The Animator’s Friend

While  Bouchra 's on its world tour, I got to meet creative producers John Michael Boling and Jason Coombs who enlightened me as to why Funko Pops are a scourge on our society.  See Bouchra at Metrograph through to July 2nd or catch it in a city near you soon!   Wrestling with writer’s block for her first film, Bouchra, a queer Moroccan jackal living in NYC, starts having difficult yet overdue pho...

Pilar and I contemplate Minnie Mouse's wikiFeet rating.   Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma is a Spanish-American animator, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist from New York City. They received a BFA in Film/Animation/Video from the Rhode Island School of Design and are currently based in Brooklyn.   Her practice encompasses both digital and traditional techniques, typically using an interplay of th...

In true TAF fashion, me and Marcelese Cooper talk about bugs.   Marcelese Cooper is an artist and educator originally from Santa Clarita, California, and has practiced throughout the Midwest and the South for nearly a decade. Influenced by their experiences as a young, black, queer individual, Cooper explores themes of identity, community, and the black/brown narrative through mediums like animati...

From oatmeal to the occult, the London 's give equal attention to their pastimes.  They even begrudgingly give equal attention to their dislikes as well which include Long Island and the discomfort of growing up.  These are featured predominently in their most recent film  1981 , where the mullets are long, the metal is heavy, and 14-year-old Douglas gets a birthday surprise that will change his l...

Last night, I transcended my human form and turned into a rd carpet correspondent for the Museum of Moving Image's Marvels of Media Festival! We spoke with festival participants and organizers Dani Bowman, Jackson Tucker-Meyer, Josh Sapan, Susanna Hunt, Steven Fraser, Steph Prizhitomsky, Bob Clark, Miranda Lee, and Maxwell Scheller. The festival runs all weekend long, see details here: https://mov...

I know I said we were on a break, but I just couldn't wait to share this bonus episode on Festival Strategy! Festival programmer Warren Etheredge shares how to get the most out of your film's festival run including insights into timeline, assessment, contact, assets, and budget. This episode will be here for you whenever you have a film ready to take out on the road! Listen, take notes, and get 75...

Continue your friend-of-the-pod/avatar/oink-oink drinking game with the final portion of my chat with filmmakers Santi MacLean and Joe Zuppulla!  Don't sleep on Doomscrolling and the whole Fun pet namez series! A young man talks himself through a panic attack. In Doomscrolling , Santi MacLean layers multimedia documents and data moshes on top of a vulnerable outcry. With bulging eyes and spaghetti...

We may be in Month 2 of 2026, but Santi MacLean, Joe Zappulla, and I are still feeling the new year's energy in TAF's first ever two-part episode!  Relive the feelings of optimism that January 2nd gifted as your resolutions start to lose meaning, like the thumbs-up react on that text message you sent. A young man talks himself through a panic attack. In Doomscrolling , Santi MacLean layers multime...

Me and the homies have been geeking over the animated feature Boys Go to Jupiter for months and months so it was a thrill to get to talk with Julian Glander about it, but mostly we tried to drum up some animation-world drama. A teenager in suburban Florida desperately hustles to make $5,000 in this dreamy and surreal animated coming-of-age story. Stream Boys Go to Jupiter on Amazon Prime ! Watch o...

Episode 22 is a lucky one with director Natalia Poteryakhin , sharing anecdotes of endurance, logging off, and blind faith, all bolstering her animation career. Further blessing this episode is the appearance of non-human guest Zoe Lombardi-Bello. Watch on video on Youtube or Spotify ! Sunny Side Down is a sci-fi parody series where existential dread is served hot with a side of 90’s nostalgia.  J...

Conducted my interview with Arco creators Ugo Bienvenu and Félix de Givry ~on twos~ to learn about their penchant for sandwiches as well as gain more insight into the driving forces of their beautiful film. Experience the podcast with video for a change! I prefer you watch on YouTube B) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHBrnoduxTs A magical and beautifully animated journey through time, Arco is a d...

The Animator's Friend podcast has been turning into The Animator's Italian-American Friend for some time now, and 3D artist/designer Andres Salazar has made matters worse by getting your host's spaghetti in a knot with some hot takes on Italian cuisine. Andres is a Colombian-American designer and 3D artist based in Astoria, New York. His work explores the magic in the mundane, blending photorealis...

