#Animation
Guest Post: How I Found Balance and Flexibility as a Working Mom in Film and Animation
By Sherene Strausberg My first film, “Cool For You,” has been accepted into 39 film festivals and received multiple awards, including a Silver Anthem Award last month. As an independent filmmaker...
Trailer Watch: The Unluckiest Person in the World Goes on an Epic Adventure in Peggy Holmes’ “Luck”
Anything that can go wrong does go wrong for Sam Greenfield (Eva Noblezada), the unluckiest person in the world. Her days consist of mishap after mishap. All of that changes when she finds a lucky...
Teaser Watch: “Harley Quinn” and Poison Ivy Are on an “Eat Bang Kill” Tour in Season 3
Gotham’s baddest, coolest, funniest supervillainesses are back — and officially “BFF GFFs.” After riding off into the sunset together at the end of last season, “Harley...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Signe Baumane – “My Love Affair with Marriage”
Signe Baumane is a Latvian-born, Brooklyn-based independent filmmaker, artist, writer, and animator. She has made 17 award-winning animated shorts but is best known for her first animated feature,...
Composer to Watch: Aiko Fukushima of “Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles”
Not everyone can trace their career back to the town of their birth, but Aiko Fukushima’s origin story starts in the Japanese town where Yamaha, Kawaii, and Suzuki were all produced. “I started...
Delegates Selected for Stories x Women, Program Working to Boost Diversity in Global Animation
Women in Animation (WIA) and the International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations (FIAPF) have announced the delegates for Stories x Women, a new program designed to boost the diversity of...
Aidy Bryant, Ariella Elovic, and Sudi Green Are Bringing “Cheeky” to Peacock
Peacock is going to get real about women’s bodies — without shame or judgement. According to Deadline, an animated comedy based on illustrator Ariella Elovic’s book, “Cheeky: A...
Pick of the Day: “Turning Red”
A hilarious and moving tribute to the power of friendship, family, and self-acceptance, Domee Shi’s “Turning Red” is a delight from start to finish. Pixar’s latest tells the...
Apply Now: Fellowship Program from DreamWorks Animation and HBCU 20×20
A new talent development program for current students and soon-to-be graduates of HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) has just been announced via The Hollywood Reporter, with...
A Focus on Family: Crowdfunding Picks
Family dynamics are an ever-evolving part of life; a large element of understanding family is understanding our individual selves. At times, familial relationships can feel overwhelming or confusing,...
Black Women Animate to Honor Mounia Aram, Tiffany Ford, and Thandiwe Mlauli
Black Women Animate Studios (BWA), an animation house “powered by Black female talent,” has announced the honorees of its second annual Black in Animation Awards. To be held November 14,...
HBO Max & WarnerMedia Access Launch Animated Shorts Program for Underrepresented Talent
Driven by the goal to “discover and nurture new and distinct voices in adult animation,” HBO is launching a new initiative. The HBO Max X WarnerMedia Access Animated Shorts Program will...
Trailer Watch: Zoe Saldaña Goes to Battle with Dark Lords in “Maya and the Three”
Zoe Saldaña is ready to vanish the dark lords of the underworld in a new trailer for “Maya and the Three.” The “Guardians of the Galaxy” star plays Maya, a princess...
October 2021 Television Preview
From narratives of independent women striving to find a foothold for themselves to coming-of-age narratives, fall TV has much to offer. Kicking off the month is Molly Smith Metzler’s “Maid”...
Animator to Watch: Angela Stempel of “Pen15’s” Animated Special “Jacuzzi”
Animator Angela Stempel is making her mark in the film and TV by bringing the drawing board to life. Originally a student of International Relations, Stempel’s route to the animation circuit...
Zoë Kravitz Will Topline & EP Coming-of-Age Animated Series “Phatty Patty” from India Sage Wilson
With her highest-profile film role to date on the way, Zoë Kravitz is going undercover. “The Batman” is currently in post-production, and Kravitz has lined up a gig in animation before...
Teaser Watch: Zoe Saldaña Vows to Be a Great Eagle Warrior in “Maya and the Three”
“If it is to be, it is up to me,” says Zoe Saldaña in a new teaser for “Maya and the Three.” The animated Netflix series sees the “Avengers: Endgame” actress...
