Siqi Song
Siqi Song is an animation director and animator from China. She studied at China Central Academy of Fine Arts before turning to filmmaking and receiving her Masters in Experimental Animation at CalArts. Song was named a Film Independent Directing Fellow in 2018, BAFTA Los Angeles Newcomer in 2019 and was nominated for an Oscars for her animated short Sister in 2020. She also contributed to the Oscar-nominated Feature Animation Missing Link and Netflix Original Series Ask the Storybots. Song is currently based in Los Angeles, California.
Olivia Pecini
Olivia Pecini is an illustrator and animator working in Los Angeles. She works in both storyboards and background design/paint. Her credits include The Midnight Gospel, Critical Role: Legend of Vox Machina, Fairfax, Star Trek: Lower Decks and Wet City. She is currently a background painter on Tuca and Bertie.
Aleks Dimitrijevic
Aleks Dimitrijevic is the Film Academy Festival & Events Producer at the British Film Institute in the UK. She is responsible for programming and producing all digital and in-venue Film Academy events for new talent (16-25 year olds) including the annual BFI Future Film Festival, the UK’s largest film festival for young people. Prior to joining the Film Academy team, Aleks was part of the BFI London Film Festival Events Team producing Screen Talks – in-depth interviews with leading directors and actors in contemporary cinema. She also worked as the Production Manager at Sheffield Doc/Fest, the largest documentary film festival in the UK. Aleks started her film festival career at the helm of the Smalls Film Festival, where she put together three editions of their short film festival in London and Singapore. She has also led the launch of The Smalls Film Fund, a £25k short film grant for young talent.
Andrew Chesworth
Andrew Chesworth is a filmmaker living in Burbank, CA. He co-wrote and co-directed the Oscar-nominated short film One Small Step at Taiko Studios with Bobby Pontillas. He was an animator for Disney on such films as Zootopia, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Moana, Wreck-It Ralph, Feast, Get a Horse!, Inner Workings, and Olaf's Frozen Adventure. Previously he was a director of commercials and short films at Make Visual in Minneapolis. Currently, Andrew is employed full-time at Taiko Studios directing and producing animated shorts and developing feature film projects. He is also freelancing part-time as a character animator and teaching at Animsquad.