Making an animated feature film is akin to scaling a mountain, it’s a painstaking, long and difficult process, even with a large crew and all the necessary tools. Attempting to create an animated feature with a skeleton crew and a shoestring, independent budget feels like an impossible task and yet a few filmmakers are doing just that with fantastic results. Any type of independent filmmaking requires grit, determination and creative resilience, but what are the unique challenges (or freedoms) that animation brings to the process? This panel of filmmakers who have all successfully produced a feature (or, shockingly, more than one!) discuss the nuances, horror stories and surprisingly delights that came from making the film (almost) all on their own.

This is a pre-recorded panel will be made available here and on the AIF YouTube channel on October 21st.

Panelists

Gitanjali Rao

Gitanjali Rao is the writer and Director of Bombay Rose, an animated feature film that Opened the VENICE CRITIC’S WEEK 2019, followed by Toronto IFF, Busan IFF, Macao IFF, Marrakech IFF etc. 

Her début feature film has since been to over 50 international festivals in 2019-20. The film won seven awards including the Silver Hugo at the 53^rd Chicago Intl Film Fest and Silver Gateway at MAMI, Mumbai Intl. Film Fest. It is now available on Netflix. 

Gitanjali emerged into the international stage with the animated short film ‘Printed Rainbow’ which premièred and won three awards in CANNES CRITIC’S WEEK, 2006. The film made it to the OSCAR shortlist in 2008 and won 25 awards. Her latest short animation, “Tomorrow My Love” has had its World premiere in August at the 74^th Locarno Film Festival 2021.

Ryan Braund

Ryan is an Annecy and Sitges award nominated writer, director and animator specializing in hand-drawn rotoscope animation. Known for creating adult-themed, lo-fi textured visual pieces with both commercial and critical appeal; his indie debut feature ‘Absolute Denial’ was nominated for ‘Best Film’ at multiple prestigious film festivals around the world. He is currently in development on his second animated feature.

Signe Baumane

Signe Baumane is a Latvian-born, Brooklyn-based independent filmmaker, artist, writer, and animator. She has made 16 award-winning animated shorts but is best known for her first animated feature “Rocks in my Pockets”. The film covers a 100-year history of depression and suicide of women in her family, including herself. It premiered at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2014, where it received a FIPRESCI Prize. The film went on to over 160 international festivals and opened theatrically in the U.S. through Zeitgeist Films.

Signe’s new animated feature “My Love Affair With Marriage” fuses animation with music, theater, science, photography, three-dimensional sets and traditional hand-drawn animation to tell the story of a spirited young woman’s quest for perfect love and lasting marriage. The film premiered in June 2022 at Tribeca Festival.

Signe is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fellow in Film for New York Foundation for the Arts. She has a degree in Philosophy from Moscow State University.  

Philip Gelatt

Philip Gelatt has worked across multiple media including videogames, comics, and film.

His first film as writer and director, The Bleeding House, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011. He went on to write the Nebula Award nominated film Europa Report starring Sharlto Copley and Annamaria Marinca.

In video games, Gelatt won a WGA award in 2016 for his work on Square Enix’s Rise of the Tomb Raider.

He is currently working on unannounced sci-fi & horror projects for Frictional Games, makers of Soma and the Amnesia series.

In 2018, he wrote and directed the surreal sci-fi thriller THEY REMAIN starring William Jackson Harper, based on the work of Laird Barron. 

He’s also served lead writer on the adult animated Netflix series Love Death + Robots.

THE SPINE OF NIGHT is his third feature film.

Morgan Galen King

Refining a modern approach to hand-drawn rotoscope animation has seen Morgan Galen King sequestered and drawing for the better part of a decade, finally culminating with THE SPINE OF NIGHT.

Currently residing in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by way of Philadelphia, King’s process draws heavily on the work of Ralph Bakshi and the cult classic Heavy Metal.

THE SPINE OF NIGHT is his first feature film.

Our panelists will present a complete overview of animation in France including schools, incentives, artistic approaches, experience in producing a major projects, and distribution.

RSVP: frenchinmotionla@gmail.com

12:30 PM – Doors Open

1:00 PM – Panel Begins

2:30 PM – Networking Cocktail Hour

4:00 PM – Le Petit Nicolas Screening

Panelists

Moderator – Claude Budin Juteau (Journalist)

French Education in Animation

Guillaume Champavere (Executive Director, Emile Cohl Atelier, Social Impact Design Academy)

Artistic Approach, the Difference Between France and US

Baptiste Lucas (Art Director, Visual Development chez Walt Disney Television)

Producing With France

Robert Rippberger (Producer, The Inventor)

The Financial Incentives to Shoot Animation in France

Guillaume Kervern (Film & TV Liason, The French Consulate in LA

Distributing French Animation in the US

David Jesteadt (President, GKIDS)

Storytelling is the expressive foundation that has evolved with and transcended artforms for millenia. In a discussion featuring a variety of artists within the broader media and gaming worlds we explore how design affects the storytelling (and vise-versa) within video games. With a specific focus on 2D and independent production, the conversation will explore how individual artists use their skills to enhance and affect the story and gameplay within this unique form of animated storytelling.

This is a pre-recorded panel will be made available here and on the AIF YouTube channel on October 21st.

Panelists

Allegra Frank, Moderator

Allegra Frank is an entertainment editor at The Daily Beast. She previously was a culture editor at Slate and Vox, as well as an editor, reporter, and podcast host at Polygon.

Alexis Dean-Jones

Alexis is an animator, character designer and storyboarder from Australia, who moved to Canada to work at an animation studio, and now mostly makes games with friends! She recently did the character designs+animation, FX animation and key art for Chicory; a Colorful Tale, and is now working on a secret new game. Feel free to send her emails at alexisdeanjones@gmail.com, or other messages @musclewing on twitter or instagram.

Jesse Jacobi

I am a self-taught painter based in Detroit. I’ve done work for galleries, musicians, film, and more. While I typically choose to focus on environments rendered in traditional media, I did branch out in 2021 to help work on the video game NORCO, where I used pixel art to depict interior and exterior scenes, characters, and animations. 

Currently I am back to working an unrelated 9-5 to survive, and I make as much time for art on the side as I can. 

Jo Gauthier

Jo is a 2D artist whose background is firmly rooted in traditional animation. From studying at Cégep du Vieux Montréal in 2D animation to working storyboards, animating, character design, to co-directing, they eventually found their way into a mobile gaming company, where they met the people who would later come together to create Thunder Lotus Games. It’s at TLG that they would go on to create the art direction for Jotun, Sundered and Spiritfarer.

Justin Cyr

Graduated from Algonquin College’s Television Animation program in 2000. Began working at Gameloft in 2002 making mostly early mobile games on black and white devices. Started with Ubisoft in 2003 with their handheld department creating games mostly for GBA & Nintendo DS. During this time would help develop games for such brands as Star Wars, King Kong, TMNT and culminating with Scott Pilgrim vs The World: the Game in 2010. After this time would start Tribute Games with Jonathan Lavigne & Jean-Francois Major in 2011 where such games as Wizorb, Mercenary Kings, Panzer Paladin and most recently TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge were made. Has also freelanced for companies like Wayforward to work on games like Adventure Time and with Yacht Club for Shovel Knight.