Trailer Watch: The “Pen15” Special Takes Us On an Animation Vacation
“Pen15” just got weirder… if that’s even possible. The surrealist “traumedy” — which hasn’t aired new episodes since September 2020 — is back,...
“Adventure Time” Spinoff Centered on Fan Faves Fionna and Cake Ordered to Series at HBO Max
It’s more good news for fans of “Adventure Time”: HBO Max has given a series order to a new spinoff of the beloved animated series. According to a press release, the new show will...
Exclusive: The Cast & Crew of “Spirit Untamed” Discuss the Importance of Girls’ Onscreen Rep in Clip
In “Spirit Untamed,” a girl’s love for a mustang named Spirit leads her to forge lasting friendships with other young women — and discover an unexpected connection with her...
Tara Nicole Whitaker Making Feature Directorial Debut with Animated Pic “Pierre the Pigeon-Hawk”
Tara Nicole Whitaker has contributed to the animation of titles such as “Gravity Falls” and “DuckTales,” illustrated books like “Shady Baby” and the “My Baby Loves”...
Gurinder Chadha Has a Bollywood-Inspired Animated Pic in the Works
Gurinder Chadha is expanding her horizons. Best known for her smash hit “Bend It Like Beckham,” the writer and director is planning to foray into the world of animation. She’s...
Trailer Watch: Tig Notaro Returns with the First-Ever Fully Animated Stand-Up Special “Drawn”
Tig Notaro is returning to HBO with a new look. A trailer has dropped for “Tig Notaro: Drawn,” the first-ever fully animated stand-up special. A new trailer for “Drawn” sees...
The Animated Imagination: Crowdfunding Picks
Animation gives storytellers the liberty to dream and mythologize without restriction, to turn fanciful reveries into alternative realities of experience, human or otherwise. The medium indulges the...
Pick of the Day: “Tuca & Bertie”
Praise be: “Tuca & Bertie” has risen from the dead, and its resurrection is everything you’d hope and more. Adult Swim revived Lisa Hanawalt’s critically acclaimed...
How to Be a Woman: VOD Picks
There is not one, singular way to be a woman, but looking at the ways women are represented in mainstream media, one may start to believe that’s the case. All too often, the “ideal”...
Women in Animation’s Spring 2021 Mentorship Program to Focus on Advancing Women of Color
Women in Animation (WIA) is teaming up with Black N’Animated, LatinX in Animation, and Rise Up Animation for its 2021 Spring Mentorship Program in order to “directly advance career...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Yngvild Sve Flikke – “Ninjababy”
Yngvild Sve Flikke wrote and directed dramas and documentaries for the Norwegian National Broadcasting (NRK) for 17 years before making her feature film debut with “Women in Oversized Men’s...
All-Native Writers Room Lined Up for Netflix Children’s Show “Spirit Rangers”
“Spirit Rangers,” an animated Netflix series about three shape-shifting siblings, won’t debut until next year, but it’s already making a major cultural mark. Led by showrunner...
Offering a “Brave Space to Create Unapologetically”: Crowdfunding Picks
This round of crowdfunding picks shares a focus on representing and tackling a range of intersecting social and cultural issues. They rely on humor, fantasy, and, of course, Zoom, to address the...
Teaser Watch: Kelly Marie Tran Tries to Save the World in “Raya and the Last Dragon”
Move over Khaleesi, there’s a new woman warrior harnessing the power of dragons set to hit the screen. A teaser has dropped for Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Raya and the Last...
Beanie Feldstein to Voice “Harriet the Spy” Animated Series for Apple
Beanie Feldstein is playing another precocious overachiever. She’s following up her roles as a Yale-bound high school student in Olivia Wilde’s “Booksmart” and teen music...
Tamara Shogaolu to Direct Black Girl Magic-Inspired “Anouschka”
Tamara Shogaolu is celebrating the Black Girl Magic ethos and Black girls around the globe. She’s been tapped to helm “Anouschka,” a mixed reality (XR) film experience for Ado Ato...
Gitanjali Rao’s Hand-Painted Animated Pic “Bombay Rose” Goes to Netflix
Gitanjali Rao’s feature debut has secured distribution. Deadline reports that Netflix snagged rights to “Bombay Rose,” which made history as the first animated pic to open Venice...
