Florence Miailhe (Guest of Honor)

Florence graduated from the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs with a specialization in engraving. She began her professional career as a press model maker, exhibiting drawings and engravings. In 1991, she directed her first short film Hammam. Since then, she has imposed a very personal style in animated cinema with a pictorial sensuality and narrative poetry of her own. She makes her films based on paint, pastel or sand, directly under the camera, proceeding by recovery. Her work is noticed in various festivals in France and internationally. She received the César for best short film in 2002 for A Summer Night Rendez-vous, a special mention at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 for Urban Tale and received in 2015 a Cristal d’honneur, at the 39th Annecy International Animated Film Festival for all of her work.

She has worked as a teacher in prestigious animation schools: les Gobelins, ENSAD, la Poudrière, and continues to work as a visual artist. Most of her films have been written with the collaboration of writer Marie Desplechin. Their first feature film The Crossing received in 2010 the prize for best screenplay at the Premiers Plans Festival the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution, and the Audience Award at Animation is Film. It came out in France at the end of September 2021.

Florence Miailhe presented in person The Crossing, a selection of her short films and will participate in a conversation about her career.

Wolf Burchard

Wolf Burchard is the curator of Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

He joined The Met in 2019, prior to which he held curatorial positions at the National Trust in England and the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. His exhibition is The Met’s first ever to explore the art of Walt Disney hand-drawn animation. It focuses in particular on the influences of French art on Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Beauty and the Beast (1991).

Wolf Burchard participated in The Influence of Disney in French Animation panel discussion.

Jim Capobianco

Jim Capobianco received the 2008 Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for Ratatouille. He went on to write and direct the short film, Your Friend The Rat, found on the Ratatouille DVD, winning the 2008 ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Award for short films.

Capobianco followed YFtR up with directing the critically acclaimed end titles for Pixar’s 2008 release Wall•E. A graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Capobianco started in the story department at Walt Disney Feature Animation on The Lion King. After five years at Disney, Capobianco relocated to Pixar Animation Studios where he was influential on the stories of many of Pixar’s films of the past 19 years, including Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, UP and Inside Out. In 2009 Capobianco finished Leonardo his first independent film, now in the permanent collection of the MoMA NYC. In addition to his work as a filmmaker Capobianco co-created the Bay Area International Children’s Film Festival now in its 9th year. Now with Aerial Contrivance Workshop, Capobianco is bringing his story and design expertise to the independent world of film and animation.

Capobianco joined virtually to address the creative choices behind his stop-motion film The Inventor.

Eleanor Coleman

Eleanor Coleman is a Paris-based American producer. During her tenure as head of in-house production across all platforms at TF1 Jeunesse she was responsible for conceiving and implementing the first truly profitable 360-degree strategy for children’s programming and digital content in France. Eleanor then joined Indie Sales, a Paris-based distribution and co-production partner for animated and live action independent feature films and transmedia projects. Indie Sales has bought 4 superb animated films and is actively seeking transmedia projects with a feature film component. Eleanor is co-vice president of Les Femmes s’Animent a french association devoted to promoting women in animation.

Eleanor Coleman participated in the Women in Animation panel discussion.

Angela De Vito

Angela De Vito is a freelance animator, storyboard artist, and graphic novelist working in NYC. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in Animation in 2014. Since then she has worked on animation for commercials and series. Angela has worked for such studios as Hornet, Inc.; Titmouse, Inc.; Nathan Love; Click 3X; CHRLX; and Disney Digital Network. Her debut graphic novel, Heartless Prince, has been published with Disney Hyperion. She lives with her family and her two adorable, rambunctious cats.

Angela De Vito participated in the Women in Animation panel discussion.

Amandine Fredon

After studying advertising, she joined the Ecole de la Poudrière and studied drawing and cinema. She directed the short film Le Trésor du têtard salé, which earned her the Special Jury Prize (student film category) at the Annecy Festival in 2003. For the past ten years she has worked at Folimage studio in Valences, France, on different productions such as the TV series Hilltop Hospital, and the films Raining Cats and Frogs, Mia and the Migoo and A Cat in Paris.

