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Animation has the ability to describe and portray internal states and emotions. It’s often said we are experiencing huge rises of mental health issues particularly in young people, but also the social instability of working in the creative industries themselves can take its toll with precarity of contracted work and global competition.
We gathered a group of filmmakers whose recent work has dealt with some of these issues to talk through how animation might be able to make a difference.
LIAF presents the 2025 UK Animation Industry Event – 5 panels giving insider access to some of the hottest topics of the year. We’ve gathered together some of the most passionate, honest and insightful experts from a wide range of different areas and backgrounds who are ready to cover all manner of vital topics to give you much food for thought.
Animation doesn’t stand still; and debates and discussions with animators and creative experts are the best way to get in touch with what’s happening. The panels will be chaired by Saint John Walker, Postgraduate Media Programme Leader, University of Hertfordshire, Julian Scott, animation consultant at Film London and Babak Jani, Head of Skills at Film London.
For anyone currently working in the film and animation industry, thinking of working in the industry or just plain curious, these 5 talks are indispensable. They are free to everyone and take place live and online on our streaming platform over the 2 days of Saturday December 6 and Sunday December 7.
Panellists
Moderator: Saint John Walker
Saint John Walker is the Programme Leader for postgraduate media at the UK’s University of Hertfordshire and a leading VFX educationalist with over 25 years of experience of teaching and training in the games, animation and VFX industries. Most recently Saint was Dean and Director of Industry Engagement at the UK’s Escape Studios and previous to that he designed, initiated and ran the VFX degree course at Norwich University of the Arts for four years. Saint is an active member of Access:VFX. Saint is also the convenor, designer and chair of the popular Industry panels at the London International Animation Festival each year. In 2024 he has chaired and taken part in panel discussions at the View conference in Turin, the Viborg Animation Festival and FMX, Stuttgart.
Robert Glassford
Robert Glassford aka Mr Kaplin is an Art & Motion director with Scottish roots who has settled in London. Storytelling has always been the focus of his work but he is driven creatively by finding surprising, abstract and playful ways to convey these stories visually to create unique pieces for both client-led and studio-driven projects. He has worked with a wide range of brands, advertisers and agencies to produce work for film, television and digital media as well as many global brands including Sky, Lego, Disney, British Airways, Ericsson and MTV.
Gaïa Grandin Mendzylewski
Gaïa studied animation at the ESAAT in France and graduated in 2017. The following year, she directed her first short, The Questioner. Her second film, Internship Report, was about her fear of working. Since then, she has worked, so she’s less scared now. In 2021 Papy3D came on board to produce her third short film, Hi! How are you?, about her discomfort with social interactions. Today, she interacts with people daily, so that’s also getting better. Currently, she's hustling as a 2D animation technician while developing her fourth short film with the producers Have A Nice Day. It will be called Husband and will explore her fear of dying alone.Her dream is to create a series about another thing dear to her heart but for now, it’s a secret.
Jelena Milunović
Jelena is a Serbian director of animated films and illustrator who lives and works in Berlin. She has a master's degree in animation direction from the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Potsdam and visual communication from the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin. She has specialised in 2D animation, creating poetic animated worlds using her unique style of illustration. As a freelance director, animator and motion designer, Jelena collaborates on short animated films, AR installations and various animation projects.
Animation has the ability to describe and portray internal states and emotions. It’s often said we are experiencing huge rises of mental health issues particularly in young people, but also the social instability of working in the creative industries themselves can take its toll with precarity of contracted work and global competition.
We gathered a group of filmmakers whose recent work has dealt with some of these issues to talk through how animation might be able to make a difference.
LIAF presents the 2025 UK Animation Industry Event – 5 panels giving insider access to some of the hottest topics of the year. We’ve gathered together some of the most passionate, honest and insightful experts from a wide range of different areas and backgrounds who are ready to cover all manner of vital topics to give you much food for thought.
Animation doesn’t stand still; and debates and discussions with animators and creative experts are the best way to get in touch with what’s happening. The panels will be chaired by Saint John Walker, Postgraduate Media Programme Leader, University of Hertfordshire, Julian Scott, animation consultant at Film London and Babak Jani, Head of Skills at Film London.
For anyone currently working in the film and animation industry, thinking of working in the industry or just plain curious, these 5 talks are indispensable. They are free to everyone and take place live and online on our streaming platform over the 2 days of Saturday December 6 and Sunday December 7.
Panellists
Moderator: Saint John Walker
Saint John Walker is the Programme Leader for postgraduate media at the UK’s University of Hertfordshire and a leading VFX educationalist with over 25 years of experience of teaching and training in the games, animation and VFX industries. Most recently Saint was Dean and Director of Industry Engagement at the UK’s Escape Studios and previous to that he designed, initiated and ran the VFX degree course at Norwich University of the Arts for four years. Saint is an active member of Access:VFX. Saint is also the convenor, designer and chair of the popular Industry panels at the London International Animation Festival each year. In 2024 he has chaired and taken part in panel discussions at the View conference in Turin, the Viborg Animation Festival and FMX, Stuttgart.
Robert Glassford
Robert Glassford aka Mr Kaplin is an Art & Motion director with Scottish roots who has settled in London. Storytelling has always been the focus of his work but he is driven creatively by finding surprising, abstract and playful ways to convey these stories visually to create unique pieces for both client-led and studio-driven projects. He has worked with a wide range of brands, advertisers and agencies to produce work for film, television and digital media as well as many global brands including Sky, Lego, Disney, British Airways, Ericsson and MTV.
Gaïa Grandin Mendzylewski
Gaïa studied animation at the ESAAT in France and graduated in 2017. The following year, she directed her first short, The Questioner. Her second film, Internship Report, was about her fear of working. Since then, she has worked, so she’s less scared now. In 2021 Papy3D came on board to produce her third short film, Hi! How are you?, about her discomfort with social interactions. Today, she interacts with people daily, so that’s also getting better. Currently, she's hustling as a 2D animation technician while developing her fourth short film with the producers Have A Nice Day. It will be called Husband and will explore her fear of dying alone.Her dream is to create a series about another thing dear to her heart but for now, it’s a secret.
Jelena Milunović
Jelena is a Serbian director of animated films and illustrator who lives and works in Berlin. She has a master's degree in animation direction from the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Potsdam and visual communication from the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin. She has specialised in 2D animation, creating poetic animated worlds using her unique style of illustration. As a freelance director, animator and motion designer, Jelena collaborates on short animated films, AR installations and various animation projects.