Canadian Panorama

Mawrgan Shaw is an Australian-Canadian visual artist and independent animator whose work explores the relationship between personal identity and physical reality. Using traditional and digital media, Mawrgan examines themes of empathy and connection, focusing on how we move through and make meaning in the world.

Filmmaker and graphic designer Elizabeth Laferrière brings her poetic, sensitive and spontaneous vision to the art of moving images. Her animation work is a blend of collage, typography and video. Her endless curiosity has led to numerous collaborations in a variety of artistic fields, both on traditional screens and in stage projections. She is also a lecturer in graphic design at Université du Québec à Montréal and is currently writing an animated series for young audiences. Matrescence is her first short film produced by the NFB.

MARCY PAGE —Virgin Fandango Producer, Director, Animator (2D on Tiles & Stop-motion), Designer, Writer, Lyricist and Main Vocalist

I am a Calgary-based storyboard artist and independent animator. My personal art is most
often inspired by Ukrainian folklore and literature, myth, nature and the fantastical of all
kinds. As a young filmmaker, most of all I like telling gently surreal stories with a heavy
emphasis on the environment, resulting in slow, moody and mysterious pieces.

For the GIRAF’s 21st Signal Film, I’m stepping away from anything dark or subtle, and
making a tribute to one of my favourite artists, Maria Prymachenko. Bold, vibrant, whimsical
beasts and botanicals inspired by naive folk art are going to invite the viewers of this round
of the festival to come see some incredible animation. With painted phenakistoscopes, the
main technique of this Signal Film will go back to the very roots of animation and cinema.

Jamesie Fournier enjoys exploring his culture through writing. His work has appeared in Inuit Art Quarterly, The Literary Review of Canada, Red Rising magazine, Northern Public Affairs, Kaakuluk magazine, and the anthologies Coming Home: Stories from the Northwest Territories & Ndè Sı ̀ ı ̀ Wet’aɂà: Northern Indigenous Voices on Land, Life & Art.

His debut fiction, The Other Ones, was published in 2022 with Inhabit Media and won silver in the Independent Publisher’s Awards. His debut poetry collection, Elements, was published in 2023 also with Inhabit.

A recurrent speaker at the Northwords Writers Festival, Jamesie was also runner-up for Up Here’s 2018 Sally Manning Award for Indigenous Creative Non-Fiction. He is part of the 2023 Audible Indigenous Writer’s Circle and the 2023 NBC Universal Indigenous Screenwriting Accelerator Program.

Born and raised in Nunatsiaq — the Northwest Territories — Jamesie has lived the past year in Iqaluit, NU learning his culture’s language, Inuktitut.

Danny Christopher is a Producer and Art Director with Taqqut ECE, and has worked on several short films.

He is a former contributing illustrator with the New York Times, and in his role as Art Director of Inhabit Media he has illustrated The Legend of the Fog, A Children’s Guide to Arctic Birds, and Animals Illustrated: Polar Bear. His work on The Legend of the Fog was nominated for the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustration Award.

During his travels throughout the Arctic as an instructor for Nunavut Arctic College, Danny developed a strong appreciation of the North and an avid interest in Inuit culture.

Joel attempts to create work that is FUNKY, FRESH and FUN. He maintains a healthy diet of exploratory personal work that helps infuse his client work with the same experimental energy. He has worked for Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, HBO and is about to release a show he created with BBC called TUFF POM. He loves pineapples, friendship, and going to animation festivals.

Dylan Glynn is a painter, author and animator based in Toronto, Canada. His multidisciplinary practice, which includes a wide selection of traditional and digital media, is unified by Glynn’s immediate and gestural application. His writing is equally versatile, ranging from poetic melancholy to extreme satire. In 2020, his debut children’s book, Rain Boy, was published by Chronicle Books and has since been translated into Chinese and Korean. Glynn’s client list includes the New Yorker, New York Times and Washington Post, with which he has won a total of three gold medals from the Society of Illustrators, as well as the award for Best in Show from Communication Arts. His 80-second animated short, Thot or Not, was the recipient of the Best Canadian Short award at the Inside Out Film Festival in 2022.

Bogdan Anifrani-Fedach is a Montreal-based animation filmmaker and illustrator of Togolese and Ukrainian descent. His films, which have been shown at several festivals including Annecy, explore identity, the unconscious, disorientation and abstract concepts through the intricate play of light, shadow and pattern. He has created work for the NFB, CBC and other platforms. Bogdan is currently working to broaden his artistic scope by creating comic books and various games.

Ian Keteku is a Ghanaian-Canadian filmmaker, poet and educator whose work blends African storytelling traditions with speculative, diasporic futures. A former World Poetry Slam Champion, Ian has written and directed projects for CBC, PBS, TVO and Sesame Street.

His films explore memory, generational legacy and transformation through bold imagery and poetic narrative. As a royal chief in Abiriw, Ghana, Ian draws from deep cultural roots to tell stories that inspire and provoke.

Montreal-based animation filmmaker, graphic novel writer and illustrator Catherine Lepage is known for her distinctive visual style and the self-deprecating humour she uses to broach sensitive topics, such as mental health, social pressure and self-affirmation. Her first short film, The Great Malaise (2019), was screened at over 50 festivals and won 7 awards, in addition to being named a Vimeo Staff Pick. Ultra Strong is her second film with the NFB.

A Director and Creative Director for over three decades, Bruce Alcock’s films, television series, interactive projects and hundreds of international commercials have earned him accolades world wide. His personal work include award-winning short films Impromptu, Vive la Rose, 54 Hours and At the Quinte Hotel. Bruce’s most recent work in TV series was double-Emmy-nominated PBS Kids preschool jazz series Acoustic Rooster, and Emmy award-winning music road-trip show Jam Van. Alcock’s recent work in documentaries includes Emmy winner Hunt for the Oldest DNA for PBS’ Nova. Working in a mix of all physical and digital techniques, Alcock is above all an experimental artist. He loves to mix commercial and artistic streams of production, combining professional rigour and creative abandon to make truly original work.

Born in 1981 in Lebanon and recently relocated to Toronto, this award-winning illustrator and animation filmmaker has collaborated with major clients like Netflix, Cartoon Network Arabia and The New York Times. After earning an MA in Animation from Kingston University (UK), he built a prolific career spanning animated ads, short films and children’s books, and has taught animation at the Lebanese American University. He spends his time deriving pleasure from the act of drawing and hopes to do so for the rest of his life.