SPEAKERS 2022

Alex lives and breathes movies. “If I’m not making them,” he says, “I’m probably watching them.”
His passion for cinema has led to a career spanning 20 years in animated movies. Having held creative leadership positions in both large and independent studios, Alex’s infectious enthusiasm is essential to his ability to lead and inspire large teams.
Recent Projects: The Addams Family, Riverdance: The Animated Adventure, Hitpig

Previous Credits: Little Prince, Kung Fu Panda, Kung Fu Panda2, Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0969874/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2

Real-Time enthusiast, Alexandre Menard has more than 20+ year experience in the vfx industry from previs to final pixel. He is currently the HOD of visualization at rodeofx, a department he built from the ground up tapping from his previous previs experience. He also occupied the role of cg supervisor and worked on many high-profile project such as Strangers Things, Fantastic Beast and Dumbo.

Anne-Claire is currently Surfacing Supervisor at Mikros Animation. With over 9 years of experience in Surfacing and Look Development, she has worked on VFX and animation high-profile feature films in Europe and in Canada such as Minions, Despicable Me 3, Captain Underpants and The SpongeBob Movie : Sponge on the Run.

Her department works hand in hand with Art Directors and Directors to help them achieve the look they envisioned.
She enjoys paying close attention to the smallest details that make the assets of a film unique, and loves technical challenges.

Co-founder and Executive Producer Archita Ghosh’s business expertise has propelled E.D. FILMS’ growth trajectory since she joined the company in 2013. Working alongside the studio’s talented team to produce award-winning, artist-led animation, immersive and mixed reality (XR) experiences, she has also worked to commercialize unique creative tools at the studio.
Fluent in Bengali, English, Spanish and French, Archita sits on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Media Producers Association as well as M.E.D.I.A. (Media•Equity•Diversity•Inclusion•Accessibility).

Brian Connor is a VFX Supervisor at DNEG with over 20 years of experience of high-end feature film visual effects. He most recently supervised DNEG’s work on Dune in Montréal, for director Denis Villeneuve, and is currently the Overall Production Supervisor for DNEG’s work on Devotion for director J. D. Dillard.

Previously, Brian supervised George Clooney’s World War II drama Catch 22 for Hulu. His work on the series earned him an Emmy Nomination at the 2019 Emmy Awards for ‘Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role’. His work on Poseidon earned him a VES nomination for ‘Outstanding Compositing in a Motion Picture’. Brian also worked as DNEG’s VFX Supervisor on Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), and prior to that was DFX Supervisor on Warner Bros. monster movie The Meg (2018).

Brian has extensive experience of bringing the physical reality of in-camera elements together with state-of-the-art digital material to create a seamless, photo-real result, which can be seen in his work on films such as Wonder Woman, Iron Man, Pirates of the Caribbean and War of the Worlds among many others.. Brian is a team player with a solid knowledge of the on-set environment gained through his work on films such as Chaos Walking, where he served as on-set Supervisor, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, as well as Star Trek Beyond for which he was part of DNEG’s on-set supervision team. He is versatile and resourceful, and always looks for the most appropriate and practical methodologies at every stage of the visual effects process.

Brigitte joined SYNTHÈSE as Executive Director after more than twenty years as a manager in the media and entertainment field (film, television, digital media) in the public, private and association sectors, both nationally and internationally. She was previously the Executive Director of “Femmes du Cinéma, de la télévision et des médias numériques”, the Quebec chapter of Women in Film and Television International. She began her career as a legal advisor in television production companies before joining Telefilm Canada, where she was Director of Coproductions and Director of International Relations and managed several teams in business relations and in the administration of the Canada Media Fund programs.

Christophe Paradis is an Animation Supervisor at MPC’s Montreal studio. With more than 12 years of experience, he has supervised animation teams on a host of major movies, including Dumbo, Aquaman, Dolittle, Artemis Fowl, and most recently, Ghostbusters Afterlife.

A graduate of 3D Animation and Visual Effects at the National Animation and Design Centre, Christophe kicked off his career as an animator at several Montreal-based studios for television series, advertisements, documentaries, feature animation, and films including Pacific Rim, Paddington, and Edge of Tomorrow, accumulating experience in a vast spectrum of animation genres.

He joined the MPC team in 2016 as a Lead Animator going on to work on shows including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Alien Covenant, and Justice League.

Dann Tarmy has worked in the VFX industry for over 25 years and joined Scanline in 2019. Most recently, he served as Scanline Visual Effects Supervisor on director Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up, recently longlisted for the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects.

Dann began his career in the games industry at Drew Pictures in 1994. Between 2002-2011, he became a freelance CG artist working on film and television at Ring of Fire, Zoic, Method, Blue Sky, Digital Domain, Animal Logic, and Sony Imageworks on titles such as Ice Age 2, 2012, and Green Lantern.

Dave is a director, an innovator and a creator. He leads Cinesite’s feature animation team in seeking out exciting new talent, from original content to artists, writers and directors.
Prior to joining Cinesite, Dave was VP of Talent at Chris Meledandri’s Illumination Entertainment; during his tenure the company released some of its most successful animated movies. A talented creative visionary, Dave also directed The Picture of Dorian Gray and forthcoming release Riverdance, alongside Eamonn Butler.

