Alexander Juhasz is an American illustrator who has found great success internationally. Most recently his contribution to director Mark Osborne’s The Little Prince, as the stop-motion Production Designer and Character Designer has garnered tremendous attention. Over the years he has developed a unique hands-on approach to animation design working closely with the visionary director, mentor and friend, Jamie Caliri. He has been very lucky to have worked on several award-winning projects with Caliri: In 2013, he designed and co-directed the Rifle’s Spiral music video for The Shins, as character designer, (United Airlines: Dragon 2005) and as production designer (Showtime’s The United States of Tara 2008) which earned them an EMMY award. He designed and illustrated the pop-up book for the critically acclaimed horror film The Babadook in which is being currently published and set to be released this fall.

Brandon Oldenburg is an Academy Award-winning film director (The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore), designer and immersive storyteller. Beside the Oscar, Brandon has received 4 Emmys, multiple Gold Lions at Cannes, including the Grand Prix, and a host of other industry accolades. Speaking of hosts, Brandon once co-hosted a show, Movie Camp for Turner Classic Movies.

Today as founder and head of creatives for the Department of Wonder, Brandon leads a team of artists and actors who produce mixed-reality stories where the veil between physical and digital evaporates. Prior to the Department of Wonder, Brandon co-founded Reel FX, Moonbot Studios and Flight School Studio, all leaders in animation and emerging technology.

Most recently Brandon has served as an executive producer of the critically acclaimed series, Lost Ollie, a show Brandon developed, pitched and sold to Netflix.

Brian Anderson is a Character Technical Director at Blue Sky Studios. He attended the University of Toronto sponsored 3D animation program and has 19 years of professional film and broadcast experience as a 3D character generalist. Over the length of his career Brian has worked with commercial clients including Kraft, Sunkist, Pepsi and Chrysler. His feature credits span more than 20 titles from Best Effects Gemini nominated indie films like Planet of Junior Brown, to blockbuster hits like Dawn of the Dead and District 9, all the way to 3D animated features like Blue Sky’s Rio and Ice Age series as well as the up coming Peanuts film.

Chad Van De Keere is an experienced artist in the animation industry with over 20 years working as a Film and Series Director on productions for DreamWorks SKG, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon as well as Walt Disney.

Chad started out in the animation industry drawing pencil to paper while shooting animation under a physical camera, which is now a lost art form. Working through all facets of creative positions through Animation, Layouts, Special Effects as well as Storyboard Artist, Chad soon became the Key Creative artist on the shows he worked on doing the roles of Editor, Art Director, Creator, Director and Show Runner.

Chad is best known for directing the award-winning animated kids series 1001 Nights, as well as Planet Sheen, Being Ian, and most recently — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Chris Browne has over a decade of industry experience in supervising animated series, feature films, and live-action visual effects productions. Recently he wrapped production on The Prophet, starring Liam Neeson and directed by the Lion King’s Roger Allers.

As Bardel’s Studio CG Supervisor, Chris oversees Assets, Rigging, FX and LRC artists on all in-house production, and brings insight and creative direction to the team while ensuring that the Company’s high standards are met.

Currently he oversees the CG Supervision of four television series with DreamWorks, a series with PBS, and Warner Brothers.

Claudine Driant has been working for TVPaint for the past 2 years. Before that, after studies in Cinema and Audiovisual, she worked for almost 17 years in Animation production, mostly in compositing and supervision for TV shows, in France, Luxembourg, Belgium and China. She now travels around the world to show this amazing 2D “tradigital” software, TVPaint Animation.

Colin Giles is the Head of the VFS School of Animation & VFX, bringing over 22 years of professional experience as a Director, Animator, and Creative Designer. Colin's work in animation and storytelling has allowed him the chance to work with some of the biggest names in the industry, including: Disney Interactive, Cartoon Network, Ford Motor Co., The NBA and Starbucks, to name a few. When he's not busy inspiring new artists in the classroom, he's active on many popular industry projects like Dan Vs, Robotboy, and the 2D Sequences in Seth Rogen's animated hit Sausage Party. In 2017, Colin was an official speaker at TEDx Vancouver and has delivered workshops and keynotes in Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Los Angeles and across Canada.

David Fine is an Oscar-winning filmmaker who works in Vancouver with his partner, Alison Snowden. Together they have written, directed and created award-winning animated TV shows and short films, including the Oscar-winning short film, Bob’s Birthday and the acclaimed TV series, Bob & Margaret, the highest rated Canadian made animation series ever!

