Specialist, Script Clearance – Animation

Job Position(s): Specialist, Script Clearance - Animation

Sony Pictures Entertainment is hiring a Specialist, Script Clearance – Animation for its Culver City, California studio. This role sits within SPE’s Legal Department and is responsible for identifying, analyzing, and resolving intellectual property and clearance issues across Sony Pictures Animation’s feature, television, shorts, and related content productions. It’s a natural fit for a clearance professional with animation studio experience who is comfortable working directly with production teams and thinking through complex IP questions on their own.

About the Role

The Script Clearance Department operates as part of SPE’s Intellectual Property group and exists to protect the studio’s productions under its E&O insurance policy. As the Specialist, Script Clearance – Animation, you’ll carry a slate of assigned Sony Pictures Animation projects from pre-production through release, serving as the primary clearance contact on each. A typical day moves between script reviews, design assessments submitted through ShotGrid, agreement negotiations, and cross-departmental conversations with Production, Marketing, Consumer Products, and Publicity.

Key Responsibilities

• Review scripts and all subsequent revisions for assigned animation productions, flagging names, brands, copyrighted materials, locations, and other content that requires clearance analysis.
• Prepare comprehensive script clearance reports covering character assessments, business name evaluations, prop and set design reviews, and analysis of significant legal risks.
• Assess animation designs and production materials submitted via ShotGrid/Autodesk, determining whether items require third-party permissions, modifications, or can be designated as permissible.
• Review, negotiate, and redline clearance-related agreements including licenses, releases, and permissions, addressing substantive comments from rights holders and opposing counsel.
• Conduct independent legal research to evaluate copyright, trademark, defamation, rights of publicity and privacy, and product use issues as they arise across the animation production pipeline.
• Coordinate research follow-up and advise production teams on modifications or solutions needed to bring flagged materials into permissible use.

What You Bring

• A minimum of three years of script clearance experience, preferably within an animation studio or major film and television production environment.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze intellectual property issues spanning copyright, trademark, defamation, and rights of publicity without requiring routine supervision.
• Working knowledge of ShotGrid/Autodesk as used in production clearance workflows.
• Experience reviewing and redlining clearance agreements and negotiating directly with rights holders or their counsel.
• Familiarity with E&O insurance requirements and how clearance determinations support episodic television and feature film production deliverables.

Why This Role

Sony Pictures Animation carries one of the more varied slates in the animation studio space, spanning theatrical features, shorts, and series, which means the clearance work here covers real range across formats and timelines. The position sits inside a structured legal department with access to senior attorneys and an Associate Manager, giving a mid-level clearance professional meaningful support alongside genuine ownership of their projects. This is a staff role at a major studio with a consistent production slate and institutional resources that independent productions or smaller shops rarely offer.

If you are ready to bring your script clearance expertise to a staff position at Sony Pictures Entertainment, apply now for the Specialist, Script Clearance – Animation role in Culver City.