He won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Father and Daughter (2000) and was nominated in the same category for The Monk and the Fish (1994) as well as for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for The Red Turtle (2016).

[2] After working for a year in Barcelona, he settled in London where he directs and animates award-winning commercials for television and cinema.

In 1992, he created the short film Tom Sweep, followed by The Monk and the Fish (1994),[3] which was made in France with the studio Folimage.

Michael also writes and illustrates children's picture books and teaches animation at art colleges in England and abroad.

Since Tom Sweep, all Dudok de Wit's films have his trademark brush stroke drawing and his use of ink and watercolour.