Conversations with filmmakers selected to the festival.
COMING SOON!
Ryan Braund’s feature film debut isn’t only a cautionary tale of artificial intelligence run amok, it’s also a passion project which Ryan wrote, directed and animated.
In this conversation with Festival Director Marina Antunes, Ryan shares his creative process, finding his way through animation, and opens up about the mental struggle to make the film.
SPEAKER
Ryan Braund
Director // Independent
(Absolute Denial, Stick Together, Four Thieves and the Not-So Sweet Shop)
Ryan has been making films since he was 16, producing short animated films in his bedroom that went on to defy the odds and garner national film festival awards.
At 18 he was the youngest ever recipient of the BAFTA 60 Seconds of Fame award for his short, stop motion film Stick Together. Since then he wrote, directed and animated numerous short films that went on to be selected for a host of international film festivals and won multiple awards, including Best Film at Horrorfest for Break-In and a Royal Television Society award for his graduation film Four Thieves and the Not-So Sweet Shop.
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in Television and Film Design, Ryan spent several years as an editor and director of live news broadcasts for BBC News as well as shooting, directing and editing award-winning music videos such as Soul - The Loose Cut which received Best Music Video at the International Gong Awards.
Ryan has just solo-animated his highly ambitious debut feature film 'Absolute Denial'; a behemoth of a project requiring over 30,000 frames of hand drawn animation. The film is based on his acclaimed script EXE - a quarter-finalist screenplay at the Austin Film Festival and semi-finalist of Write LA 2018.
Website // IMDb // Twitter // Instagram // LinkedIn
MODERATOR
Marina Antunes
Festival Director, Film Critic, Podcaster // Spark CG Society
Marina joined the Spark Computer Graphics Society as Festival Director in 2014. Throughout her tenure, the festival has grown into Western Canada’s premiere animation festival, featuring a number of specialty programming including the “Made in Canada” program celebrating Canadian creators, “Mother of a Medium” featuring works from female filmmakers, and “Spotlight on France” which celebrates the best of French animation. In 2019, the SPARK ANIMATION FESTIVAL became Academy Award ® accredited, the only festival in British Columbia to hold that distinction.
Marina is also a writer and podcaster with over 15 years of experience, first on a personal blog followed by a decade-long tenure on the now-retired Row Three. In 2008 she joined the writing staff at Quiet Earth, becoming Editor-In-Chief in 2014, a role she still holds. Over the years, she has also produced and hosted a number of podcasts including Before the Dawn, a long-running podcast on the Twilight franchise, Girls on Pop, a podcast on film and popular entertainment from women’s perspective and After the Credits, bi-monthly film podcast with nearly 300 episodes.
Marina is a member of the Online Film Critics Society, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, and the Visual Effects Society is the President of the Vancouver SIGGRAPH chapter, and has served on juries for several film festivals including the DOXA, St. Louis International Film Festival, and the Whistler Film Festival.
Conversations with filmmakers selected to the festival.
COMING SOON!
Ryan Braund’s feature film debut isn’t only a cautionary tale of artificial intelligence run amok, it’s also a passion project which Ryan wrote, directed and animated.
In this conversation with Festival Director Marina Antunes, Ryan shares his creative process, finding his way through animation, and opens up about the mental struggle to make the film.
SPEAKER
Ryan Braund
Director // Independent
(Absolute Denial, Stick Together, Four Thieves and the Not-So Sweet Shop)
Ryan has been making films since he was 16, producing short animated films in his bedroom that went on to defy the odds and garner national film festival awards.
At 18 he was the youngest ever recipient of the BAFTA 60 Seconds of Fame award for his short, stop motion film Stick Together. Since then he wrote, directed and animated numerous short films that went on to be selected for a host of international film festivals and won multiple awards, including Best Film at Horrorfest for Break-In and a Royal Television Society award for his graduation film Four Thieves and the Not-So Sweet Shop.
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in Television and Film Design, Ryan spent several years as an editor and director of live news broadcasts for BBC News as well as shooting, directing and editing award-winning music videos such as Soul - The Loose Cut which received Best Music Video at the International Gong Awards.
Ryan has just solo-animated his highly ambitious debut feature film 'Absolute Denial'; a behemoth of a project requiring over 30,000 frames of hand drawn animation. The film is based on his acclaimed script EXE - a quarter-finalist screenplay at the Austin Film Festival and semi-finalist of Write LA 2018.
Website // IMDb // Twitter // Instagram // LinkedIn
MODERATOR
Marina Antunes
Festival Director, Film Critic, Podcaster // Spark CG Society
Marina joined the Spark Computer Graphics Society as Festival Director in 2014. Throughout her tenure, the festival has grown into Western Canada’s premiere animation festival, featuring a number of specialty programming including the “Made in Canada” program celebrating Canadian creators, “Mother of a Medium” featuring works from female filmmakers, and “Spotlight on France” which celebrates the best of French animation. In 2019, the SPARK ANIMATION FESTIVAL became Academy Award ® accredited, the only festival in British Columbia to hold that distinction.
Marina is also a writer and podcaster with over 15 years of experience, first on a personal blog followed by a decade-long tenure on the now-retired Row Three. In 2008 she joined the writing staff at Quiet Earth, becoming Editor-In-Chief in 2014, a role she still holds. Over the years, she has also produced and hosted a number of podcasts including Before the Dawn, a long-running podcast on the Twilight franchise, Girls on Pop, a podcast on film and popular entertainment from women’s perspective and After the Credits, bi-monthly film podcast with nearly 300 episodes.
Marina is a member of the Online Film Critics Society, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, and the Visual Effects Society is the President of the Vancouver SIGGRAPH chapter, and has served on juries for several film festivals including the DOXA, St. Louis International Film Festival, and the Whistler Film Festival.