David was born and raised in Toronto and is still a Leaf fan. He studied film in the UK at The National Film & Television School where he met his wife and creative partner, Alison. They have been collaborating ever since.

Their films have won numerous international awards and nominations including awards at Annecy, Ottawa, Chicago, Zagreb, Canadian Genies, BAFTA nominations and two more Oscar nominations. They also created 52 episodes of the kids series, Ricky Sprocket Showbiz Boy for Nickelodeon and Teletoon.

David and Alison have also directed numerous animated TV commercials as well as developed and written for other productions, including the award-winning UK series Peppa Pig. They co-developed the series Shaun the Sheep for Aardman Animations. David and Alison have also written and directed live-action short films and documentaries.

Their latest short animated film is Animal Behaviour, produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Animal Behaviour is a 2d drawn animation film, produced using 2d animation software. The film is about a group therapy session, with animals and has been in official selection at numerous international film festivals and also won the grand prix at Brazil’s Anima Mundi Animation Festival.

A graduate of San Francisco State University with a bachelor's degree in art with a film minor, Dennis Venizelos began his career in the entertainment field. At Hanna-Barbera Studios, Dennis developed his skills in animation by working several departments, starting his career as a storyboard artist on Scooby Doo, Where Are You? He then worked as an assistant animator, and even shot camera, but eventually found that his passion was as a background artist. Dennis subsequently painted and keyed the backgrounds for countless animated television series for studios such as Marvel, Disney and Warner Bros.

As Background Supervisor, Dennis worked on such features as The Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones, Fern Gully, Eight Crazy Nights, My Little Pony, Transformers and G.I. Joe.

Dennis Venizelos is also one of the most highly regarded art directors in the field of television animation. He is a four-time Emmy Award winner for his work on the Muppet Babies television series. He also has experience working in the realm of theatrical shorts, as can be seen from his time at Warner Brothers where he art directed three Road Runner theatrical shorts in 3-D. Dennis has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science since 1985 where he also actively participates as a chair on the executive committee. Other productions such as X-Men, Family Dog (for Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories") and Spider-Man highlight Dennis' career.

Don has been training artists for the animation industry for twenty-four years and has developed or co-developed career animation programs in universities in Malaysia, China and Mexico. He founded the animation department at Capilano University in 1994 and has coordinated the two year, classical animation program since then. Don continues to work in the industry as a character animator, storyboard artist and as a consultant on 2D production pipelines for studios including, DHX Media, Bardel Entertainment, Slap Happy Cartoons and the National Film Board of Canada.

Borja Montoro was born in Madrid, Spain where he studied Law at the University but never made a career out of it. Instead he picked up his boyhood love for drawing and continued that. Now with almost 30 years of experience in the animation industry, Borja is one of the most sought after character animators and character designers.

Borja’s career has taken him around the world, working with the very best in animation. First to Ireland where he worked with Bluth Studios as an animator on All Dogs go to Heaven II.

Then to Paris with Walt Disney Feature Animation France where he worked on such major features such as Hercules, The Emperor’s New Groove and other things like The Jungle Book II or The Lion King director Roger Aller’s Academy Award nominated short, The Little Match Girl. While in Paris, Borja was part of the team who animated the character of adult Tarzan under Glen Keane’s direct supervision. This is when he really learned how to draw. Then it was back to Madrid where he spent several years working at The Sergio Pablos Animation Studio, aka The SPA Studios, both as character animator and visual development/character designer. During that period of time, Borja made some of the Blue Sky’s Rio character designs.

Nowadays, Borja is a kind of Jack of all trades... gun for hire. He has worked as a character designer for Warner Bros. upcoming feature Smallfoot. Sony Pictures’ TV Special Smurfy Hollow, Dreamworks TV Animation character designs on Puss in Boots. Character designer for Illumination Mac-Guff on their upcoming Despicable Me 3. Paramount Animation as character designer on several yet undisclosed projects. And as a character designer for the Walt Disney Animation Studios upcoming features Zootopia and Moana.

Borja continues to live and work in Madrid, with his lovely wife and six kids.

Jamie Caliri is a seasoned animation director and cinematographer. His love for stop-motion and miniatures continues to guide him on an exciting path in filmmaking. Over the years he has created many award-winning commercials, music videos and title sequences. His projects include: The Shins The Rifle’s Spiral, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events main titles, and United Airlines spots Dragon and Heart. You can see these projects and more on his Vimeo page.

