Animation Jury
BITBANG 2023 – 9th edition
BUENOS AIRES, OCT 23 – 28
JURY
internacional Shorts
Diego Polieri
Argentina
Diego Polieri, an Argentine illustrator and animator, lives in Buenos Aires City. With an extensive career in the 2D animation field, he has worked for various studios, such as Hook Up, LeCube, 2Veinte, among others. He has worked in different areas of production including Animation Assistance, Cut Out and Traditional Animation, Layout, Character Design, and Storyboarding. Currently, he works independently as an animator and animation director. As an animation director, he was fortunate to participate in several projects. Some notable ones include: Ricochet Splendid (2Veinte), At the Door, a music video for the band The Strokes (2Veinte), special segments for the Netflix movie Entergalactic (Titmouse), and special segments for the movie Spiderman Across the Spiderverse (Titmouse-Sony). Another significant contribution was in the short film “Carne de Dios”, recently released and highly awarded, directed by Patricio Plaa (Ojo Raro).
Joe Cappa
UNITED STATES
Joe Cappa is a director and animator currently based in Los Angeles. Cappa’s first short animation, “Ghost Dogs”, was officially selected for Sundance 2021. Since then, he has had the pleasure of working with Adult Swim, Judd Apatow, Toro Y Moi, Marc Rebillet, and other fun individuals. His comedic style has been described as wholesome and eerie.
Sophie Koko
UNITED KINGDOM
Sophie is an artist and animation director living in London. Her RCA graduation film, “Half Wet” (2014), was screened at festivals worldwide, including SXSW, BFI, AFI, and the Tate Modern. She has made short films for Hulu, FX, Adult Swim, MTV, BBC, and BFI. Her film “Slug Life” (2018) was screened at Sundance 2020 and won awards at SXSW, Ottawa, and the GLAS animation festival. Her latest short “Hotel Kalura” (2021) was shown on Hulu and won an award at Ottawa. She has also curated animations for Adult Swim’s “Off The Air” episode titled “Moon” and Eternal Family’s Valentine’s Day program. She led the development of a film for Cartoon Network and is currently developing an animated TV series with Sony Pictures Animation and Adult Swim.
Latin American Shorts
Betotl Humberto Irigoyen
Mexico
Art Director and Illustrator with 8 years of experience, he has worked for series, movies, short films, and video games with clients from Mexico, Canada, USA, Argentina, and Chile, for brands like TWITCH, MTV, NICKELODEON, NETFLIX, HBO, and GOOGLE. He is currently a co-founder of Kero Collective, a 2D Animation production company, which is developing “Tiempos Híbridos”, an animated series that had a successful KICKSTARTER campaign in 2020. In 2022, he participated in the Mechas comic anthology published by the Swedish publisher PEOW STUDIO.
Jules
Argentina
Non-binary illustrator from Argentina, born in Villa Gessell in 1989. They have participated in various fanzines and publications since 2017, such as Clítoris, Poder Trans, LGTBI Anthology, Pibas, Superbollo, Strapazin, Kus! Queer Power, Documenta Fifteen, and more. They are the author of the graphic novels: Alienígena (2018), Piedra Bruja (2019), Banzai (2021), and La madriguera (2022). Winner of the PROA Award “Todos los tiempos el tiempo” (2020), SOMOS contest (2020), and the SUDESTADA call (2020). They were a guest at the XV Fiesta del libro y la Cultura in Medellín (2021) and the XI Crack Bang Boom in Rosario (2022). Currently, they are working on their latest graphic novel which will cover themes of grief, identity, abortion among others, and a comic about Vampires, whose first season was released by Webcomic Mutante.
