October 24th, 2016 
Jerry Beck 
Animation Magazine has unveiled its list of this year’s distinguished Animation Hall of Fame award recipients. The honorees will receive their awards at the World Animation & VFX Summit Gala on November 1st, 6:30-10:00 p.m. at the beachside Hotel Casa del Mar in Santa Monica.
Fifth annual gala event will honor Cartoon Network’s founding president Betty Cohen, Fairly OddParents creator Butch Hartman, Nelvana and Teletoon founder Michael Hirsh, Laika president and CEO director Travis Knight, VFX visionary Ellen Poon and Cyber Group Studios chairman/CEO Pierre Sissmann.
This year’s award recipients are, in alphabetical order:
Betty Cohen. Renowned TV network and digital media executive, and founding President of Cartoon Network/Adult Swim/Boomerang.
Butch Hartman. Multiple Emmy and Annie-nominated and BATFA-winning creator of the long-running Nickelodeon series The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom and T.U.F.F. Puppy.
Michael Hirsh. Highly accomplished entrepreneur and executive and founder of Nelvana and TeleTOON Canada.
Travis Knight. Travis Knight is President & CEO of renowned animation studio and the director/producer of Kubo and the Two Strings, producer and lead animator on The Boxtrolls and ParaNorman; and lead animator Coraline.
Ellen Poon. Acclaimed vfx supervisor and producer whose many credits include Disney’ Frozen, Zootopia, and this year’s much-anticipated feature Moana.
Pierre Sissmann, Chairman, CEO and Founder of leading French animation company, Cyber Group Studios
The 5th Annual World Animation & VFX Summit takes place on Monday, October 31, and Tuesday, November 1, at the California Yacht Club, in Marina del Rey, CA. This high-profile event will feature panels, discussion and networking with a global array of high-level animation and visual effects professionals, who are changing the animation, VFX, distribution and financing landscape all over the world.
This year’s distinguished keynote speakers, presenters and panelists include
· George Antzoulides, Lead Supervisor, Proof, Inc.
· Raquel Benitez, CEO, Comet Entertainment
· Camille Cellucci, VFX Producer Titanic, Elysium
· Vanessa Chapman, Head, VJC Media
· Joyce Cox, VFX Producer
· Larry Cutler, CTO, Baobab Studios
· Valeria Dobrolyubov, Head of Sales, Mirsand, Ltd.
· Malik Ducard, Global Head of Kids and Learning, YouTube
· Holly Edwards, Producer, Trolls
· Michael Eisner, Founder, The Tornente Co. former Chairman and CEO, The Disney Company
· Josh Fisher, VP of Creative Affairs, DHX Studio
· Sean Gorman, President, American Greetings Entertainment
· Laura Gross, Founder, L.E.G. Productions
· Sherry Gunther-Shugerman: Founder/CEO, POPmedia Brands, Beatrix Girls
· Mary Harrington, Head, Harringtoons Productions
· Dylan Highsmith, VFX Editor, Star Trek Beyond, Furious 7
· Gale Anne Hurd, Producer, The Walking Dead, Teminator
· David Kleeman, Senior VP of Global Trends, Dubit
· Stephen Hodge, Founder, Toon Goggles
· Christopher Keenan, SVP Content Development & Production, Mattel Creations
· Heather Kenyon, SVP Development & Production, Citizen Skull Productions
· Travis Knight, President, CEO, LAIKA, director (Kubo and the Two Strings)
· Konnie Kwak, President, Toonzone Studio
· Babar Lakhani, CEO Ice Animations, & Principal, Lakson Group
· Ed Lantz, Founder, Vortex Immersion Media
· Rick Leary, VFX Supervisor, Double Negative
· David Lodge, Actor, Goldie and Bear, Care Bears and Cousins
· Marco Marenghi, Animation Supervisor, Framestore
· Christy Hui, Founder, Actionfliks
· Peter McHugh, Manager, The Gotham Group
· Tom McLean, Editor, Animation Magazine
· Michael Mennies, Producer, Story Editor, Voice Director, Actor
· Candi Milo, Actress, Pig Goat Banana Cricket, Breadwinners
· Rick Mischel, Producer, Sony Pictures Animation
· Kyle Odermatt, VFX Supervisor, Big Hero 6, Moana
· Jayakumar Prabhakaran Nair, CEO, Toonz Media Group
· Mark Osborne, Director, The Little Prince, Kung Fu Panda
· Anna Pokorskaya, Intl. Sales & Licensing Manager, Wizart Animation
· Birk Rawlings, Head of DreamWorksTV at AwesomenessTV
· Wendy Rogers, VFX Supervisor, Puss in Boots, Shrek
· Eric Rollman, President & CEO, Rollman Entertainment
· Theresa Ellis Rygiel, VFX Supervisor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr. Strange
· Jyotirmoy Saha, Founder & CEO, August Media
· Elliot Sakharov, Tech Strategist for Media & Entertainment, Microsoft
· Bill Schultz, CEO and Exec Producer, Home Plate Entertainment
· Sander Schwartz, President, Grom Social
· Fred Seibert, Founder, Frederator Networks
· Matt Silverman, Head of Integrated Productions, Ignition Creative
· Vadim Sotskov, President & CEO, Kinoatis
· Rita Street, Exec Producer, Radar Cartoons
· Lynne Southerland, Animation Director & Producer
· Morjolaine Tremblay, VFX Supervisor, RodeoFX
· Tatiana Tsyvareva, CEO, Carousel
· Annette van Duren, President, Annette van Duren Agency
· Alexander Vegh, Previs Supervisor, Star Trek Beyond
· Rene Veilleux, CEO and Founder, Verité Entertainment
· Joan Vogelsang, President & CEO, JV Consulting
· Giancarlo Volpe, Director, Producer, Writer
· Marlon West, Head of Effects, Moana
· Diana Yurinova, VP Intl. Development & Distribution, Riki Group
“It’s been a watershed year for animation and visual effects, and we are delighted to celebrate the fifth anniversary of our World Animation and VFX Summit with such a supremely talented group of visionaries and artists,” says Jean Thoren, Animation Magazine’s publisher and founder of the event. “Our six distinguished Hall of Fame Honorees this year—Betty Cohen, Butch Hartman, Michael Hirsh, Travis Knight, Ellen Poon and Pierre Sissman—have brought so much artistry and creative vision to our world. These superb six have worked hard and led teams of gifted artists in their quest to share unique and inspiring stories. We are thrilled to acknowledge their achievements at the Summit this year and thank them for all the joy they have given us with their movies and TV projects.”
The 2016 edition of the Summit will showcase panels on the making of some of the year’s top animated features such as Moana, Zootopia, The Little Prince, Kubo and the Two Strings, Trolls and other award season contenders. It will also offer informative sessions on recent developments in Virtual Reality technologies, the changing face of the vfx industry, regional spotlight on Asian and Russian animation innovators, as well as new developments and opportunities for animation professionals in the current streaming media landscape.
For more information visit the official site.
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