Festival Lectures & Panels

Raquel Benitez, Barbara Slade, and Stacey Simmons discuss the evolution of this year's Television Development Track. The discussion will focus on the success of Cartoon Forum, and how to bring that success to the United States.

This panel brings together some of the world's leading acquisitions and distribution executives to discuss the current international development standards, and current content trends. Moderated by producer, Barbara Slade.

Curtis Jobling published the children's book Frankenstein's Cat with aspirations of seeing it developed for television as a series. The pilot was recently completed, and show orders have been placed for the new series based on the popular book, and developed by the designer of world-wide phenom, Bob the Builder.

Jason Walker, visual effects supervisor for the Oscar Nominated Short Film, Madame Tutli Putli, describes the process of making the haunting eyes of the characters of Madame Tutli Putli, that have garnered so much critical acclaim.

Dan Lund and Tony West, colleagues for many years at the Disney Feature Animation Studios, discuss creating their independent series Hildy Hildy, and their experience of being first time producers of television after years of working in feature animation.

What are the current trends in the World Animation Market? Is their a preference for children's content? How do emerging markets affect the growth of new series. How has the growth in the Middle East and Asia changed the market? Has online distribution widened or narrowed the market? Moderated by Amy Mitchell.

Angelina Ballerina Writer and Producer Barbara Slade, and Spongebob Squarepants writer Eric Shaw discuss the role of writing, and the process of writing for animated television. The challenges, and most inspiring successes will be discussed. Discussion will be moderated by Stacey Simmons.

This year marks the third annual Animation Collaboration for a Cause. This year, students from the Baton Rouge Area partnered with schools in Uzbekistan and Pakistan to make films on disaster preparedness. Teachers and Collaborators from AnimAction, Local Schools, and the International Education and Resource Network (I-EARN) come together to discuss the international partnership, making the films, and the benefits of international collaboration. The films will be screened, and the winner of this year's best Animation Collaboration will be announced.

Industrial Light & Magic's Tom Martinek discusses creating the monsters, explosions, and magic in the Michael Bay Blockbuster TRANSFORMERS which was nominated for an Academy Award this year for best visual effects.

Andreas Deja is the recipient of the inaugural Red Stick Lifetime Career Achievement Award. Andreas is one of the world's leading animators, respected by his peers all over the world for his remarkable contribution to the art. Andreas is responsible for many of animation's most memorable characters, including Roger Rabbit, King Triton, Scar, Jafar, and most lately Queen Narcissa from Enchanted. Andreas will discuss several of his most memorable pieces of work. A must see!

Hans Rijpkema, of Academy Award winning studio Rhythm & Hues traces the evolution of the visual effects industry. The growing technological possibilities form a constantly accerlating cycle with bigger expectations from directors, studios, and audiences, leading to increasing challenges for the creators of 3D visual effects. The cutting edge of yesterday is the cooke cutter tool of today. Rijpkema will use examples from a large variety of Rhythm & Hues projects to demonstrate this evolution.