Amandine Fredon joined Benjamin Massoubre online from France to discuss the creative process behind their feature film Little Nicholas.

Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec

Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec is a French animator. She directed the film The Swallows of Kabul in 2019. After graduating in Applied Arts, Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec joined the Ecole des Gobelins in Paris in 2003. Her first two short films, Madame (made during her studies in 2006) and Escale (2010) were selected at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

In addition to her work as a graphic designer on television sets and advertising for luxury brands, she also worked as an animator on short films like Bang Bang ! by Julien Bisaro, nominated at the 2015 César Awards for Best Animated Film, and Smart Monkey by Vincent Paronnaud (Winshluss) and Nicolas Pawlowski. Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec continued her career as a character animator for feature films such as Ernest and Célestine, The Rabbi’s Cat, The Day of the Crows and April and the Extraordinary World. In 2016, she collaborated as a cartoonist on the animated series Lastman, an adaptation of the comic strip created by Bastien Vivès, Balak and Michaël Sanlaville. In 2019, she directed her first feature The Swallows of Kabul.

Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec participated in the Women in Animation panel discussion.

Jérémie Hoarau

Jérémie Hoarau co-directed Crisis Jung (2018). He worked as a first assistant director and editor on the first season of Lastman.

Jérémie Hoarau was on hand to present the process behind the second season of Lastman.

Benjamin Massoubre

Benjamin Massoubre earned his stripes as a film editor working on such films as I Lost my Body (Jérémy Clapin – Animation First 2020), Calamity Jane and Long Way North (Rémi Chayé – Animation First 2021), the TV series Iron Man: Armored Adventures, and, more recently, The Summit of the Gods (Patrick Imbert – Animation First 2022) and Little Vampire (Joan Sfar – Animation First 2022). In 2020 he was nominated for an Eddie by the American Cinema Editors for his work on I Lost my Body. Little Nicholas is his first film as a director.

Benjamin Massoubre was at FIAF in person to present his forthcoming feature film Little Nicholas.

Claire Matz

She is an animation artist and creative producer currently based in France, where she created her company, Yabunousagi.

After multiple experiences in music, multimedia and video games, three domains where she could exercise her passion for storytelling, Claire Matz graduated from Gobelins (Paris) in animated filmmaking in 2019.

Then, she worked for Netflix and multiple animations studios in Tokyo for two years, and actively participated in Netflix’ diversity projects in Japan to bring international and local talents to work together. She worked as an animator and designer on short movies (Fuse), series (Spriggan, Granblue Fantasy, B: the Beginning) and features (Little Vampire). During her time at Netflix, she collaborated closely with producers ; influenced by what she learned, she decided to become a Creative Producer.

Claire has now started her business in France, providing a World Building service for IP expansion to international companies. Developing original projects at the same time, she contributed to create the transmedia storyworld Altertopia, which has been selected at Cartoon Springboard 2021 and is now in development.

Claire Matz participated in the Women in Animation panel discussion.

Jean-Charles Mbotti Malolo

Born in Vaulx-en-Velin, France, Jean-Charles Mbotti Malolo is a dancer, animator and filmmaker of Cameroonian descent. He studied animation at the Emile Cohl School of Lyon. His first short, The Heart is a Metronome (2007) was elected “Best First Film” at Hiroshima Film Festival in 2008. The Sense of Touch (2014), also internationally recognized, is the perfect example of the connection between dance and animation. For the film, he learned sign language and worked with born deaf French actress Emmanuelle Laborit. Also a trained dancer, Malolo choreographed his first show Les Mots – a solo for two performers in 2017. His 2018 short, Make It Soul, a tribute to black American music, was nominated for the César for Best Animation Short Film in 2020. The hybrid documentary series Ex æquo! (2020), was produced for the Paralympics Games of Tokyo in 2021.

Jean-Charles Mbotti Malolo joined us from France to present a selection of his past work.

