Marge Dean

Source: WIP

Marge Dean

Women In Animation (WIA) will hold the eighth edition of its World Summit at Annecy festival at the Impérial Palace Hotel on June 10 under the banner, ‘Stronger Together: The Equitable Future of Animation’.

WIA president Marge Dean, CITIA CEO Mickaël Marin, and WIA secretary and CEO of Collective Moxie Julie Ann Crommett will present the think tank comprising three sessions exploring industry innovations and the power of community.

Limitless Studio CEO Agnes Soyode-Johnson, Incessant Rains Studioco-CEO Deepa Joshi, and Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation president Ramsey Naito will analyse global trends in the first session, “What Now?: Global Opportunities in Animation”.

Journalist Marta Balaga will moderate the session, which will look at opportunities and the role that women and non-binary people can play in the industry.

The second panel, “Harnessing New Business Models to Navigate Animation’s Future”, will explore how technological advances, shifting consumer behaviour, and global market dynamics are changing the content ecosystem, and how models can be leveraged to achieve gender justice in animation.

Panelists will include Vivienne Medrano, showrunner and writer of Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, Studio Chizu managing director Yukiko Koike, Animation UK executive chair Kate O’Connor, and Maya Penn, CEO of Upenndo! Productions. Jinko Gotoh, WIA vice president and an Oscar-nominated producer of Klaus, will moderate.

The last session, “The Creative Impact of the Technology Revolution”, will focus on how technological innovation fosters opportunities for creative collaboration while presenting challenges to the support of gender justice.

Participants include Karen Troop, executive producer of Passion Games, Melanie Hoyes, director of inclusion at British Film Institute, Rachel Appleton, senior director at US software company Autodesk, and Janet Lewin, general manager of Industrial Light & Magic. The moderator is Karen Dufilho, producer at House Of K.

In the closing conversation Crommett and André Luís, co-founder and CEO of creative community Trojan Horse Was A Unicorn, will share personal anecdotes and insights.

The event will be live-streamed on the WIA website.