Ray Laguna
Spain
Ray Laguna is the director of the Spanish website animacionparaadultos.es. Since 2020, he organizes an annual survey to determine the best animation of the year, where animation professionals, journalists, and festival directors from all over the world vote. He is a programmer for the Animasivo festival (Mexico City) and was a jury member for Cartón 2022, Anima Latina 2023 (Argentina), and Mecal 2023 (Spain). He has collaborated with the last two editions of the Quirino Awards and has been invited to Cartoon Movie (Bordeaux, France) and Cartoon Forum (Toulouse, France). As a scriptwriter and playwright, his plays have been performed in major Spanish cities. As a journalist, he has written for El Diario Vasco, LatAm cinema, Soul Nation, Renderout!, Enlace Funk, Hip Hop Nation, and Beatburger, among other publications, and has collaborated with the podcasts Pobre Pierrot and En franca decadencia.
International graduation shorts
Declan Byrne
australia
Eight years ago, after starting work on the streets of Brisbane, Australia, Declan moved to the Netherlands to work at Media.Monks as a 2D character animator. Since then, he has worked his way up to the position of creative director at Animation.Monks, the company’s in-house animation studio, where he worked on and directed projects for an incredible group of clients, including Google, Facebook, Netflix, and Eurovision.
Gerva Canda
ARGENTINA - CANADA
I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a vibrant city that influenced my artistic development from a young age. I learned the foundations of art from my grandfather, a painter and sculptor, who taught me about shape and color, fostering my passion from an early age. Over the years, I participated in drawing clubs, where I greatly developed my creativity and technique by sharing with amazing artists who later became great friends and work colleagues. Curiosity led me to embark on an academic journey where I graduated as an Architect, gaining deep knowledge about the construction of spaces and the interaction between the user, design, and functionality. However, my thirst for expression drove me into animation and video games. I worked in various companies, creating captivating visual experiences and pushing boundaries in every project. Always looking to think differently and experiment with design and visual storytelling. My move to Montreal marked a new chapter, nourishing my creativity in a multicultural environment. Today, with a diverse trajectory, I continue to seek opportunities to innovate in design, animation, and video games. I believe in the strength of teamwork driven by an unwavering commitment to originality, a passion for storytelling, and the pursuit of unexplored territories in the audiovisual world.
Mica Gabot
argentina
Micaela Gabot (@mikumis) is an Argentine director and animator with over 7 years of experience in the animation industry. She graduated with a degree in Graphic Design from UBA and is currently the co-director and executive producer of the studio @Bellolandia. Additionally, she teaches 2D animation at Warrior Art Camp.
Latin American graduation shorts
El Sike
argentina
Sike is an illustrator based in Buenos Aires. He attended the Visual Arts Workshop of Hermenegildo Sábat and the Argentine School of Comics. As an illustrator, he has worked for publications such as Le Monde Diplomatique, Revista Crisis, Rolling Stone, Fierro, the National Library of Argentina, Barcelona, Crisis, Editorial Deriva, and Webcomic Mutante. Since 2018, he began working consistently as a background artist and also doing concept art for various studios like Bellolandia, Ruco Co., Ojo Raro, Club Camping, Aura Studio, and 2Veinte. In 2023, he created the illustrations used in the movie Blondi starring Dolores Fonzi. His work as a background designer can be mainly seen in short films like Carne de Dios (Ojo Raro) and La Niña y el Tsunami (AURA). He published the books El Teatro Lunar (2012), Memoria Selectiva (2016), and the comic Cartográfica (2019), published by Estudio Mafia and awarded the Trillo Prize in 2022 for Best Work for Adult Audience. He is currently preparing “28”, a new book of drawings to be published this year through Editorial Deriva.
Isabel Titiro
argentina
Isabel is a Designer of Image and Sound and a professor for the degree at FADU. She worked as a Motion Designer in television and advertising. Her short film “El Trueno” won the competition for Latin American graduation short films at BitBang 7°. She is currently developing “Casa”, a short film selected for the APA Lab 2022.
Jaqui Baffico
argentina
She studied at the Universidad del Cine (Buenos Aires) and specialized in Animation and Multimedia. Since 2013, she has worked as an animator, assistant director, and animation director on multiple projects using various techniques and styles. She collaborated on audiovisual projects for artists like Shakira, Bizarrap, Veta Madre, Lit Killah, Khea, and more. She made her directorial debut in 2020 with the music video “Lampianu”, and she is currently directing her first short film.
SHARE IT!