Conversations with filmmakers selected to the festival.
Women in Animation Vancouver’s ACE (Animation Career EXCELerator) Program is designed to advance the careers of women in the animation industry by giving them a key credit in the creation of their very own short film, TV proof of concept or web series pilot, and providing mentorship and training along the way, to ensure they are set-up for success.
Meet the 2021 program participants and hear them discuss their experience on the making of their film Pivot.
SPEAKERS
Ana Gusson
Director // WIA Vancouver ACE Program
(Pivot, TrollsTopia, Archibald's Next Big Thing, My Little Pony: The Movie)
Born and raised in Brazil, Ana Gusson is a Director and 2d Animator. She has a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design and was a Production Designer and Assistant Art Director in film and advertising in South Brazil. Looking for new opportunities, she came to Canada to attend the Classical Animation Program at Vancouver Film School, where she found, not only a new storytelling tool, but also a long, lost creative voice. At VFS, Ana successfully directed two short films - Serio and Mushrooming. Serio participated in over a dozen festivals around the world, including Fantoche in Switzerland. Since then, she has worked as an animator in productions like My Little Pony: The Movie, the second season of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Netflix’s Archibald’s Next Big Thing.
Ana is currently part of the senior animation team at Atomic Cartoons in Vancouver, BC. Aside from her work as an animator, Ana dedicates time to creating her own animation projects and collaborates with other artists in projects that envision long-term social impact.
Website // IMDb // Facebook // Instagram // LinkedIn
Cindey Chiang
Designer, Art Director // Kickstart Entertainment
(Pivot, The Angry Birds, Brown and Friends)
Cindey Chiang is a Taiwanese Canadian Artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Character Animation from CalArts.
Her journey in the animation industry so far has allowed her to contribute to a variety of projects- from animating on the Beatles Covers ad for Apple to working on both of The Angry Birds movies as a Visual Development Artist. She was most recently a Senior Designer at Skybound Entertainment on Robert Kirkman’s Invincible animated series for Amazon and is currently a Designer and Art Director (1 episode) of the upcoming Netflix Brown and Friends series at Kickstart Entertainment.
Apart from drawing, Cindey enjoys arts and crafts, drinking coffee, and eating ice cream. She also likes animals and all things cute!
Website // IMDb // Instagram // Twitter // LinkedIn
Erica Miles
Animation Director // WIA Vancouver ACE Program
(Pivot, Trolls: Trollstopia, 101 Dalmatian Street, Hilda)
Erica Miles has been drawn to the world of animation from a young age, and after seeing The Lion King on the big screen at the age of 6, knew she wanted to become an animator and help to bring stories to life. She has worked on a number of productions both in 2D and 3D across a wide range of animation styles.
Most recently she animated on the award-winning Hilda for Netflix and 101 Dalmatian Street for Disney, and is currently a Lead Animator on Trolls: TrollsTopia for Dreamworks Television at Atomic Cartoons. Upon learning that she was on the autism spectrum as an adult, Erica has spent the last few years learning about the unique ways that her brain works and about how important diverse minds and perspectives are in media.
Erica was selected as the Animation Director of the 2020/2021 ACE Program through WIA, and the short film Pivot that they created through the program will be premiering at Spark this year.
IMDb // Instagram // Twitter // LinkedIn
Eva Pekárová
Composer // Independent
(Zeb's Spider, Dear Tilly)
Eva Pekárová is a Vancouver-based music composer, filmmaker, and artist. She originates from Piešťany, Slovakia and her art is often informed by her heritage. As a young immigrant, writing music became her universal language. In grade 11 she won the Youth Composers Showcase and flew to New York to perform her original piano piece at the Lincoln Centre of Performing Arts.
Eva holds a Bachelors of Fine Art from Emily Carr University with a concentration on film and media. This gives her the unique insight of being a composer with practical and academic film experience. When she is not scoring or working on her own artistic endeavors Eva works as a book cover illustrator, fabricator for stop-motion films, as well as working and training dogs.
