Year: 2019

As executive vice president of creative for Sony Pictures Animation, Karen Toliver is responsible for the creative supervision of a number of upcoming features for the studio, from inception to script, and through production.

Everett Downing is an animator, story artist and director living in the Greater Los Angeles area. Born in Boulder, Colorado and raised in Denver, he studied Film, focusing on computer animation at Columbia College in Chicago. Everett began his career as a story artist at Big Idea Productions before making his break into feature film, animating at Blue Sky Studios on the original “Ice Age.”

Max Lang is an Oscar®-nominated and BAFTA®-winning animation director. He jointly directed the award-winning animated films The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom for Magic Light Pictures as well as the animated Christmas special Albert for Nickelodeon.

Matt Williames began his 23-year career at the age of 14, when he started working professionally as an animator while still in junior high school. At the time, Matt worked on projects ranging from the animated feature Quest for Camelot, to independent shorts, including the Oscar nominated Stubble Trouble.

After graduating in Applied Arts, Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec joined the Ecole des Gobelins in 2003. Her first two short films, Madame (made during her studies in 2006 ) and Escale (2010) were selected at the Annecy. In addition to her work as a graphic designer on television sets and advertising for luxury brands, she also worked … Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec

At four years old, Zabou played in one of the episodes of the TV show “Thierry la Fronde” alongside her father, Jean-Claude Deret. Zabou studied cinema, modern Greek and English for her bachelor’s degree and attended the Simon course. She was an Animator at “Recré A2” in the 80s ands made her film debut in … Zabou Breitman

Anca Damian studied at the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts where she obtained a diploma in Cinematography and a Doctor’s degree in Arts, Cinema and Media. After graduating, she worked as a director, screenwriter and producer for several documentaries on art related topics, and also as a director of photography for two long feature … Anca Damian

Born in 1966, Watanabe joined Studio Mates in 1986 and debuted his first original picture with the same studio. In 1988 he moved to Shinei Videos and was active in a wide range of roles including key animator, animation director, and director. Watanabe directed the short theatrical release Obachan no Omoide (2000), and the feature … Ayumu Watanabe

Marcell Jankovics has written, designed and directed several hundred animated short films: singles and series. He directed the first full-length animated film produced in Hungary, Johnny Corncob (1973). He was the leading director of the series Gustavus, Hungarian Folktales and Legends from the Hungarian History. Besides directing, he was the writer, storyboard and graphic designer, … Marcell Jankovics

WHITE SNAKE Amp was involved in the production of Little Door Gods, Tea Pets, Cats and Peachtopia.Before joining the Light Chaser Animation Studios, he worked in CGCG (Xiamen) Inc. and Imagi Animation Studios, as animation supervisor and assistant director，and participated in the Hollywood animation series such as Astro Boy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Green Lantern.

Has studied at the Communication University of China and UCLA. The editor and post-production supervisor of Little Door Gods, Tea Pets, Cats and Peachtopia.

Yonfan wrote, directed and produced all 14 of his motion pictures. Throughout his career, he gave Maggie Cheung her first on-screen romantic role and made Chow Yun-fat a box- office star, Story of Rose (1985), discovered Daniel Wu, Bishonen (1998) and revived the career of the legendary Rie Miyazawa, Peony Pavilion (2002). He has worked … Yonfan

Marc du Pontavice, Xilam Animation’s President, began his career with GAUMONT, where he co-founded GAUMONT Television (1991‐95), supervising the production of a hundred hours of prime time fiction, including the series Highlander. He created GAUMONT Multimedia, whose assets he acquired in 1999 to found Xilam Animation. Since that time, Xilam has established itself as one … Marc Du Pontavice

Makoto Shinkai was born in Nagano prefecture in 1973. In 2002, he debuted with self-produced Voices of a Distant Star, which won many awards including Best Public Submission at the Tokyo International Anime Fair 21. His first feature released in 2004, The Place Promised in Our Early Days won Best Animated Film in the 59th … Makoto Shinkai

In 2006, a short film Uki created for a university graduation project was selected as the first sponsored work by the Tokyo Douga Kakumei [Anime Innovation Tokyo]. The short animation based on the project CENCOROLL was released in 2009 and met with highly favorable reception. Uki later worked as a character designer for titles such … Atsuya Uki

Rebecca Sugar is the creator of Cartoon Network’s six-time Emmy-nominated series Steven Universe, an animated slice-of-life action comedy revolving around Steven, the “little brother” to a team of magical aliens—the Crystal Gems—who defend the planet Earth. After graduating from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) with a BFA in Animation, Sugar joined Adventure Time in … Rebecca Sugar

In the late 1990’s, Jérémy Clapin studied animation and illustration at the École des Arts Décoratifs de Paris (Paris Decorative Arts School). After graduating in 1999, he started working in 2000 as an illustrator and directed his first short film in 2004, Une Histoire Vertébrale (A Vertebral Story), which was very well received in festivals. … Jérémy Clapin

Sergio Pablos’s experience in the Animation field has not only been limited to the Original Story or Executive Production of the well-known Despicable Me feature hit. His career includes credits as Supervising Animator for Disney titles such as Tarzan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules just to name a few.

Gitanjali Rao emerged into the international stage with her animated short, ‘Printed Rainbow’ which premiered in Cannes Critic’s week 2006 and won the Kodak Discovery Award, Petite Rail D’Or and Prix Du Jeune. The film went on to win 25 awards and was short listed for the Oscar in 2008.

Masaaki Yuasa is a Japanese animation director, scriptwriter, designer, and CEO of Science SARU. Lu Over the Wall (2017) is his latest film and it won Cristal for a Feature Film at Annecy International Animation Film Festival.