Speakers
BITBANG 2023 – 9th edition
Buenos Aires, OCT 23 – 28
Sophie Koko
Sophie is an artist and animation director based in London. Her graduation film from the RCA, “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 showcased at Sundance 2020 and won awards at SXSW, Ottawa, and the GLAS animation festival. Her latest short “Hotel Kalura” (2021) was featured 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 show. She directed the development of a movie for Cartoon Network and is currently developing an animated TV series with Sony Pictures Animation and Adult Swim.
Joe Cappa
Joe Cappa is a director and animator currently based in Los Angeles. Cappa’s first short animation, “Ghost Dogs”, was an official selection 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 folks. His comedic style has been described as wholesome and creepy.
Juan Pablo Zaramella
Juan Pablo Zaramella (Buenos Aires – Argentina) is an independent director and animator, creator of over 10 short films awarded around the world.
His short film Luminaris achieved the Guinness World Record for the most awarded short film in 2018, with 328 awards, including audience and critic’s awards at Annecy 2011. His latest work is the short film Pasajero, and he is currently developing his first feature film, titled Soy Nina.
Damián Fernández Gómez
He is an animator, illustrator, and director from Buenos Aires. He has worked as an animator, background artist, and character designer for the animation industry. Additionally, he was involved in the video game industry for many years, developing indie games like “Skyrider”. In recent years, he directed the “proof of concept” for “Pibes Jordan” and “Funky Hunters”, IPs in which he also participated as an author.
He has collaborated with animation studios such as Titmouse and Nickelodeon, working on IPs like TMNT, HiFi Rush, Apex Legends, and Entergalactic. His style is heavily influenced by anime but also by Western animation.
Currently, he is developing a personal project with the Bellolandia studio called “Electro Andes”.
Diego Polieri
He is an Argentine illustrator and animator based in Buenos Aires City. Throughout his extensive career in the realm of 2D animation, he has worked with various studios, including Hook Up, LeCube, and 2Veinte.
His expertise spans different areas of production, such as animation assistance, Cut Out and traditional animation, layout, character design, and storyboard.
Currently, Diego works independently, taking on roles as an animator and animation director. As a director, he has had the privilege of collaborating on several standout projects. Some of these are “Ricochet Splendid” for 2Veinte, the music video “At the Door” for the band The Strokes (also made with 2Veinte), special segments for the Netflix film “Entergalactic” (by Titmouse), and parts for the movie “Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse” (Titmouse-Sony).
Another notable contribution was on the short film “Carne de Dios”, recently released and widely acclaimed, directed by Patricio Plaa and produced by Ojo Raro.
Ruby Valls
Born in Hawaii and raised in Mexico. In 2008, she moved to Argentina where she pursued a degree in Film and Television Production, graduating in 2014. In 2010, she began her journey as a production assistant at NOMAD, a VFX post-production company. In 2012, she joined Fox Latin American channels as a coordinator in the creative solutions department, specializing in advertising. That same year, she launched her photography business, Marry Me, and after two years at Fox, she resigned to fully commit to Marry Me. In 2014, she freelanced at Gizmo until 2018, a company known for its cinematics and advertisements. In 2019, she took on the role of Head of Production at Rudo CO, where she managed projects for major brands like Adidas and Nike, as well as short films and Rudo’s personal content.
In 2021, she began her journey at MOWE as a Producer. The company specializes in advertising projects, institutional content, and personal projects. She is thrilled to collaborate with talented professionals and is always eager to continue learning, growing, and helping to make dreams come true.
Ailín Estrella Bustamante
Ailin Estrella Bustamante was born in the north of Argentina in 1996. She studied journalism and production. She directed and produced live-action short films and managed/coordinated the development of animation projects such as “All the Best,” “Strass,” and “Esther.” She is part of the creative team for the Multiversos animation and video games festival and also serves as the Head of Production at Rudo Company.
Guillermina Place Traverso
Guillermina Place Traverso is a professional in the production and coordination of audiovisual projects. Her journey began with a deep interest in animation, leading her to study and perfect herself in the realm of creative production. Since then, she has significantly contributed to a wide range of projects, spanning from advertising and documentaries to children’s fiction.
Bianca Cattaneo
Bianca Cattaneo is a Creative Producer at Vascolo, an advertising company focused on both 2D and 3D animation. She also teaches courses at the 4Nova school as an instructor in Traditional Animation with Toonboom. A graduate from DaVinci with a degree in Animation Cinema, she aims to coordinate projects with a creative and resolute approach, possessing knowledge in various areas of the animation process.
Rocío Elizabeth García Kristeff
Rocío Elizabeth García Kristeff is an Image and Sound Designer, filmmaker, and audiovisual producer. Since 2016, she has been teaching in the Image and Sound Design program (FADU – UBA). She has worked as an executive producer on documentary projects, developing fiction series, and advertising. Currently, she works as a production coordinator on advertising projects and 2D animation author content.
Josefina Librandi
Josefina Librandi es una profesional de la producción y coordinación de animación con una profunda pasión por el arte audiovisual.