Website // Facebook // Instagram // LinkedIn
Robyn Campbell
Screenwriter // Mainframe Studios, Independent
(Pivot)
Robyn Campbell is a Canadian writer residing in Vancouver, British Columbia. As a bisexual, female, millennial, Robyn creates characters and stories that are inclusive, diverse and encourage youth to be themselves, even when it’s difficult.
Her first feature film script, The Best, was selected for Oaxaca International FilmFest, the commercials she has written have accumulated millions of views, and her short-animated film, Pivot, was produced with a female-lead team for Women in Animation's ACE program. All of these works contain strong female leads and themes of acceptance of one's self, body, and orientation.
Instagram // Twitter // LinkedIn
Tini Wider
Animation Line Producer // Atomic Cartoons
After graduation from film school in Vienna, Austria Tini worked as a Location and Production Manager on various projects. Starting off with short films, then gaining more experience with TV Movies and Commercials, she then moved to Canada where she discovered the world of animation. She worked in the production department on CG and 2D, 2D Harmony with CG integration, TV shows and a 2D Harmony feature film.
Currently she is working as an Animation Line Producer at Atomic Cartoons.
IMDb // Facebook // Instagram // Twitter // LinkedIn
MODERATOR
Shabnam Rezaei
Co-Founder & President // Big Bad Boo Studios & Oznoz
Shabnam started Big Bad Boo to make quality cartoons. Shows include 16 Hudson, The Bravest Knight, Mixed Nutz, Lili & Lola, and 1001 Nights, which airs in 80 countries. Based in NYC and Vancouver, the company has an SVOD channel Oznoz that airs cartoons in various languages. With a BS in Computer Science, a BA in German Literature from UPenn, and an MBA from NYU, Shabnam started her career on Wall Street. She was born in Iran, grew up in Austria, and is raising her girls trilingual.
Conversations with filmmakers selected to the festival.
Women in Animation Vancouver’s ACE (Animation Career EXCELerator) Program is designed to advance the careers of women in the animation industry by giving them a key credit in the creation of their very own short film, TV proof of concept or web series pilot, and providing mentorship and training along the way, to ensure they are set-up for success.
Meet the 2021 program participants and hear them discuss their experience on the making of their film Pivot.
SPEAKERS
Ana Gusson
Director // WIA Vancouver ACE Program
(Pivot, TrollsTopia, Archibald's Next Big Thing, My Little Pony: The Movie)
Born and raised in Brazil, Ana Gusson is a Director and 2d Animator. She has a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design and was a Production Designer and Assistant Art Director in film and advertising in South Brazil. Looking for new opportunities, she came to Canada to attend the Classical Animation Program at Vancouver Film School, where she found, not only a new storytelling tool, but also a long, lost creative voice. At VFS, Ana successfully directed two short films - Serio and Mushrooming. Serio participated in over a dozen festivals around the world, including Fantoche in Switzerland. Since then, she has worked as an animator in productions like My Little Pony: The Movie, the second season of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Netflix’s Archibald’s Next Big Thing.
Ana is currently part of the senior animation team at Atomic Cartoons in Vancouver, BC. Aside from her work as an animator, Ana dedicates time to creating her own animation projects and collaborates with other artists in projects that envision long-term social impact.
Website // IMDb // Facebook // Instagram // LinkedIn
Cindey Chiang
Designer, Art Director // Kickstart Entertainment
(Pivot, The Angry Birds, Brown and Friends)
Cindey Chiang is a Taiwanese Canadian Artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Character Animation from CalArts.
Her journey in the animation industry so far has allowed her to contribute to a variety of projects- from animating on the Beatles Covers ad for Apple to working on both of The Angry Birds movies as a Visual Development Artist. She was most recently a Senior Designer at Skybound Entertainment on Robert Kirkman’s Invincible animated series for Amazon and is currently a Designer and Art Director (1 episode) of the upcoming Netflix Brown and Friends series at Kickstart Entertainment.
