London International Animation Festival 2022

UK Animation Industry Event Session 2: Back to a Future!

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Stream began December 3, 2022 12:00 PM UTC
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Join Animated Women UK’s cross generational panel for a candid discussion of the career paths of women over the past decades to determine whether opportunities were more accessible then, or now and how we might better shape the future.


Panellists

Moderator: Dara McGarry - Director of Outreach at DNEG Animation

Dara McGarry started her career at Disney Feature Animation in 1997, and over the course of 13 years worked in a variety of departments including Production, Technology and Effects on films such as Dinosaur, Chicken Little, Tangled and Frozen. But being a bonafide anglophile, she jumped at the chance to move to London in 2010, working as an Artist Manager for DNEG VFX. A few years later DNEG opened a Feature Animation division with Dara as the Artist Manager, helping to grow and shape the team from its nascent days of 12 people to a global team of 700. She now serves as Director of Outreach for DNEG Animation.


Emily Morus-Jones - Welsh Puppeteer, Puppet Maker and Creature FX Co-ordinator

Emily trained as a TV puppeteer with the Sesame Workshop in addition to completing training at the prestigious Curious School Of Puppetry. Emily lives for puppets and practical FX and is one of the few women taking the lead on projects using puppetry in the film and TV industry at present. She has performed with puppets on CBBC, ITV, Sky 1 and Netflix in addition to working with high profile clients that include Ed Sheeran, Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa, McLaren (F1), The Brit Awards, Rag’nBone Man & Jam Baxter. Additionally she has built puppets for The Handspring Puppet Company, Spitting Image, KneeHigh Theatre, Nick Barnes Puppets, John Lewis and the band Iron Maiden. Emily is passionate about promoting puppetry to new audiences, connecting with other like minded artists and creating new, innovative stories using puppetry as the central medium in film, TV and online.


Nellie McQuinn - Head of Production at Moonbug Entertainment

Nellie has been in the entertainment industry for 29 years and has worked in Australia, New Zealand, UK and the USA both in front and behind the camera. She joined Grass Roots Media as co-director in 2006 and helped grow the company to become one of the most prolific producers of children’s digital content in the UK over the following decade. In 2018, Nellie joined Moonbug Entertainment as VP, Head of Production, producing content consumed by children globally. The brands under her remit include Cocomelon, Blippi, Oddbods and Little Baby Bum. As well as being a global leader in the AVOD space, the Moonbug production team are also engaged in premium original partnerships with Disney, Amazon Kids, Netflix and Sky, amongst others.


Sofia Caldeira - Layout/PreVis/PostVis Artist at The Third Floor

Sofia is a Visualisation & Layout Artist with experience in hybrid CG/live action, animated features and episodic series, currently working at The Third Floor in London as Shot Creator. Her background is originally in filmmaking and photography, but she fell in love with the 3D medium and in 2017 decided to do a specialised course in Advanced 3D for VFX. Sofia first joined the industry in 2019 as a Layout artist at MPC Film, working on the Best VFX Oscar nominee “The One and Only Ivan”. She then joined Jellyfish Pictures in 2020 to work on DreamWorks’ “Spirit Untamed” and during her time there, was promoted to Lead Layout Artist. Once that show wrapped, Sofia joined The Third Floor and has since been working in PreVis/PostVis for live action films and streaming series.


Rebecca Barbour - Director of Talent at Industrial Light and Magic

As the Director of Talent Management at ILM, Rebecca is tasked with strategically assembling and growing a team of artists with a diverse skill set and the creative drive to work with the Leadership teams, to produce the groundbreaking work for which ILM is known. Rebecca has overseen the growth of the Studio Talent group to its peak size of 425 artists. Rebecca graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University, Toronto, Canada and began her career in Film Production in 1999. She has contributed to the films Avatar and Salt, and has also worked on the animated feature The Tales of Despereaux.