I enjoyed chatting with fellow Beatles freak Tess Martin about our other shared fixation: The Netherlands. What business does their coffee have being so good? How easy is it to be a working artist there? Is the countryside really like those old Dutch paintings? Find out within. Tess Martin is a film and visual artist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She brings her perspective as someone who wa...

I learned all about Danielle Goldwert 's numorous hobbies and have a feeling I barely scratched the surface! Stop-motion animation is just one of her many interests, which she executes perfectly in her film waterlogged . Hear about how Danielle's creative interests and doctorate research converge. In waterlogged, a climate scholar confronts the haunting reality of his research as surreal environme...

Between moments of being outsmarted by a mosquito, hear Simeon Kondev expose the metal-head within. Simeon is a Bulgarian-American animator whose latest cartoon Society Animals deserves your follow on Instagram , TikTok , and YouTube . Get your hands on a Camp Snap Camera for $5 off by using my link! https://www.campsnapphoto.com/INDIALOMBARDIBELLO Links to points of discussion: The Animator's Fri...

Preempting their Student Academy Award win for their student film The Shyness of Trees , listen to Loick Du Plessis D'Argentre , Simin He , and me giggle over unexpected animation crushes, rats, and French cliches. In the film, Hélène, 40 years old, comes to visit her aging mother in the french countryside. But her mother isn't being her usual self. She seems to have formed a strange bond with the...

You can find Amanda, me, and her dog Bacca under the pergola, discussing our shared provenance which includes italianess, shyness, and punkness.  Her film  Confetti  is available online for the first time through Director's Notes and her and fellow animator James Thacher have just started their own studio called Magician with a screening coming up at Ridgewood Community Cinema on 11/2/25 at 7pm. ...

If you need a bar recommendation, enjoy Lena's encyclopedic knowledge of cool karaoke bars, including the ones that exist only in her mind. Throats Karaoke Bar is the setting of her latest short film Tuna Tartare, which challenges you to be yourself but hotter. Set in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, Tuna Tartare is a trashy, karaoke musical about an expired can of tuna fish and her BFF Susan (a fake...

The Animator's Friend is live-to-tape at the The Animator's Picnic!  As part of the 2025 Ottawa International Animation Festival (aka my favorite festival)!  After meeting her for the first time at the last OIAF, I asked my fellow media pass girlie Sarah Schmidt of Malt Adult to join me to talk to the good people at The Animator's Picnic!  In true TAF-fashion, we talked a little shit, swooned over...

In anticipation of the Made in New York: Best of NYC Indie Animation showcase and panel at Metrograph this Saturday (9/13/25, 5pm), I had the opportunity to speak with Signe Baumane and Debra Solomon about the screening, making it in NYC, and 417 Hz YouTube videos. Just as New York has long been the capital of America’s artistically ambitious “Second Cinema,” a scrappy foil to the Los Angelino ind...

Nayon and I met on a grueling hike in the French alps after a revelrous week at Annecy International Animation Festival , bonding us in a unique way.  I can say for myself, she saw my most bratty, unvarnished self within only hours of meeting, which I can't say for most people! Hear us reminisce. Nayon Cho is an animation director and artist born in Seoul, based in New York. She uses a technique w...

We're at the drive-in this week for the Hudson Valley Film Festival's 10th Anniversary!  There's no doubt how much this fest loves animation, and they invited me and my friend Kristie Kish to interview selected animators including Ryan Castrillo , Michael McGoldrick , John Quinn , Zac Max , and friends of the pod Arnesh Kundu , Michael Dondero , and Shengnan Dong .  We were also honored to be part...

Tala really knows what it means to live life creatively! She blurs the boundaries between her art practice and personal life to lead an existence that feels like a work of art in and of itself. You can experience this rapturous reality by attending one of her many retreats, workshops, and community events! Join her orbit: @talaschlossberg . Tala Rae Schlossberg is an American experimental artist k...

Cynthia and I are passionate about being able to communicate with cockroaches one day, but for now, we'll have to settle on talking to eachother. Listen to us in our middle-of-the-night post-lasagna daze, spiraling over roller-coasters, ghosts, and crystals. Cynthia Chu is a 2D illustrator and cel animator originally from NYC. Her style goes between painterly and moody to silly and simple. Past Cl...

We are live-to-tape at the 2025 Annecy International Animation Festival !  Take a pew with me and my friend Barnaby Catterall (who I met at Annecy 8 years ago!) as we chat with Animation Talent Picnic attendees about how well they tan, what animal would play them in a Better Man type biopic of their life, and what they have or have not yet seen at the festival this year.   Links to points of discu...