“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” directed by CalArts Character Animation alum Bob Persichetti (Film/Video BFA 96) with Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman, won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film at Sunday night’s Academy Awards telecast from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

It was the first Oscar won by a Marvel superhero.

“It was a film to all humans that we have the potential to be heroes,” Ramsey said in his acceptance speech.

“Endless thanks and love to our amazing cast, our miraculous crew, and our wonderful audience…this movie belongs to all of you. What a journey,” Ramsey tweeted early Monday morning.

When the “Spider-Verse” team gathered onstage to collect their Oscars and deliver their acceptance speeches, the orchestra was cued and the mic was cut-off during Persichetti’s turn, but he was able to deliver his message backstage in the pressroom.

“Literally, we were just going to thank Stan Lee and Steve Ditko [Spider-Man’s creators] for really inspiring this whole thing…and for being a force of believing that all of us human beings have the potential and the capacity to be heroes,” Persichetti said.

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” follows Miles Morales, an African-American and Puerto Rican Brooklyn teen who becomes the Spider-Man of his reality. He teams with five other Spidey counterparts from other dimensions to stop an enemy that threatens all their worlds.

CalArts alum Bob Persichetti is on the Oscars stage flanked by members of the ‘Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse’ team, after the film won the Oscar for Animated Feature at Sunday’s ceremony. | Photo: Aaron Poole / ©A.M.P.A.S.

The film by Sony Animation has proven to be a critical darling, crowd-pleaser — and game-changer. From Deadline:

“‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ has been hailed widely as a bold, fresh and evocative new approach to animation filmmaking thanks to its retro, hand-drawn spirit and Lord and Miller’s eagerness to reinvent the standard industry animation approach, which had, in their view, created a flat and homogenized predictability to Hollywood releases in recent years.

“Adding to the spirit of revolution, ‘Spider-Verse’ is only the second theatrical animated film ever based on characters from Marvel Comics (the first was ‘Big Hero 6’ in 2014, which featured relatively obscure characters from Marvel’s mythology) and it veered from every previous big-screen Spider-Man adaptation by featuring a new version of the hero — a bilingual, mixed-race teen named Miles Morales (given voice by Shameik Moore).”

Several CalArtians were involved in making “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”: Shiyoon Kim (character designer), Yuhki Demers (visual development), Brittany Myers (character design), Paula Assadourian (story artist), Jihyun Park (story artist), Tony Siruno (character design) and Grady Campbell (lighting & compositing artist).

Of this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Animated Feature, three were directed by CalArtians. In addition to “Into the Spider-Verse,” Disney•Pixar’s “Incredibles 2” was written and directed by Brad Bird and Disney’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet” was directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston.

— CalArts’ Christine N. Ziemba contributed to this story.