Con varios años de experiencia en la industria, ha desempeñado un papel fundamental en la creación y organización de proyectos de animación en una gran variedad de formatos: series web, trailers para videojuegos, videoclips, visuales para teatro y televisión; las cuáles han entretenido personitas y personas en todo el mundo. Ha trabajado en producción para marcas como Billiken, Paka Paka, Leader Entertainment, Disney Latam, Warner Brothers y LEGO.
Ita Romero
A graduate of UNC in Film and TV. She is part of Osa Estudio, from where she produces series and short films with an authorial perspective. She directed her first short film “Carlos Montaña” in camera-less animation. She works in art direction and as an assistant director on a freelance basis. She is the coordinator of APLAB Latin American Animation Laboratory and RIA – International Animation Residency. She is also part of the board of directors of APA.
Nacho Maiocco
An Industrial Designer graduated from FAUDI UNC. He studied Visual Arts for 3 years at the Faculty of Arts, UNC. He learned to animate self-taught, exploring various techniques, but has been focusing on traditional-digital 2D animation for some time now.
He is currently finishing his first short film “Salto Batracio”, co-directed with Paula Cocucci and produced by Ita Romero from Osa Estudio. The film won the production award from the Polo Audiovisual Córdoba, was selected for the Ajayu Project Hearth in Peru, and won the development award from the Municipality of Córdoba.
He is a member of the APA Board of Directors and a coordinator at APA LAB and RIA.
Daniel Benmergui
He is an Argentine video game creator. Director of Storyteller, a game awarded by the international video game festival in San Francisco and published by Annapurna Interactive, a gaming division of the film production company Annapurna Pictures.
Pablo Quarta
They are a producer and narrative designer for video games and are one of the co-founders of the Matajuegos Cooperative, an independent video game development studio that specializes in creating games with social, artistic, and political perspectives that draw from our Latin American cultural context. Quarta was part of the development team for the documentary video game Atuel, a dreamlike experience about the climate crisis in the central-west of Argentina that won the award for “Innovation in Experiential Design” at the international IndieCade 2022 festival and was exhibited at the Cannes festival market. Quarta teaches game design at the National University Scalabrini Ortiz and the Torcuato Di Tella University.
Alejandra Bruno
Co-founder of Bicho raro, the first video game cooperative made up of women. Co-founder of Women in Games Argentina and member of its educational commission. With 15 years of experience as a narrative designer, game designer, content manager, and producer in the development of a wide range of video games for clients such as Big Fish, Lego, Disney, Unicef, the National Government of Argentina, the City Government, Ministry of Education, and Paka Paka Channel. Studios she worked at include Yaguar, CMD, The Other Guys, and QB9 Entertainment.
She is the author of two published novels (Indómita Luz Publishing). She won the National Endowment for the Arts award in 2018 and was a finalist for the Clarín Novel Prize in 2020. She is a screenwriter for film and TV. She teaches video game scripting and is a frequent speaker at events related to technology, writing, and art. She holds degrees in Film Direction and Screenwriting for Film and TV (CIEVYC, TEBA).
Sebastián Blanco
He is a systems engineer and a doctoral fellow in Computer Science (CONICET-UAI). Currently, he is researching the development of a methodology for creating experimental mechanics in video games. In addition, he develops video games independently in his studio called PapaCorps. The main project of his studio, Awakening, was recognized by the prestigious EGW at the Game Developers Conference 2023 and in the Selected Indie 80 at the Tokyo Game Show 2023.
Julián Nicolás Lassa Ortiz
Julián Nicolás Lassa Ortiz is an Animator and Director. He works as a freelancer in advertising and music videos with studios like 1st Ave, Le Cube, 2 veinte, and Rudo.
He animated and did Clean up for Short Films such as Carne de Dios, Trompita and the migration of hares, and Migrante.
He directed his first short film, Strass (2023), which won the Latin American Student Short Film Competition at Chilemonos and competed in festivals such as Pixelatl, Anifilm, Animac, Anima, among others.
Delfina Pérez Adán
Delfina Pérez Adán, from Bahía Blanca, is an independent animation artist. She trained as a Graphic Designer at UBA while beginning to learn to draw on her own. She developed in the area of art and pre-production working on commercial projects for studios such as 2veinte, Ronda, Club Camping, Rudo, Bellolandia.
She worked as a character designer and visual development artist for the series Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake. As a comic book author, she participated in Ex-Mag 3 from Peow Studio and CryPunch Comics published by Al Gofa.
Begoña Cortázar
Miren Begoña Cortazar (35) is an Argentine sound artist, dancer, and performer with 10 years of experience in Foley. She has collaborated with prominent directors and sound designers, winning a Silver Condor for Best Sound for her contribution to the film “El Ángel” under the sound direction of José Luis Díaz. She has worked on more than 100 films and series.
In addition to her work in film and television, Begoña has participated in sound performances. This includes the contemporary opera ’68 by Marcelo Brodsky at CETC, the play “Timotec” by Nicolas áarchausky at the Cervantes theater, and in “Foley 02” by Alan Martin Segal at the Centro Cultural Kirchner.
Nuria Suaya
Nuria Suaya (24) graduated from ENERC with a degree in Sound Direction. Since 2016, she has worked in sound for audiovisuals, mainly in the post-production area. She currently works as an editor and also as a foley recorder, mainly collaborating with the artist Francisco Rizzi, while undertaking her first projects in sound direction.
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