Biography

Michael Cozens is a British animation supervisor at Wētā FX. He began his career in the early 2000s, working in visual effects, including roles at Hybride on Sin City(2005) and 300 (2006). He joined Wētā FX in 2006, where he progressed from animator roles into animation supervision. At Wētā FX, Cozens served as a Lead Animator on Avatar (2009), the James Cameron–directed film that won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, and as Senior Animator on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013). He was promoted to Animation Supervisor on The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). Cozens continued as Animation Supervisor on a wide range of feature films, including Prometheus (2012), The Wolverine (2013), Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015), and Pete's Dragon (2016). On Lady and the Tramp (2019), he supervised the photoreal animation of animal characters, while on Alita: Battle Angel (2019), he oversaw the animation of the title character, blending performance capture and animation to achieve a convincing live-action interaction. His work also includes animation supervision on David Lowery's The Green Knight (2021), James Gunn's The Suicide Squad (2021), the television series Peacemaker (2022),  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), and Superman (2025). In addition to his project-based work, Cozens held senior leadership roles at Wētā FX, including serving as Head of Animation from 2018 to 2020, during which he managed animation teams across multiple concurrent productions. He has worked from both Wētā's Wellington studios and its Vancouver hub. Cozens has earned Annie Award nominations for Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Live Action Production for Alita: Battle Angel (2019) and Peacemaker (2022). He won a Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature for "Alita" in Alita: Battle Angel (2019) and a VES Award for Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a CG Project for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). His work has also been nominated by the Visual Effects Society, the Hollywood Professional Association, Gold Derby Awards, and the Seattle Film Critics Society.