Entertainment is an industry where our alumni thrive and you can see their work around the globe and across screens big and small.
Hilary Ament ’15 (Graphic Design BFA), a graphic designer who has worked on a number of Oscar-nominated films, was part of the past year’s "Barbenheimer" phenomenon. In addition to acting as lead graphic designer for Best Picture Oscar winner Oppenheimer — which also took top prize at the Art Director Guild Awards — Ament was brought on to Barbie to lend design skills to a few projects, including what she called a "very special book prop."
Jeremie Talbot ’98 (Illustration BFA) was character supervisor for Disney/Pixar’s Elemental, which was nominated for Best Animated Feature. Talbot’s film credits include a number of Pixar releases, including Oscar-winning Animated Features Coco and Brave.
Another film nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards was Nimona, based on the web-comic-turned-graphic novel by ND Stevenson ’13 (Illustration BFA). Along with its Oscar nom, the film garnered wins for Best Animated Film by the Columbia Film Critics Association and Outstanding Achievement for Writing in a Feature Production at the Annie Awards.
Not to be outdone on the narrative front, Jenna Yow ’21 (Game Design BFA) is one of the driving forces behind Goodbye Volcano High, an adventure game featuring a case of anthropomorphic teenage dinosaurs trying to figure themselves out as their graduation year — and the end of civilization as they know it — loom on the horizon.
Yow was brought on with a new writing team midway through Goodbye Volcano High’s development to reboot the game’s narrative, and served as narrative director, writer, and script revisionist for the project.
Their work was a huge success. Released in late August 2023, the game has since received a slew of accolades. It received the Tribeca Games Award at the 2023 Tribeca Festival, and the Grand Jury Award and the Performance Spotlight Award at IndieCade 2023. It also received Honorable Mention for Excellence in Narrative at the 2024 Independent Games Festival, and has been nominated for Outstanding Video Game at the 2024 GLAAD Media Awards and Game Beyond Entertainment at the 2024 British Academy Games Awards.