Teddy Newton

Teddy Newton’s unique sense of humor mixed with his ability to whip out characters with only a few strokes a pen, gave rise to his career in the animation field.

Teddy has contributed as a designer and story artist to many of the top animated films in the industry, including: The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Toy Story 3, Incredibles 2, as well as many Pixar short films, such as, Presto, Jack-Jack Attack, Your Friend the Rat, Partly Cloudy, and Day and Night, which he also wrote and directed. The film played theatrically with Toy Story 3 and was nominated for an Academy Award. It won both a VES and an ANNIE award for outstanding short film of 2010. This month his animated short film, Snow Day drops and continues the popular video game, Clash of the Clan film series. Teddy is currently designing for Brad Bird’s next animated feature and in Development on multiple animated projects.

Teddy Newton participated in The Influence of Disney in French Animation panel discussion.

Kristof Serrand

Trained at Paris’s Beaux-Arts and Gobelins animation school, Serrand grew his passion for animation out of his never-ending curiosity for the arts in all of their forms. His rich career began in the studios of France’s most celebrated filmmakers, including Paul Grimault (The King and the Mockingbird) and René Laloux (Fantastic Planet), before taking him to a long tenure at DreamWorks and now to Netflix, where he is currently Character Animation Manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Serrand participated in The Influence of Disney in French Animation panel discussion. He also served as President of the Jury of Animation First’s student film competition.

Joanna Quinn

She is one of Britain’s most distinctive animators. Her first film, Girls Night Out (1987), featuring working-class heroine Beryl, was a humorous riposte to machismo and a celebration of uninhibited female sexuality that won three major awards at Annecy. Since introducing audiences to Beryl, Joanna and her writing and producing partner, Les Mills, have created three more personal films about her: Body Beautiful, Dreams and Desires: Family Ties, and Beryl’s newest adventure, Affairs of the Art. The politics of gender and oppression, along with Joanna’s obsessive fascination and delight with exploring the eccentricities of the female body, remain the central themes of their work together. Joanna’s dynamic, fluid style makes her animation vibrant, energetic and unique. Her films—including Britannia, a savage indictment of British imperialism—have won just about every major international award, including BAFTAs and Emmys, in addition to receiving two Oscar® nominations. A committed educator, Joanna lectures at major colleges and universities around the world.

Joanna Quinn participated in the Women in Animation panel discussion.

Alain Ughetto

Alain Ughetto inherited from his father and grandfather a pronounced taste for tinkering which he injects into his cinema through volume animation. In 1985, Alain Resnais awarded him the César for best animated short film for La Boule. In 2013, he directed Jasmine, in which his love story is played out in the turmoil of Tehran in the late 1970s.

Alain Ughetto was at FIAF in person to present his forthcoming feature film No Dogs or Italians Allowed.

Ilan Urroz

Ilan Urroz is a producer and executive producer. Ilan Urroz studied biology and chemistry. After earning a degree in plant biology and wine, he decided to focus on information and the digital revolution, learning computer languages and the business of infotainment. From design to urban transportation, he decided in 2009 to develop his passion for animation as Director of La Cartoucherie. Built by the city council of Valence (Drôme in France), La Cartoucherie is a center dedicated to animation studios.

In 2015, he moved to Marseille to manage the content cluster of the south region from Avignon, Aix, Marseille to Cannes and Nice. With more than 150 members in content industries—animation documentary, live action, and TV broadcast—he developed networking opportunities, international partnerships, and markets like Cannes, MIFA, Sunny Side and South by Southwest with the first French delegation in this content forum.

In 2018, with his experience in partnerships and management, he bought, with Nicolas Flory, the company Folimage, originally founded by Pascal Le Nôtre. He has produced many films including Little Nicholas, Owen and the Wolves’s Forest, and Prendiluna, and worked as an executive producer on The Tower or No Dogs or Italians Allowed.

Ilan Urroz was at FIAF in person to address the process behind the film The Inventor.