Pamela Ribon is the Academy Award®-nominated creator and writer of MY YEAR OF DICKS, an adaptation of her critically-acclaimed comedic memoir NOTES TO BOYS (AND OTHER THINGS I SHOULDN’T SHARE IN PUBLIC), which was nominated for Best Animated Short Film for the 95th Academy Awards. Her recent work includes the animated adaptation Nimona.Pamela is a … Pamela Ribon
Aubry Mintz has worked as a feature animator (ILM, Square USA) and directed projects for Smirnoff, McDonalds, MuchMusic and General Mills and the Canadian rock band Rush.
Monica Lago-Kaytis is a Latin-American producer, who made her live-action debut with Netflix’s feature The Christmas Chronicles with Chris Columbus and starring Kurt Russell
Ramin Zahed (Editor-in-Chief for Animation Magazine) Ramin Zahed is an LA-based author and journalist who specializes in animation, visual effects, pop culture and indie films. He is the Editor in Chief of Animation Magazine and has written for Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, Sight and Sound and others. Among his recent books are The … Ramin Zahed
Nora Twomey is an Academy Award®, BAFTA & Golden Globe nominated Director. She is also Partner & Creative Director at Cartoon Saloon, Ireland. In a career spanning over two decades, Nora has worked in a number of capacities on Cartoon Saloon’s creative output. She was co-director to Tomm Moore’s Academy Award® nominated The Secret of Kells while also … Nora Twomey
Oscar-winning director of THE LOST THING
Marge Dean is an Emmy®-winning producer/executive and as Head of Animation Studio at Skybound Entertainment, she is responsible for the development and production of original animated content and is establishing a new production facility for the production of Skybound properties including Invincible for Amazon Prime.
Shorts Jury Member
Co-Creator and Publicist, DiverseToons
Shorts Jury Member
Frank Gladstone has been working as a professional animator, producer, director, writer and teacher for more than 45 years.
Shorts Jury Member
CEO and Co-Founder of Baobab Studios
Christina Steinberg is a producer at Sony Pictures Animation.
Director, Screenwriter, Character Designer at LAIKA Studios
Locksmith Animation Co-Founder & Head of Production
Bill Desowitz, the Crafts & Animation Editor at IndieWire, specializes in below-the-line and animation coverage, with an emphasis on Oscar and Emmy Awards season reporting/analysis.
Myke Chilian is a Los Angeles based animator, storyboard artist, writer, voice actor, and musician. He is the creator and executive producer of the HBO Max series, Tig n’ Seek, which is produced by Cartoon Network Studios. Chilian has previously written and storyboarded for Cartoon Network’s Uncle Grandpa and helped establish the look for Adult Swim’s Rick … Myke Chilian
Dan Krall is an Emmy® and Annie award-winning artist, producer, and art director with over 25 years’ experience in the animation industry. He currently serves as Consulting Producer on Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, the upcoming animated series produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Amblin Television and coming soon to HBO Max. Prior credits include popular titles such as Dexter’s Laboratory, The … Dan Krall
Ramin Zahed is an LA-based author and journalist who specializes in animation, visual effects, pop culture and indie films.
Raye Rodriguez is the Creator and Executive Producer of the upcoming Crunchyroll Original series High Guardian Spice. Raye graduated from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, Rodriguez began his career as a director, storyboard artist and character designer at Fox Animation Domination High-Definition (Fox ADHD). He served as a Character Designer at PUNY Entertainment … Raye Rodriguez
Ray Pride is the longtime film critic of Chicago’s Newcity arts monthly and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine. His history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” in words and images will be published in 2022.
Erick Oh is an Oscar nominated Korean filmmaker based in California, USA. His films have been introduced and awarded at numerous film festivals including Academy Awards®, Annie Awards, Annecy Animation Festival, Zagreb Film Festival, SIGGRAPH, Anima Mundi and more. Erick became an animator at Pixar Animation Studios from 2010 to 2016. Erick’s latest film OPERA … Erick Oh
Born in Tijuana B.C., Sandra Equihua graduated from IBERO university with a bachelors in Graphic Design. She has had the opportunity to work as a graphic designer, illustrator and a character designer next to her husband, Jorge Gutierrez, in companies such as WB, Disney, Nick JR, and Nickelodeon. Both created the animated series El Tigre: … Sandra Equihua
Kristin Lowe is Chief Creative Officer, Features for DreamWorks Animation. In this role, Lowe oversees feature development, casting and artistic management for the studio’s renowned feature film division. DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming 2022 feature slate includes The Bad Guys, an original film based on the best-selling books, and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the sequel … Kristin Lowe
Originally from England, Deborah Cook has designed and built costumes for every LAIKA film. Her designs for Kubo and the Two Strings won a nomination for Excellence in Fantasy Film by the Costume Designers Guild, and she received a Visual Effects Society nomination for Coraline.
