TAIS Animation Showcase

“Temperance” tells the story of a whittling artist, unsatisfied with her wooden birds. However, lurking within her, her soul has other plans.
This film explores the importance of interconnection and balance in art making. Temperance was born from honest conversations about burnout, our own dreams, and how embracing our multi-faceted selves is the key to success. 

⁠Oshini Wanigasekera is a Toronto based actor, animator, dancer, illustrator, and filmmaker. Oshini trained as a dancer across Canada and the United States, including The Ailey School and Dance Theatre of Harlem School. In 2011 she was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Award for performing arts by the province of Alberta. After completing her studies in animation at Seneca College in Toronto, Oshini transitioned into acting. Her television appearances include The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu), Titans (HBO), Workin’ Moms (CBC), and Good Sam (CBS). Oshini wrote and directed the film, What I Meant To Say, which won Best Short at CineFAM Film Festival in 2021. Her solo show, Brown People Can’t Be Ballerinas, premiered at the Mississauga Multilingual Fringe Festival in 2023. This coming of age story is based on her real lived experience as a Brown girl who scrambled her way into the professional ballet world. She has animated for Disney and Netflix series, video games, short films and original feature films by HighballTV. In her spare time Oshini has worked in arts education and directed community theatre productions. She loves to do watercolour urban sketching and thrifting. For more information, you can follow @oshiniw

A mother and son navigate their lust and loneliness in the queerest of ways.

Daniel Sterlin-Altman (he/him) is a Canadian animation filmmaker based in Berlin. Specialising in stop-motion animation, Daniel is a storyteller with an eye for nuance and emotion. His work explores family, sexuality and identity through a range of camp, absurdity, comedy and realism. A Master’s graduate of Filmuniversity Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF in Potsdam, Daniel has directed several independent short films as well as commissioned works that have screened at festivals around the world.

91 thousand tender, yet unrelenting embroidered stitches on a single piece of leather, plus an accompanying track composed of sound samples from the embroidery process.

Samuel Wasserman is a multi-disciplinary experimental artist and animator creating surreal works that analyze and attempt to exaggerate the subtleties and nuances of day-to-day life. These works are often inspired by his own lived experiences and come in various forms from traditional static painting and imagery to hybrid digital/analog animated works, but almost exclusively occupy a place in physical space.
Sam was born in Toronto, Ontario and spent his childhood and adolescence growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Currently, he lives and practices in Toronto and is pursuing a BFA in Experimental Animation at OCAD University.

Sweet dreams is a black comedy set in a remote motel, where a housekeeper is stuck in her monotonous work life. Sick of the repetitive humiliations by the employees and the motel guests, the woman eventually loses control and the feeling of revenge overcomes her.

DAGON is a stop motion animation short film freely inspired by the story of the same name by cult author H.P. Lovecraft. In 1919 San Francisco, a man is standing on the ledge of a building ready to jump. Desperate, he relives in his memories the absurd and shocking episode that led him to the brink of suicide: the encounter with the monstrous and mythological Great Old One, DAGON.

Paolo Gaudio is a director, screenwriter and stop motion animator. Author of several genre short films, for eighteen years he has been experimenting with animation techniques such as stop motion, cut out animation and computer graphics for cinema, television and the web. Reveries of a Solitary Walker, released in theaters in Italy in November 2015, marked his feature film debut. The film was distributed in several countries around the world, receiving a lot international awards. With the short film LOONEY FOODZ! was awarded the Nastro d’Argento as best animated film in 2018, while with the following short film, THE BLACK reCAT, he found space in the line-ups of the major fantasy film festivals in the world.

‘B.U.R.N.T. (Bugging Urges Revels Nourished Tyrants)’ is a computer-generated animation (CGI) created using the 3D software Blender to 3D model, rig, texture, light, animate and render the scenes, then compositing in Premiere Pro. This animation explores an interpretation of stagnant burnout through the metaphor and anthropomorphization of bugs. These critters symbolize human vulnerability and resilience, depicted against a surreal, organized maximalist backdrop. The aesthetic was curated to create a vibrant world with luring colours. Still, the underdeveloped scenes and deliberately imperfect 3D models reflect a rejection of perfection and a lack of energy associated with burnout.

Marcella Driver-Moliner is a Toronto-based bilingual new media artist who hails from the Eastern Townships of Quebec. They create 3D experimental animations and fabricated projects to re-interpret nature into personified emotions.
Following foundational training in Graphic Design at Dawson College in Montreal, they pursued an undergraduate degree in IMXA (Integrated Media: Expanded Animation) at OCAD University. Since graduating in 2022, their projects have been featured at Denver Digerati, the Aga Khan Light up the Dark, Experimental awards in London UK, Santa Fe CURRENTS new media, and Toronto festivals such as TAFF, Tais, Pleasure Dome, and Insomniac.

A little night music for the eyes. Geometric shapes dance and transform in the dark. The rain falls, a storm approaches. 

Edwin Rostron began making animated films in the late 1990s. His work is rooted in drawing, and also encompasses painting, collage and photography. He has frequently collaborated with musicians including Apartment House, Dean Honer and Supreme Vagabond Craftsman. Edwin has exhibited at galleries and film festivals internationally, including Ann Arbor Film Festival, Eyeworks, BFI Southbank, The Royal Academy of Arts, Imperial War Museum and Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Edwin also runs Edge of Frame, a blog and screening series focusing on experimental animation, and has taught at the Royal College of Art, CalArts and Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. He lives and works in London. 

