J.J. Sedelmaier is the President/Director of J. J. Sedelmaier Productions, Inc and is responsible for many of the most talked about broadcast entertainment productions of the past two decades – the launch season of MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head, SNL’s Saturday TV Funhouse series with Robert Smigel (“The Ambiguously Gay Duo”, “The X-Presidents”, etc.), Cartoon Network/Adult Swim’s Harvey Birdman - Attorney at Law, the “Tek Jansen/Alpha Squad Seven” series for The Colbert Report, and over 500 TV commercials, animation and design pieces. His creative development and production studio which he runs with his wife Patrice, also lends its services to corporate branding for companies like The Chicago Tribune, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Bayer.


Sarah Muller
Sarah Muller is currently Head of CBBC Acquisitions and Drama Development. Passionate about both drama and animation, commissioned projects include Spirit Warriors, Dr Who - Dreamland, Halfmoon Investigations, My Almost Famous Family, Tracy Beaker Returns, Strangehill High, Sadie J, Wolf Blood, Just William and Muddle Earth.

Previously, she was Managing Director of Elephant Productions – a well-known company specialising in the development and production of animation and children’s programming. As a producer, credits include 6 series of the multi-award winning, ratings success Grizzly Tales For Gruesome Kids (CITV) – winner of the Best Children’s Series and Children’s Choice awards at the BAA and nominated for Best Animated Series and Best Original Writer awards at BAFTA, 2 series of Animal School (CBBC), 2 series of Pop Skool (BBC1), 2 series of animated Short Change (BBC1), 3 Brothers Diamond (C4), the top-rated New Willo The Wisp (Disney) and Johnny Casanova (C4), as well as developing the BAFTA-winning drama series The War Diaries of Alastair Fury (BBC1).


INTERNATIONAL JURY FOR ANIMATED FEATURE FILMS AND SCHOOL SHOWREELS

Barry Purves
Barry Purves has been involved with animation for thirty-four years, working on such series as Wind in the Willows, and Rupert Bear, as well as his own award winning films, Next, Screen Play, Rigoletto, Achilles, and Gilbert and Sullivan, and was involved with Mars Attacks! and King Kong. Two new short films were released in 2011, Plume and Tchaikovsky.

Also in 2011, Barry was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Staffordshire University for his contribution to animation, and The Golden Dinosaur award from a festival in Poland, for to artists who give their time to students.

Barry has written two books about animation and teaches around the world, and directs and designs for the theatre.


Hisko Hulsing
Hisko Hulsing majored in painting and animation at the art academy of Rotterdam in 1995. During an apprenticeship in the "Bratri v Triku" studio in Prague, he started working on his first animated film Harry Rents a Room. Hisko's second film Seventeen was invited to numerous festivals, such as Annecy, Telluride, Montreal and Seattle, won several awards.

Besides writing, directing, painting and animating for his animated films, Hisko made illustrations and storyboards for over 100 advertising- and production companies such as Saatchi & Saatchi and Czar. He directed and animated television leaders for MTV and Dutch broadcasting companies and creates comics which have been published in Eisner and Zone 5300. Hisko composes the orchestral soundtracks for his own films. His latest animated film, Junkyard will be completed in 2012.


Izabela Rieben
Izabela Rieben is responsible for acquisition and programming for the French Speaking Swiss National TV ( TSR ) Children’s Department (broadcasting 40 hours weekly, 95% animation). She implements programming policies for young audiences, identifies products for editorial needs and attends key international markets (MipTV/MipCom Junior, Tokyo Anime Fair, Forum Cartoon, Kid Screen, Annecy Film Festival). Since 2002, she has also been in charge of the production of short animation films for the Swiss Fund " Pacte de l'Audiovisuel " and is buying and programming international short films for the late night show Animaniak (TSR). Additionally, she serves as a commission expert for several French audiovisual Fund Haute-Savoie Fund to Support Audiovisual Computer Animation and the Commission Centre Images.

Each year, the Ottawa International Animation Festival commissions an artist to design our Festival poster. The Festival grants the artist free reign  and encourages the design of unique and provocative works of art. Celebrated Japanese animator, Koji Yamamura, designed the poster for Ottawa 2012. Yamamura’s name will be familiar to regular festival attendees, as his work has already been featured in competition at Ottawa, most notably taking home the 2007 Grand Prize for his animated short A Country Doctor. “Drawing a poster for Ottawa12 is a great honour for me,” said Yamamura.  “This image was made from an unused sketch from Muybridge's Strings. This sketch was the basis for the creation of the character Zeno, who is thinking about the infinite split of time” Born in Nagoya, Japan in 1964, Yamamura began his animation career at an early age, creating his first film at just 13 years old. After graduating from his painting studies at Tokyo Zokei, he took a job as an animation background artist at Mukuno studio. He then left the studio to pursue freelance work, eventually founding his own company, Yamamura Animation, Inc. with his wife in 1993.  Throughout his career, Yamamura has created works of art that deny pigeonholing. His creation of unique images, where trees grow out of heads or fish fly under rain, ignite the imaginations of viewers across the globe. Over the past decade, Yamamura’s work has been critically acclaimed around the world. His 2002 animated short Mount Head was nominated for an Oscar and won top prizes at major animation festivals around the world including Annecy in 2003 and Zagreb and Hiroshima in 2004.  In 2011, Yamamura released Muybridge’s Strings, co-produced with the National Film Board of Canada, which was featured in competition at Ottawa 11. The film won several awards in Japan, Europe and North America. Currently, Yamamura is actively involved in the Japanese Animation community. He sits on the board of directors of the Japanese branch of the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA) and is also helping to develop the next generation of Japanese animators teaching at his old alma matter, Tokyo Zokei University since 2004 and at the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts since 2008.

 

Trailer for Muybridge's Strings by Koji Yamamura

Koji Yamamura's submission for the 2011 Ottawa International Animation Festival. Co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada.