This Tuesday, Deadline reported that Hannah Minghella was hired as Head of Feature Animation and Live-Action Family Film at Netflix. Sharon Taylor has also been hired to join Minghella as Head of Production on Feature Animation.
This means Karen Toliver and Traci Balthazor, the previous heads of feature animation, have departed from the streaming giant. Both people played key roles in helping build a better catalog for Netflix. Some of their most notable ventures included Academy Award-winning and nominated films such as Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Nimona, and The Sea Beast. With that superb line-up, finding excellent replacements to fill their shoes is challenging. Fortunately, we believe Netflix found the perfect pair for the job.
Minghella spent almost 15 years at Sony Pictures and Columbia as President of Production where she oversaw many iconic features like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and The Amazing Spider-Man. Soon after, she became President of Film of J.J. Abram’s production company, Bad Robot, where she oversaw all of their productions including the Oscar-winning The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse. In the previously mentioned Deadline article, they confirmed that Minghella’s exit from Bad Robot was “amicable.”
Taylor served as CEO of Animal Logic Studios, where she worked on Happy Feet, the two Peter Rabbit films, Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby, the four Lego Movies, and multiple MCU movies. The studio’s two most recent films, Leo and The Magician’s Elephant premiered on Netflix to generally favorable reviews. Additionally, Animal Logic just merged with Netflix Animation earlier this year.
Throughout the rest of the article, Minghella and Taylor expressed their gratitude for their new jobs and all their colleagues, past and present. With these new additions, fans are certainly in good hands for Netflix’s upcoming animated features.
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