Future and Fantasy: VOD and Web Series Picks
Women filmmakers are redefining what intimacy and relationships may look like in the future — not through making tired critiques of dating apps, but rather by offering expansive interpretations...
“Tuca & Bertie” Revived for Season 2 at Adult Swim
A Netflix cancellation won’t keep our fave loud-mouth toucan and anxious song thrush apart. The streamer announced that “Tuca & Bertie” wouldn’t be picked up for a second...
Vicky Jenson to Direct Musical Fantasy “Spellbound” for Skydance Animation
Vicky Jenson will unite a kingdom in her next animated pic. The “Shrek” and “Shark Tale” filmmaker is set to helm “Spellbound,” a musical fantasy. Per Deadline,...
The Road to Romance: Crowdfunding Picks
When it comes to love, things don’t always work out as smoothly as we’d like them to. Our latest round of crowdfunding picks examine the sometimes rocky road to romance in a number of...
Natasha Rothwell, Abbi Jacobson, & Ilana Glazer Team Up for Animated Comedy Central Pilot “Malltown”
An “Insecure” actress and writer is joining forces with “Broad City’s” stars and creators on an animated project. Natasha Rothwell, who plays Kelly on HBO’s...
Trailer Watch: Kids Send Their Parents on a Dangerous Adventure in “The Willoughbys”
“All the Willoughby children ever wanted was to have a normal family, but their loving parents have no love left over for them,” a narrator explains in a new trailer for “The...
Ava DuVernay Developing “Wings of Fire” TV Adaptation for Warner Bros. Animation
“A Wrinkle in Time” director Ava DuVernay is bringing another beloved children’s fantasy tale to the screen. According to a press release, the multi-hyphenate is developing “a...
Peggy Holmes Will Direct “Luck”
Peggy Holmes is boarding “Luck.” She’s replacing Alessandro Carloni as director on the Skydance Animation feature due to the latter’s “creative differences” with...
“Frozen II” Earns $350 Million in Record-Breaking Opening Weekend
Anna and Elsa’s venture “Into the Unknown” turned out to be extremely lucrative. “Frozen II” netted $127 million domestically and $223.3 million abroad — $350.2...
WIA to Honor Netflix Animation Exec Melissa Cobb and Filmmaker Brenda Lopez
Netflix VP of Original Animation Melissa Cobb and filmmaker and artist Brenda Lopez are among the honorees at this year’s WIA Diversity Awards. WIA (Women in Animation) President Marge Dean...
Oscars: 16 Percent of Films Submitted to Feature Animation Race Are Directed by Women
Academy Award nominations won’t be announced until January 13, but the 2020 Oscar race is heating up. Submissions for the International Feature category closed earlier this month, and now the...
Trailer Watch: An Aspiring Pilot Is Grounded in Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s “Sitara: Let Girls Dream”
A trailer has dropped for Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s latest, an animated film about a teenage girl’s sky-high aspirations. Set in the old city of Lahore in the 1970s, “Sitara: Let...
Trailer Watch: Elsa Is Called to the Enchanted Forest in “Frozen II”
In the new trailer for “Frozen II,” Elsa (Idina Menzel) seems a little off — at least according to her sister, Anna (Kristen Bell). Turns out some mystical force has been calling to...
Venice 2019 Women Directors: Meet Gitanjali Rao – “Bombay Rose”
A self-taught animator and filmmaker, Gitanjali Rao emerged into the international stage with her animated short “Printed Rainbow,” which premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2006....
Exploring Trauma: VOD and Web Series Picks
In media, women’s pain is usually used to motivate men. So there’s a real demand for nuanced portrayals of female trauma, which looks at what women are actually going through — as...
Rose McGowan to Make Feature Directorial Debut with “Pomerania”
Rose McGowan may have officially quit screen acting, but that doesn’t mean she’s left the industry. The activist and “Brave” author will turn to the director’s chair...
Venice Critics’ Week Lineup to Open with Gitanjali Rao’s “Bombay Rose”
Gitanjali Rao’s feature debut will kick off the 2019 Venice Critics’ Week. The award-winning Indian animator will premiere “Bombay Rose” at the independently run Venice...