Jamie’s love of film related tools, lead him and his brother, Dyami, to create the award-winning stop-motion software: Dragonframe.

Jin Kim is a character designer at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He joined the studio in 1995 as an animator after working 6 years at the Kennedy Cartoons in Toronto. During his early days as an animator, he animated works such as Hercules, Fantasia 2000, Tarzan, The Emperor’s New Groove and Treasure Planet, The Princess & the Frog. Of his most recent work, he is proud to be the Character Design Supervisor for the Oscar winning movie, Big Hero 6.

He also participated in the 2013’s Oscar winning feature, Frozen, as well as serving as character designer on Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, and Bolt. Most notable works of his are usually concept designs and facial expression sheets for the characters.

Currently, he is working on the character designs for the upcoming feature, Moana.

Jinko Gotoh is a producer and consultant for the animation industry. She has 25+ years experience spanning a wide range of media, with particular emphasis on the evolution of animation and CGI. She is currently producing The LEGO Movie Sequel for Warner Animation Group.

Her screen credits include The Little Prince, directed by Mark Osborne; the Academy Award nominated The Illusionist, helmed by Sylvain Chomet; 9, directed by Shane Acker; the Academy Award winning Finding Nemo, directed by Andrew Stanton.

Since leaving Pixar in 2003, Jinko’s assignments have taken her across the globe. Prior to that, Jinko worked at Disney Feature Animation as director of digital production, overseeing the move into CGI animation and its extensive application on such features including Dinosaur and Fantasia 2000.

Born in Japan, Jinko’s passion for animation started at a very early age after two life-altering experiences: seeing Lady & the Tramp, and meeting Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astroboy. She was raised in California and attended Columbia University, where she earned a BS in Applied Math, then an MFA in Film. In her spare time, she is a published poet.

Joe Antonuccio is a Lead Animator, who has been with Blue Sky Studios for over 7 years. After Studying animation at Animation Mentor, where he is also currently a mentor, Joe begun his feature film career with Blue Sky working on Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Joe has been a lead for characters like MK (Epic), Jewel (Rio 2) and Snoopy (Peanuts). His focus on exploring personalities, creating unique acting choices and executing animation at the highest level continues to be the driving force behind Joe’s work. His additional credits include Rio, Ice Age: Continential Drift, Epic, Rio 2, Peanuts and most recently Ice Age: Collision Course.

Vancouver-born and raised, Keith Blackmore is a passionate supporter for all things animated in the Vancouver area. A producer for the SPARK ANIMATION Festival, Keith has presented, interviewed and moderated at many festivals and studios. Most recently, he was on the Film Jury for the 2022 Taiwan International Student Design Competition, the largest student design competition around the world. Keith is also the host of the monthly Vancouver Civic Theatres’ film series, Silent Movie Mondays, at the opulent and historic Orpheum Theatre.

Besides his work with the Spark CG Society, Keith continues to educate and inspire students at the Vancouver Film School, in his weekly History of Animation classes.

In a career spanning more than 25 years, veteran animator Ken Duncan has earned a reputation as one of the top character animators in the industry. His astute observations of human nature, combined with his extensive knowledge of art, history, and design, imbue all of his characters with subtle, believable performances and all of his projects with a unique sense of style.

A native of Ottawa, Ken began his career in Europe before making his way to The Walt Disney Studios. While working at Disney, Ken’s contribution to the 1990’s resurgence of feature animation (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King), led to his rapid promotion to Supervising Animator. He created and supervised the performances of two of his most memorable characters, Meg for Hercules and Jane for Tarzan. He then spent two years at DreamWorks Animation as a Supervising Animator on Shark Tale (2004), where he was instrumental in developing a character pipeline for the first CG film at the Glendale studio.

In 2007, Ken founded Duncan Studio with the goal of collaborating with independent film producers on both 2D (hand-drawn) and computer-animated projects. With this versatility, the studio produces content for feature films, shorts, themed entertainment, and commercials. Duncan Studio has collaborated with some of the top talent in the film industry, such as Tom Hanks (Electric City) and Kathryn Bigelow (Last Days), to bring animation ideas to fruition, while working consistently with other clients such as DreamWorks, Disney, Focus Features and Universal/Illumination.

Emmy® winning writer Kent Osborne is more than just a master raconteur. Before landing at Cartoon Network, Kent Osborne had a diverse career spanning from acting in the 90’s with the likes of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to working as a writing partner to Rob Schneider. He has made numerous appearances on TBS’s Dinner and a Movie and hosted a TBS spinoff called Movie Lounge.

