Canadian Student Competition

Ashlee Gonsalves is a student in the Film Animation program at Concordia University in Montreal. She is interested in bringing her science background to her animation work.

Yaffa Aboudib Husseini is a Toronto-born Animator and now award-winning Filmmaker who believes that art has an important role to play in both interpreting the world and changing it. She believes artists are silent revolutionaries and hopes her own art can contribute to creating a more just and peaceful world for everyone.

Yaffa is a graduate of Algonquin College (Canada) in Animation, and Munster Technological University (Ireland) in Animation, Visual Effects and Motions Design and lives in Ottawa, Canada.

Jessica Toca is a Montreal-based illustrator and animator with a BFA in Film Animation from Concordia University. Her work is rooted in the quiet beauty of everyday life, exploring her relationship with the world through warm, whimsical, and nostalgic imagery grounded in childlike wonder. Driven by a fascination with light and all things that sparkle, her graduating film, (in)significant, translates her interest in finding beauty in the mundane, earning her the Don Arioli Award at the 2026 Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema Awards.

Amberia Keke Li was born and raised in China, currently based in Vancouver, Canada. She grew up with lots of weird dreams, and that became one of her sources of inspiration for creation. At Emily Carr University, she discovered the creativity and uniqueness of 2D animation. In long term, her aim is to be an independent artist and director, develop more projects around Asian culture, female condition, and dreams.

Gaoyuan Song is a fine arts student based in Halifax. Working across drawing, painting, and animation, she explores the conceptual and emotional dimensions of visual storytelling. Informed by experiences and memories, her work often takes an allegorical and estranging approach, inviting viewers to form their own connections and reflections through the imagery.

Rose Rousseau is a Canadian animator, director, and writer easily recognized for her stylized visuals and emotionally engaging characters. She launched her directing and writing career in high school theater productions and later pursued a comprehensive education in 2D and 3D animation at St. Clair College, where she adopted a hands-on approach to filmmaking. Skinless Symphonies is her first solo short, animated project.

A. John Yates is an animator and filmmaker interested in how analog and experimental animation can evoke histories and imagine futures. They have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Animation from Concordia University, where they developed a practice of working with 16mm film, handmade, and under-camera animation techniques. When combined with archival footage and collage, these techniques are used to conjure the past. Their work often focuses on the effects of architectural, industrial and urban histories using archival footage and multiple exposure techniques on 16mm film to evoke temporal disjunction. Through critical examinations of these histories, John seeks to recontextualize the present, and in doing so, encourage political imagination for a better future.

Min is a Vancouver-based experimental animator and indie film director studying at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. With over seven years of experience, their practice spans freelance illustration, character and environment design, and animation for commissioned and independent films, including feature-length productions.

Self-discovery is not gentle; it confronts the uncomfortable, the embarrassing, and the grotesque within both mind and body. It draws us toward what we are taught to conceal, and I return to these thresholds. Through the tactile visual language of experimental film, I pursue spontaneous, intuitive explorations that render sensation into image and make the invisible felt. Tracing the fragile edges of memory where trauma lingers, I seek to uncover what has been buried, giving shape to suppressed narratives of mental health, psychiatric experience, and neurodivergence.

Stella Dipieri is a multi-media animator and illustrator. Born in San Jose, Costa Rica, and raised in Panama City, Panama, she moved to Toronto to begin her undergraduate degree in Experimental Animation. Stella looks to explore the complex realities of Latin America and develop unique approaches to contemporary issues like neo-colonialism and authoritarianism in the region through her practice. She is proficient in mould-making, and has worked with a wide range of Smooth-On rubber products, gypsums, and concretes. Alongside this array of applications, Stella is a skilled fabricator and puppeteer, and has worked in the art departments for independent films and TV. Within animation, her stop-motion works range from top-down sand animation to 3D stage animation with rigged puppets.

Penakee Das is a multidisciplinary artist focusing on the combination of animation and real world materials. He works with raw materials and compositings it to create new visuals that are still tangible. Generally working in stopmotion and blending layers. His practice also revolves around education and alternative methods for cirruculums. He is currently studying at OCADu for a BFA in Experimental Animation

Lucas Piperias is a 3D experimental animator creating entertaining dissections of the occult, strange and philosophical.

Marielle Boutin is a 3D artist from Quebec City who recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in arts and sciences of animation at Laval University. She specializes in the design of environments, modeling and lighting, with a particular interest in creating visual atmospheres.

Charlie Guèvremont, a Quebec City–based artist and filmmaker, specializes in stop-motion animation, 2D, and screenwriting. They are currently completing a bachelor’s degree in Arts and Science of Animation at Université Laval. Blind Spot (2024), their first short film, was selected for official competition at the Regard Festival (2026) and won Best Animated Film at the FFEQ (2026). Amalgam (2026) is their graduation film.

Yoonji Nam is an film maker and story lover. She is interested in small, sensitive detail of life. She graduated Sheridan College in 2026, and working in either Canada and Korea.

Antonia Novakovich is a Montreal-based animator currently studying Film Animation at Concordia University. Working in stop-motion, cutouts, and mixed media, she brings a background in woodworking and a love for tactile processes to her work, which often explores themes of nostalgia and absurdity. Her debut short film Shooting the Moon received the Don Arioli Bursary Award, given to a student who demonstrates a deep love of animation and storytelling, as well as a Best of the Festival Jury Award at the Concordia Film Festival.

Laurence Thérien is a Montréal-based artist, designer, and animator with a focus on materiality and claymation. She completed a Master’s in Animation at the Royal College of Art (2025), where she directed her graduate film Ball Face. Laurence has collaborated as a creative director with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and the Festival International du Film sur l’Art (FIFA). She is currently developing her next film with the NFB.