Meet Your Makers

Chiara Malta has directed several short films including a trilogy on childhood that have been selected for and awarded at numerous international festivals. After her feature-length documentary Armando e la politica for la Lucarne (Arte/ZDF), she became an artist-in-residence at the Villa Medici (Rome). Her first feature film, Simple Women, featuring Jasmine Trinca and Elina […]

Clara Chan is a visual effects Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks with over two decades of industry experience. In 2001, Chan joined Imageworks as a technical director in the lighting department. Her credits include the upcoming animated feature Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the Academy Award®-nominated Over the Moon, first three Hotel Transylvania films, Storks, The […]

Gina Shay has over 25 years of experience producing animated films, whichincludes a full decade of films and specials for DreamWorks Animation. Most recently,she produced Trolls Band Together, the third installment of the blockbuster franchisestarring Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake. Shay has been instrumental in thesuccess of the property, having also served as a producer […]

Han Ji-won is a Seoul-based director, illustrator and cartoonist. Her debut film, Clearer Than You Think, made her the youngest South Korean to direct a theatrically released animation film. It earned praise from moviegoers as well as fellow directors such as Yeon Sang-ho, director of Train to Busan and Pseudo, who referred to her as […]

Jarelle Dampier is a director and story artist at Sony Pictures Animation. Dampier started his entertainment career in television as a story artist on various Justice League animated shows, Skybound’s Invincible, Marvel’s What If… and Marvel’s Spider-Man before moving on to feature animation boards. After teaming up with Sony to direct for the LENS program, […]

Jérémie Périn was born in 1978 in the north of France. He studied animation at the renowned Gobelins school, graduating in 2000. Since 2001, he has worked for various animation studios, acquiring solid experience in storyboarding, layout, compositing, and design. He moved on to directing in 2004 with TV series pilots and short films. In […]

Joe Darko was a senior animator at Sony Pictures Imageworks, most recently completing work on the highly anticipated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Darko joined Imageworks in 2017 and his credits include the Academy Award®-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the Academy Award-nominated The Sea Beast, for which he served as animation lead, The Mitchells vs. The […]

Khaila Amazan is a writer at Sony Pictures Animation. Prior to starting in the LENS program, Amazan began her entertainment career as a story trainee in the creative development department at Columbia Pictures, followed by executive assistant positions at the development departments of Walt Disney Studios and Netflix’s Original Independent Films group. Amazan’s TV writing […]

Liu Jian (China, 1969) majored in Chinese Painting and graduated from the Nanjing Art Institute in 1993.Since then, he has made various works that met with the criteria of modern art and that were presented in some of the most important exhibitions in China and abroad. He is one of the representative artists of Gaudy […]

Sam Fell started his career as writer/director of the short film The Big Cheese for 3 Peach Animation/Channel4. He then joined Aardman Animations as a director and animator on commercials and short projects like Pop, Chump, Peter Lord’s’ Oscar-nominated short film Wat’s Pig, and the BBC series Rex the Runt. During that time he also […]

Director, illustrator, and professor at ENSAD (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs), Sébastien Laudenbach has written a dozen award-winning short films selected by numerous international festivals, as well as credit packages and music videos. With his feature film The Girl Without Hands, presented at Cannes, awarded at the Annecy International Animation Festival, and in competition […]

FilmInfo_PHOENIX Nishimi is known for his unique sense of animation style. Nishimi was the supervising animation director of Tekkonkinkreet (2006). He directed Mutafukaz, (2017) an animated film co-produced with France. It was premiered at Annecy in June 2017, and was nominated for the 46th Annie Awards in the Best Animated Independent Feature. PHOENIX Reminiscence of […]

Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Tim Heitz has played a key role in numerous DreamWorks Animation’s most celebrated and iconic films over his fifteen-year tenure with the company. Most recently, he served as co-director on Trolls Band Together, the third installment of the blockbuster franchise starring Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake. Over the years, Heitz […]

Prior to directing Trolls Band Together, Dohrn made his directorial debut with DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls World Tour after serving as co-director on the first installment of the blockbuster franchise. As one of DreamWorks Animation’s most trusted story experts, Dohrn previously served as head of story on Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Shrek Forever After. A […]

Born in 1980, Itazu started working in the anime industry at the age of 18. He worked as an animator for “KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops” series (2004), “Paprika” (2006), and “Wind Rises” (2013). He served as the character designer, animation director, and an animator for “MISS HOKUSAI” (2015), and he was the co-assistant animation director […]