Recent Projects: Riverdance: The Animated Adventure, Blazing Samurai, Hitpig
Previous Credits: Despicable Me 3, Minions, Secret Life of Pets, Sing

Denis Doré is the CEO and co-founder of Squeeze, a world-class 3D animation studio located in Quebec City and Montreal. His vision and leadership have played a major role in Squeeze’s fast expansion and recognition by the business community and the elite of the entertainment industry. He thus saw the studio win top honors at the prestigious Vision, Fidéides, OSEntreprendre and Mercuriades awards in addition to leading the international distribution of Cracké, the studio’s first original animated TV series. Prior to founding Squeeze, Denis worked in the video game industry as a producer at Ubisoft. He holds a doctorate (PhD) in regional development, a master’s degree in regional studies, as well as a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in geography.

Before he became Technical Director at the NFB Animation Studio in 2011, Eloi spent nearly two decades helping advertising agencies and corporations go beyond their creative limits. Drawing on his VFX expertise and creative problem-solving skills, Eloi has worked on many award winning productions, including a number of stereoscopic films. Currently, he is working on a variety of linear and interactive projects using 3D printers, head-mounted displays, projections, different types of sensors and mobile platforms.

I wanted to be Batman, but because I’m not a rich dilettante with cool karate moves… I settled for the second-best thing… Head of Production at Reel FX!

I have been implementing my “HOP” arsenal over 3 continents and for more than 25 Earth rotations around the sun.
I love cartoons, I love people, I love budgets, I love planning, I love solving problems, and I love art and technology…
So, now I’m in charge of this brand new Virtual pipeline division at Reel FX…
All things considered… this is cooler than being Batman, but, heck, I still miss the karate moves.

With over 20 years of experience in VFX, Live Action Studio Director Eric Labranche has touched all aspects of the industry. Beginning as a graduate in film studies with a BFA in Animation (honours), he first entered the CG side as a Lighting Supervisor on blockbuster films and animated TV series then evolved into management roles as a Resource Manager, VFX Outsource Producer, and now as Head of the Live Action Studio.

This array of skills and experiences has enabled Eric to deeply understand all facets of the industry as he consistently pushes himself to learn the necessary tools to push technical and artistic boundaries within the team and on their projects.

A graduate of NAD Center, Eric began his Framestore career as a Lighting TD before rising through the ranks to the role of CG Supervisor. A key member of the Montreal team, he has worked on titles such as Blade Runner 2049 (for which he was nominated for a VES Award), the Oscar-nominated Christopher Robin (where he oversaw lookdev for the Piglet and Tigger characters), the animation/live-action hybrid Tom and Jerry and, most recently, the box office-destroying Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Federico Moreno Breser is a Director / CG artist working in the animation industry for more than 16 years. He studied filmmaking at Palermo University in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Later on, he specialized in animation, graduating from Animation Mentor back in 2009.

In 2005, he founded Mcfly Studio, one of the main animation studios in Buenos Aires working for a wide range of clients and projects through all these years such as Legendary Pictures, Disney, Fox, Netflix, Ubisoft, Unicef, Bradesco, among others.

Federico is the creator and director of the awarded animated series Tierra de Rufianes, and the co-director of El Paraiso, a film noir animated feature winner of an Epic Mega grant hitting theaters in 2022.
At the beginning of 2021, he released REBELS, a VR narrative story in partnership with Facebook Oculus, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2021.

In 2021, Federico joined Reel FX Studios in Montreal as a VFX Supervisor working for the new Real Time division.

Florian joined Ubisoft La Forge (Montreal) in January 2020 and is currently an R&D programmer on FaceShifter, Ubisoft’s internal face creation tool. He is taking advantage of recent research on 3D hair to take creative assistance to the next level.

Florian received his M.Sc.Eng. in Computer Science from INSA Rennes (France) and his M.Eng. in Information Technology from ÉTS (Canada). Prior to Ubisoft, he experienced academic research in Japan, which convinced him that he was made for industrial research

François Lord has been working in the visual effects field for over 25 years. He first graduated from NAD, worked as a general CGI artist, then became a project supervisor and specialized in optimizing production pipelines and creating tools to facilitate artists’ work and workflow efficiency. François has worked at BUZZ, Big Bang animations, Oblique FX, Framestore where he was CG supervisor and Rodeo FX where he was Head of pipeline. François is an architect of solutions adapted to the VFX context.

Today Francois is deepening USD implementations in production contexts and works as a consultant to companies. Since June 2021 Francois is a professor at the NAD school of the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi.

Guillaume Laforge is a software developer specialized in computer graphics.
He worked on both sides of the VFX industry. For Software companies developing Digital Content Creation applications and for Visual Effects companies involved in various films and commercials.

Born in Mexico but adopted by Quebec Canada, Guillermo Dupinet is a film passionate, especially those involving animation. With his 20+year experience in the Animation and VFX industry, he’s collaborated on a numerous projects, bringing animated characters that tell a story to life. He has been credited in Advertising, TV series, high-end videogames and films using various methods in a broad variety of styles.

He joined Mikros Animation three years ago as Lead Animator on The SpongeBob Movie : Sponge on the Run and evolved as Animation Supervisor on PAW Patrol : The Movie.

Henrique Weber, MS, is a PhD student in Computer Vision and Systems Laboratory of Laval University. Previously, he worked as Computer Vision Researcher at Institute National d’Optique, Québec. He received a Master degree in Computer Science from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil in 2016. His main interests lie in interpreting the real world through images using Computer Vision and Deep Learning. More specifically, he seeks to uncover the environment surrounding already taken pictures.