For three years, Osborne worked as a writer on the hit series SpongeBob SquarePants on Nickelodeon as well as The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. He has worked on several Cartoon Network shows such as Camp Lazlo, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack as a writer and storyboard artist.

Osborne has been a screenwriter and actor in a number of films, some debuting at the Sundance Film Festival as well as winning an award for Best Performance in the Narrative Competition of the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival for a film he starred in entitled How to Cheat.

As Head Writer for Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, Kent Osborne recently won the 2015 Emmy® for the Outstanding Short-Format Animated Program.

Laurie has worked as a stop-motion animator at Aardman Animations since 2005. Her projects to date include a variety of commercial and film work, including Creature Comforts, Shaun the Sheep, Timmy Time, and The Pirates! Band of Misfits and most recently Shaun the Sheep: The Movie where she was lead character animator. Laurie studied Applied Arts with Animation at Edinburgh College of Art.

As Commercial Animation Director at PDI/Dreamworks, Larry directed commercials for top clients, Coca-Cola, Sega, Intel, Kraft, Target, Circle K, and Saturn. He was Sequence Lead Animator on "Antz," "Batman & Robin," "A Simple Wish," and on the effects team for "Mission Impossible II," "Forces of Nature," and "The Peacemaker." At Warner Brothers, Larry was Lead Animator for the Stop Motion Division on Tim Burton's feature, "Mars Attacks."

Larry started his stop-motion and Claymation career at the Will Vinton Studios, working on the California Raisins, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, The Globeheads and commercial projects, then moving into CGI, animating characters for Chips Ahoy!, Raid and Fanta.

While he was Department Head of Animation and Visual Effects at the Vancouver Film School, the program was ranked 5th in the world by 3D World magazine.

Mark’s career in animation began 20 years ago. During that time he has seen the industry change from traditional pen and paper to the technically complex business we have today. During this time Mark has worked as the Technical Director or Head of Digital Production on close to 1000 episodes. This includes shows like Tom and Jerry, Pucca, Martha Speaks, Peanuts and Nerds and Monsters, and working with broadcasters, such as Disney, WB, Corus, FX and PBS.

As technology and animation became more intertwined, Mark’s goal was to empower the creative and remove IT as much as possible from the creative process. Since 2011, Mark has led the charge in creating utility-based studios, utilizing operational costs, reducing capital expense and lowering the barrier of entry into the exciting world of animation.

As President of Toon Boom Animation, Michel Besner is focused on developing software products that make a difference in the life of users working in film, television, games and mobile.

For over two decades, Michel has brought innovative software solutions to market. As the co-founder and CEO of Kaydara, Michel turned the company’s character animation and motion capture tools, MotionBuilder and FBX, into staples of the entertainment industry. His work in the animation industry continued with leadership roles at Alias Systems as their Vice President of Business Development, Emerging Markets and then as Senior Director of Product Management at Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment division.

Michel Gagné was born in Québec, Canada. He studied animation at Sheridan College School of Visual Arts in Ontario, Canada and in 1985, began a highly successful artistic career.

Renowned for his unique vision, Michel has lent his talent to several animation companies, such as Don Bluth Studios, Warner Bros., Disney, Pixar, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, etc. His creative work can be seen in over twenty feature films including The Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones and Ratatouille. Aside from his studio work, Michel is a determined entrepreneur who has created work in a wide range of media, from live performances to gallery exhibits. With video game veteran, Joe Olson, he created the critically acclaimed video game, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet which was released in 2011.

He has been recognized by his peers with a BAFTA, an Annie Award, and has received numerous prizes and nominations from the animation, video game and comics industries.

Michel is also active in the publishing world having written and illustrated several books and comics, such as The Saga of Rex and Insanely Twisted Rabbits. His work has been published by DC Comics, Image Comics, Random House, Abrams, Fantagraphics, as well as Michel’s own imprint, GAGNE International Press.

Nicole Paradis Grindle joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1995 as producer of the Toy Story Activity Center interactive computer game. Since then she has managed numerous departments on many of Pixar’s feature films, including A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., and the Academy Award®-winning feature The Incredibles. Grindle acted as the production manager on Pixar’s Oscar®-nominated short One Man Band and on Pixar’s Oscar®-winning feature Ratatouille. Grindle then moved on to serve as the associate producer for both Toy Story 3 and Monsters University. Most recently, Grindle produced Pixar’s newest short film, Sanjay’s Super Team, which will screen in front of The Good Dinosaur, in November 2015.

