Born in 1939 in what is now geographically North Korea, Nelson Shin relocated to the South with his family in 1951. He moved to Los Angeles in 1971 just as the local television networks were launching Saturday morning shows aimed at children where he worked as an assistant animator, working on such classic children’s cartoons as The Pink Panther, Mr Magoo and Daffy Duck. In 1988, he founded Akom Studio in Seoul, which became the hub for overseas contracting in South Korea, securing the first series of The Simpsons. Among his most beloved works during this period are The Transformers television series and theatrical movie. By the mid-1990s, South Korea was producing almost 50% of the world’s animation with Akom as its most prominent studio. In 2005, his animation Empress Chung, a co-production between North and South Korea, set a precedent by being released in both countries simultaneously. In 2010, he was elected president of the International Animated Film Association, a post he held through 2012. Since then, he has been honorary president of Chinese Jilin Animation Institute, with whom he has produced a new landmark in animation, the 3-D Frog Kingdom.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and emerging. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
