIA must not be listed on the published “Specially Designated Nationals” terrorism watch list
- Age: 18+
- Previous scholarship recipients are not eligible to apply.
Required Application Materials
- One personal statement, submitted in PDF format, not to exceed 500 words in English that tell the judges:
- Who you are as an artist
- What your career goal is
- Why you are applying for this scholarship and how you will plan to use the grant
- Samples of work:
- (Required) 6-10 examples of your fine art illustration, life drawing, photography, sculpture, character design, storyboards, etc.
- (Recommended) A working portfolio website with required passwords
- (If applicable) A reel or an animated film (less than 3 minutes) of your creation that showcases your skills
- NOTE: All reels/films should explicitly include what part you had in the creation process, listed with the timestamp. Please credit the artists who have collaborated on any projects submitted. Reels without proper documentation or credits will not be considered.
- Accepted File formats: pdf, jpg, jpeg, png, gif, mov, mp4; file size: limit to 10 Mb
- One letter of recommendation, submitted in PDF format not to exceed 500 words, written in English:
- Written by faculty in your school or an industry professional with whom you have previously worked
- You are welcome to submit a second letter of recommendation (recommended but not required)
- One of the following documents to show proof of enrollment as a current full-time student, submitted in PDF format, such as:
- A copy of your current semester’s class schedule
- Enrollment verification letter issued by your school
- A school picture ID that shows you are enrolled in the current academic year
- Formal Degree Track Students: An official or unofficial transcript that shows the cumulative GPA, submitted in PDF format.
- Formal Course/Program Track students: A transcript or equivalent document that shows active, continuous participation in the course/program.
- (Recommended) LinkedIn profile
Frequently Asked Questions
Browse our WIA Scholarship program FAQs page and find the answers to all your questions prior to submitting your application. The Scholarship Info and FAQ session recording is kept here.
Please send any unaddressed FAQ questions to [email protected]
Other Resources
In addition to the WIA Scholarship Program, please check out a growing list of scholarship opportunities offered by many other domestic and international organizations. If you have any scholarship opportunities that you would like to share with the WIA student members, please contact us directly at [email protected].
2024-2025 WIA Scholarship Sponsors
Displayed In Alphabetical Order
Animation Focus provides online animation tutoring on a 1 to 1 basis with a professional feature film character animator – 1 hour per week for 4 weeks. One WIA scholarship recipient will receive a place in one 2025 Animation Focus class.
Animation Mentor will offer one scholarship winner one 6-week Animation Mentor workshop (a $699-$899 USD value). With 11 different classes to choose from (Maya Workshop: Animation Basics, Cartoony Animation for 3D Animators, 2D Animation for beginners, 2D Animation: Walk Cycles & Character Movement, Pre-Visualization basics for animators, Storyboarding Fundamentals, Intermediate Storyboarding, Visual Development: Principles of Design, Game Animation Fundamentals, Digital Painting, and Intro to Character Design ) the student winner will have many options to personalize this educational opportunity.
Foundry – With a heritage of more than 25 years in developing creative software for the Media and Entertainment industry and a portfolio of award-winning products, Foundry solves complex visualization challenges to turn incredible ideas into reality. Foundry offers one WIA Animation winner $2,500 USD in scholarship funds and an annual Production Collective subscription to its suite of products, including Nuke Studio, Katana, Mari, and Modo. Additionally, an honorable mention will receive an annual Production Collective subscription. These licenses will allow the winners access to Foundry’s industry-leading compositing, editorial, review, modeling, 3D painting, look development, and lighting software.
LAIKA is excited to participate in the WIA Scholarship Program again this year and they will be giving out two cash awards, up to $2,000 USD to two deserving students who specialize in stop motion. LAIKA hopes to take this opportunity to foster future talent that shares the same passion for stop motion filmmaking.
Toon Boom – For the fourth consecutive year, Toon Boom is proud to support the WIA Scholarship Program, championing diversity in the animation industry and empowering emerging talent. This year’s prizes include 20 licenses of Storyboard Pro, 20 licenses of Harmony Premium, and 10 Harmony Fundamentals Online Courses. By equipping future animators with industry-leading technology, we help them build a strong foundation for a successful professional career in animation.
TVPaint Développement is a French company located in Lorraine (East of France).
The company brings its 33 years of experience in the field of animation software to the development of TVPaint Animation, a leading 2D bitmap animation software, awarded at the Annie Awards.
TVPaint Animation is used in more than 70 countries by major studios and animation schools, students, and independent animators.
This year we are proud to be donating 2 licenses of TVPaint Animation 12 Professional and 1 license of TVPaint Animation 12 Standard.
Wacom is excited to be a part of WIA’s mission. They believe everyone is creative and want to continue to provide access, support, and awareness to those who are bringing a new voice to the industry. Wacom is donating Movink pen displays to five WIA scholarship winners because they understand the importance of having professional-level technology. It will set the talent apart for both freelancing work and their creative portfolios, making them more hire-able in the Animation industry.
As proud WIA Global Fund Donors, Walt Disney Animation Studios is proud to provide the WIA Scholarship Program with $12,000 to distribute to the top scholarship winners.
The WIA Montreal Chapter is offering two $1,000 CAD scholarships to students currently living and studying in the province of Quebec. This opportunity is open to full-time or part-time students currently enrolled in CEGEP or University or who will start CEGEP or University classes in Fall 2023.
At Xencelabs, we’re inspired by Women In Animation and proud to support their mission. We believe in limitless creativity and are dedicated to helping organizations that inspire new voices and fresh perspectives in the animation industry. To further this commitment, Xencelabs is offering a Pen Display 16 Essentials to one WIA scholarship winner. We stand with WIA in empowering women and underrepresented minorities, providing professional tools with value-added accessories to help emerging artists succeed.
Yellowbrick Learning, Animation Mentor’s parent company, is proud to announce that they are offering 10 awardees, an award featuring the all new, NYU Tisch Animation Industry Essentials course.
(A $999 per class value, totaling $9,990 USD)
Past Winners & Runners-Up
To view an archive of past winners and runner-ups of the WIA Scholarship Program click on a link below:
* WIA recognizes gender is non-binary and intersects with every other aspect of identity. As an organization that advocates for gender justice, we identify people of underrepresented gender identities as women, including transgender women who are people who identify as women despite their gender assigned at birth, non-binary people, those who do not identify as exclusively male or female but may identify as both, neither, or some combination of the two, and those who are otherwise marginalized because of their gender identity.