Grindle came to Pixar with seven years of animation related production experience. At Colossal Pictures she worked on numerous projects including MTV’s Liquid Television as associate producer and The Wish That Changed Christmas as producer. She began her feature film career at Industrial Light & Magic on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Grindle graduated from The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and holds a Master of Arts degree in Documentary Film from Stanford University.

Grindle currently resides in San Francisco with her husband and two children.

Peter de Sève’s illustration and character designs are known throughout the world. His work spans three decades and various media, including magazines, books, print and television advertising, animated feature films and magazines. He is perhaps best recognized for his many covers for The New Yorker magazine and his character designs for the blockbuster Ice Age franchise (“Scrat” is a veritable international celebrity). De Sève has also contributed to such films as Mulan, A Bug’s Life, Arthur Christmas and Finding Nemo. Most recently, de Sève was the lead character designer for DreamWorks upcoming animated feature, Larrikins and for the soon to be released The Little Prince. He is currently developing two of his own film projects with Blue Sky Studios on which he is also serving as executive producer.

De Sève’s many distinctions include the prestigious Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators, a Clio Award for a Nike television commercial and a Daytime Emmy Award for best character design in a daytime television show.

Sanjay Patel joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1996 an animator on A Bug’s Life. Since then he has animated on many of Pixar’s feature films, including Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Cars, Toy Story 3 and Monsters University. In addition to animating, Patel also storyboarded extensively for Monsters Inc., The Incredibles and Toy Story 2. For the Cars Toons Mater’s Tall Tales, Patel stepped up to act as the Animation Supervisor on many of the shorts in the series. Most recently, Patel made his directing debut with Pixar’s short film, Sanjay’s Super Team, which will screen in front of The Good Dinosaur, in 2015.

Growing up in San Bernardino, CA, in a Gujarati family, Patel’s earliest artistic influences stemmed from two very different worlds: comic books and Saturday morning cartoons, and the Hindu gods and spiritual culture that came to define his upbringing. After pursuing his artistic interests at the Cleveland Institute for the Arts, CalArts, and Pixar, Patel eventually turned his attention back to his roots, and began creating art, graphic novels and picture books that re-envisioned Hindu mythology in a modern, pop-culture way.

Sanjay’s Super Team is Patel’s personal story and a “mostly true” chronicle of his journey to understand the Hindu world so important to his parents.

Patel currently resides in Oakland with his fiancé and their son.

Troy Brooks has over twenty years of production experience in computer-animated television, feature film animation, video game production, software development, and visual effects for feature film, including senior management roles since 2000.

Beginning as a tools and pipeline programmer on ReBoot, the very first half-hour computer animated TV series, he went on to run production technology, IT, and software departments for Square Pictures in Honolulu. There, he helped create the feature animation Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and the Animatrix short, Final Flight of the Osiris. Returning to Vancouver, he was a CG Supervisor for EA Games, and a co-founder of PipelineFX as the original architect of “Qube!’, the leading render farm management solution. As CTO and later CEO of PipelineFX, he taught classes on production pipelines at schools and studios around the world, in addition to providing feature film pipeline consulting services. In 2009, he took on the role of Head of Studio for Digital Domain Vancouver, building out the studio and overseeing work on films such as Tron: Legacy, Thor, and Transformers 3.

Currently, Troy is the Business Development Manager for Digital Media at Scalar Decisions, the creators of StudioCloud, now the largest private cloud service for animation and film studios in Canada. Troy has a BSc in Computer Science and Mathematics from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.

Born in Galt Ontario, Canada and trained in graphics at George Brown, Wendy learned animation at Sheridan College in Oakville Ontario. Wendy first animated at Nelvana on half-hour specials and later became an animator on her first feature the cult classic Rock and Rule. Since then Wendy has worked for Nelvana, Bluth, Kroyers, WBFA, Fox, Gaumont, Hahn Films, Creative Capers, Buttercup Films, Columbia Film, Fair Passion, Pascal Blais, Duck Studios, Lacewood Akinsons, etc. Wendy has run studios, that have done parts of major features, out of her apartment. Huh??? Wendy continues doing design for companies such as MGA on the Bratz doll line. Wendy has a very well-rounded history in design, graphics and animation and is currently working in her own studio, Wonderbun.