Apart from drawing, Cindey enjoys arts and crafts, drinking coffee, and eating ice cream. She also likes animals and all things cute!
Website // IMDb // Instagram // Twitter // LinkedIn
Erica Miles
Animation Director // WIA Vancouver ACE Program
(Pivot, Trolls: Trollstopia, 101 Dalmatian Street, Hilda)
Erica Miles has been drawn to the world of animation from a young age, and after seeing The Lion King on the big screen at the age of 6, knew she wanted to become an animator and help to bring stories to life. She has worked on a number of productions both in 2D and 3D across a wide range of animation styles.
Most recently she animated on the award-winning Hilda for Netflix and 101 Dalmatian Street for Disney, and is currently a Lead Animator on Trolls: TrollsTopia for Dreamworks Television at Atomic Cartoons. Upon learning that she was on the autism spectrum as an adult, Erica has spent the last few years learning about the unique ways that her brain works and about how important diverse minds and perspectives are in media.
Erica was selected as the Animation Director of the 2020/2021 ACE Program through WIA, and the short film Pivot that they created through the program will be premiering at Spark this year.
IMDb // Instagram // Twitter // LinkedIn
Eva Pekárová
Composer // Independent
(Zeb's Spider, Dear Tilly)
Eva Pekárová is a Vancouver-based music composer, filmmaker, and artist. She originates from Piešťany, Slovakia and her art is often informed by her heritage. As a young immigrant, writing music became her universal language. In grade 11 she won the Youth Composers Showcase and flew to New York to perform her original piano piece at the Lincoln Centre of Performing Arts.
Eva holds a Bachelors of Fine Art from Emily Carr University with a concentration on film and media. This gives her the unique insight of being a composer with practical and academic film experience. When she is not scoring or working on her own artistic endeavors Eva works as a book cover illustrator, fabricator for stop-motion films, as well as working and training dogs.
Website // Facebook // Instagram // LinkedIn
Robyn Campbell
Screenwriter // Mainframe Studios, Independent
(Pivot)
Robyn Campbell is a Canadian writer residing in Vancouver, British Columbia. As a bisexual, female, millennial, Robyn creates characters and stories that are inclusive, diverse and encourage youth to be themselves, even when it’s difficult.
Her first feature film script, The Best, was selected for Oaxaca International FilmFest, the commercials she has written have accumulated millions of views, and her short-animated film, Pivot, was produced with a female-lead team for Women in Animation's ACE program. All of these works contain strong female leads and themes of acceptance of one's self, body, and orientation.
Instagram // Twitter // LinkedIn
Tini Wider
Animation Line Producer // Atomic Cartoons
After graduation from film school in Vienna, Austria Tini worked as a Location and Production Manager on various projects. Starting off with short films, then gaining more experience with TV Movies and Commercials, she then moved to Canada where she discovered the world of animation. She worked in the production department on CG and 2D, 2D Harmony with CG integration, TV shows and a 2D Harmony feature film.
Currently she is working as an Animation Line Producer at Atomic Cartoons.
IMDb // Facebook // Instagram // Twitter // LinkedIn
MODERATOR
Shabnam Rezaei
Co-Founder & President // Big Bad Boo Studios & Oznoz
Shabnam started Big Bad Boo to make quality cartoons. Shows include 16 Hudson, The Bravest Knight, Mixed Nutz, Lili & Lola, and 1001 Nights, which airs in 80 countries. Based in NYC and Vancouver, the company has an SVOD channel Oznoz that airs cartoons in various languages. With a BS in Computer Science, a BA in German Literature from UPenn, and an MBA from NYU, Shabnam started her career on Wall Street. She was born in Iran, grew up in Austria, and is raising her girls trilingual.
