Daniel Gray studied Fine Art at the University of Wales Cardiff. After a stint as a represented painter, Daniel started experimenting with animation. While studying animation at the University of Wales, Newport, he met Tom Brown. The duo started a creative partnership that began with their graduation short film, t.o.m. (2006). This short tale about a young boy’s rather peculiar and revealing journey to school was an instant success at international film festivals, collecting awards from Ottawa, Annecy, and Sundance, as well as at the British Animation Awards. Their next film, teeth (2015), which tells the life story of a man (voiced by Richard E. Grant) through the history of teeth, screened at more than 40 festivals and won numerous awards.

In addition to the imaginative music video Constant Growth Fails (2017), Gray has directed many commissioned works. He has also served on a film festival jury and as a visiting lecturer at universities, and has led a number of creative animation workshops.

Daniel currently lives in Hungary with his wife and daughters. His most recent film, HIDE, is a co-production between La Cellule Productions, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and CUB Animation Studio. This is Daniel’s first collaboration with the NFB.

After graduating from Grenoble Ecole de Management, Marion received another specialized master’s in cultural administration, during which she organized an experimental film festival. Then she worked at the BNP Paribas Foundation, managing partnerships with contemporary dance and circus companies and festivals. In 2017, she joined La Cellule Productions as an associate producer, alongside Soyo Giaoui, and together they’ve cultivated a diverse network of auteurs from different countries and backgrounds, producing 10 shorts. Hide is the most recent short developed by La Cellule Productions and their most ambitious animated film, with an international team located in Hungary, France, Wales and Canada.

Soyo graduated from Sciences Po Paris and obtained her law degree in 2014. After taking part in the shooting of a French TV show she decided to change course, and in 2015 she co-founded La Cellule Productions, which produces fiction and animated shorts. Since then, she and Marion Barré have cultivated a diverse network of auteurs from different countries and backgrounds, producing 10 shorts. HIDE is the most recent short developed by La Cellule Productions and their most ambitious animated film, with an international team located in Hungary, France, Wales and Canada.

Maral Mohammadian is a producer at the renowned National Film Board of Canada’s Animation Studio in Montreal. Her award-winning auteur films include I Am Here, directed by internet sensation Eoin Duffy, and the innovative mixed-media film The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer, directed by Randall Okita. Maral has helped to develop some of Canada’s top rising talents through the NFB’s internationally recognized Hothouse apprenticeship program, which has spawned a series of one-minute hits. In addition to films, she produces interactive projects with a distinct artistic edge, such as Paloma Dawkins’ stunningly beautiful multi-award-winning VR joyride, Museum of Symmetry.

Bella Szederkényi graduated as an animation filmmaker from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) in Budapest in 2009, after directing her multi-award-winning diploma film Orsolya. She then completed three years of her DLA studies, and in 2015 she and Bálint Farkas Gelley founded CUB Animation Studio, where she’s slowly shifted her role from directing to producing, helping young talents find opportunities to create their own films. She is also a lecturer at the ASF animation workshops and the MOME Animation department.

Bálint Farkas Gelley graduated from the animation department of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) in 2012. He founded CUB Animation Studio with Bella Szederkényi in 2015 and is a founding and board member of the Hungarian Animation Producers Association. Bálint is working on his first animated series as a director and on various animated projects as a producer. He is also a lecturer at the ASF animation workshop and the MOME Animation department.

Michael Fukushima is executive producer of the NFB’s world-renowned English Animation Studio. After briefly freelancing following college, Fukushima joined the NFB Animation Studio in 1990 as a filmmaker, then became a producer, and is now studio head, with over 200 films (and some nice awards) under his belt. Fukushima produces one or two films per year, recently by Oscar® winners Alison Snowden, David Fine, and Torill Kove, and in 2014 he became a member of the AMPAS® Academy. When not overseeing the studio, he skis all winter and cycles all year; rain, sun, sub-zero, and snow.