Justin Chang is a film critic for the Los Angeles Times and for NPR’s “Fresh Air”,” and a regular contributor to KPCC’s “FilmWeek.” Before joining The Times, he was chief film critic at Variety. He is the author of the book “FilmCraft: Editing” and serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics and … Justin Chang
Chicago native Matthew A. Cherry is a former NFL wide receiver turned filmmaker who played for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals, Carolina Panthers and the Baltimore Ravens. In 2007 he retired and moved to LA to pursue a career in entertainment landing work as a production assistant on over 40 commercials and as a director … Matthew A. Cherry
Suzanne Buirgy has created an impressive roster of credits in her 20-year career in Animation and Visual Effects. Suzanne began her career at Digital Domain, one of the premiere VFX houses in the country, where she spent nine years serving as DPM on a variety of films including How the Grinch Stole Christmas, XXX, The … Suzanne Buirgy
Henry Selick is best known as the writer/director of the Oscar-nominated stop-motion animated feature Coraline, as well as the director of James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas. While he has made films using hand-drawn, cut-out and C.G. animation and live-action, his favorite medium is stop-motion where he has collaborated with some … Henry Selick
Jennifer Yuh Nelson made her feature film directorial debut with Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), which earned more than $665 million at the worldwide box-office. She continued on to direct the franchise’s successful follow-up Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016). Nelson has lent her talents to a variety of DreamWorks Animation pictures, including as head of … Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Golden Globe® winner and two-time Academy Award® nominee Dean DeBlois is best known for writing, directing, and executive producing 2010’s How To Train Your Dragon and its 2014 sequel. He is currently reprising those roles on How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019), the final installment of the trilogy and culmination of one … Dean DeBlois
Melissa Cobb is Vice President, Kids and Family at Netflix, the world’s leading internet entertainment service. Cobb leads the content team responsible for bringing kids and family titles, both live-action and animated, to Netflix members in 190 countries around the world. Prior to Netflix, Cobb was Chief Creative Officer for Oriental DreamWorks, where she oversaw … Melissa Cobb
Born and raised in New York, IndieWire Editor at Large Anne Thompson has been a contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, The Observer, and Wired. She has served as film columnist at Variety and deputy editor of Variety.com. Anne was the Deputy Film Editor at The Hollywood Reporter, the West Coast Editor of Premiere, a Senior Writer at Entertainment Weekly, and West Coast Editor for Film Comment.
Brenda Chapman started her career as a story artist at Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1987 where she was the story supervisor on The Lion King, for which she won the Annie Award. Chapman has helped to develop and consult on films for several studios over many years which include not only Disney, DreamWorks and Pixar, but also Universal, Sony, Lucasfilm and Fox.
Carolyn Giardina is Tech Editor at The Hollywood Reporter and writes its Behind the Screen blog. In 2015, Carolyn was presented American Cinema Editors’ Robert Wise Award, which recognizes a journalist for contributions to film editing. She was the 2011 recipient of the International Cinematographers Guild’s Technicolor William A. Fraker Award for journalistic contributions to cinematography.
Peter Debruge is Variety’s Chief International Film Critic.
Mabel Tam is VP/Head Film Buyer of LANDMARK THEATRES. Landmark Theatres is the nation’s largest theatre chain dedicated to exhibiting and marketing independent film. A 16 year veteran of the entertainment industry, she is a graduate of UCLA and resides in LA with her family.
Jorge R. Gutiérrez is a painter, writer and director born in Mexico City and raised in Tijuana. Gutierrez has completed various films, cartoons, and paintings exploring his love of Mexican pop and folk culture.
An internationally respected critic and historian of animation.
A leading force in imaginative storytelling, Bonnie Arnold is a prolific film producer whose work spans myriad genres, and appeals to multiple generations. Bonnie is a Golden Globe winner, and an Academy Award® nominee.
Allison Abbate is an executive vice president at Warner Animation Group. Prior to assuming her post at WAG, Abbate was an executive producer on the global blockbuster The LEGO® Movie, and a producer on Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie and Corpse Bride, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Brad Bird’s Iron Giant.