A group of mirror factory workers publish a book of reflections. Based on a real mirror catalog from the USSR, the film reimagines the roles of the uncredited models within it as active producers of their own images.

During a peaceful night, a group of fugitives tries to find its way to the center of the building, where the entire resistance is gathering. Evading the surveillance, they go through the rooms of the Giants and witness their macabre routines.

Born and raised in Italy, Alessandro Novelli is a creative and animation director working for both the advertising world and animated short film industry.
After his studies in graphic and digital design he graduates from IED Torino in 2010 and in the same year he attends the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
He started his career like designer at the NYC’ firm Superfad. He moved among different studios both in the EU and USA working on different roles. In 2015 he develops his first short film “The Guardian”, first chapter of his animated short film trilogy “Deconstruction”, followed by “Contact” (2017) and “De Imperio” (2023), last chapter of the series.
From 2018 he works as independent Creative and Art Director from his studio Newgold, based in Porto, Portugal, focusing on the intersection between brands and animated short stories.
His work is characterized by an essential aesthetic and seamless movements aimed to valorize the narrative of each project and to bring real value to the audience.
He is currently developing a new animated short film, Birds & Shells.

A short animation exploring themes of resilience and comfort offered by communal spaces, which hold the ability to transcend hardship.

Trixie is a stop-motion and hand-drawn animator, based in London. She studied BA Illustration Animation at Kingston University, graduating 2024. She loves playful narratives, tactility and craftsmanship, character, and all things moving image!

With containers as a motif and a metaphor for a safe place, the story surrounds the protagonist’s self-searching and healing journey, exploring the relationship between emotion and space. The film attempts to construct a poetic narrative and psychological self-portraits through experimentation in 2D animation, stop motion and sound. It reflects sensibility, fragility, and fragmentation of identity by applying pottery and clay. 

Chu-Chieh Lee is a Taiwanese animation director, designer and illustrator based in London, UK. She finished her BA in Multimedia and Animation Art at the National Taiwan University of Art. In 2023, she received her master’s degree at the Royal College of Art in Narrative Animation. Her animation career started by working at an Motion Graphics Studio in Taiwan for three years as a designer, animator and art director. In 2016, she changed gears and started working as an independent illustrator/animator till now. Relocating and pursuing her career in London in 2018, she has worked for clients worldwide, such as Pfizer, LinkedIn, Google, Nestlé, and BBC.

This is a story I wrote when I was 8, then animated 30 years later.

And still we’re left wondering.. who is the murderer?

Kyla Atlas is a stop motion director and animator. She is the owner and Creative Director at See You On The Moon, a Toronto-based stop motion animation studio.

Más Mik’áátùní Tsisgò (Cut Knife Creek) – A Oral History animated story for language preservation.
Seven Tsuut’ina men refuse to turn back despite 3 dark omens urging them to, they come upon a Cree camp which leads to battle and death in a supernatural way.

Beric Manywounds
A Two Spirit filmmaker, writer, and performance artist from the Tsuut’ina Nation of Treaty 7. Since graduating from Capilano University’s Indigenous Independent Digital Film making program in 2010, Beric has been creating filmic narratives which reflect an exploration of trauma recovery and spiritual reclamation. Beric is also a recent graduate of the Intermedia CyberArts program at Concordia Univerity in Montreal (Tiohtiake) where they began giving shape and form to their own visions of decolonized gender and Indigenous futurism through performance art. Now back home and currently based in Calgary (Guts’ists’i), Beric is now developing forthcoming feature film projects in genres of Indigenous fantasy, horror, and magical realism.

Alanna Bluebird
A transformative artist and the founder of HEAL, Helping Every Artist Live. With a passion for creativity and self-expression, Alanna has pursued a diverse range of artistic endeavours throughout their career. Her photos have been featured in numerous publications and exhibitions, her spoken word poetry has captivated audiences, and her children’s book have all brought together diverse artists to create unforgettable productions.

Benedict Pipestem
Dadanast’ada, Slzi Gumistiyi At’a (How are all of you? My name is The One Who Tires) also known as Benedict Pipestem, I’m from the Tsuut’ina Nation of Treaty 7. I’ve been working for the Tsuut’ina Gunaha (language) Institute on the Tsuut’ina Nation for 10 years doing a variety of roles like being a language instructor for the Tsuut’ina schools, working with the community to host different community events, like the Tsuut’ina language Bingo, Paint Night, and Family Night, all in the Tsuut’ina language. I am an actor, singer-song writer, storyteller, animator, and writer.

Ryan Von Hagen is an animator, as well as an interdisciplinary Artist living in Mohkinstisis also known as Calgary, Alberta. Ryan is the Artistic Director at the Quickdraw Animation Society and has programmed the GIRAF Festival of Independent Animation since 2016. He also teaches animation and storytelling practices at the Alberta University of the Artists. In his own practice he has worked on feature length documentaries, AFA and Canada Council funded short animated films and theatre productions. He has a wide technical background in the world of animation and believes in the power of cinema through collaboration and community.

A sleep deprived artist struggles to stay awake on their mundane subway commute. It’s only a matter of time before they find themselves trapped in a surreal dream where their imagination starts to bleed into reality.

Ceejay is a Filipino-American artist specializing in animation. Born in Manila, raised in the vibrant Asian community of Southern California, and now newly immigrated to Canada, Ceejay’s traveled experiences infused her with a deep appreciation for storytelling and a passion for finding ways to celebrate her identity through animation. Graduating with a BFA in Experimental Animation at OCAD University, she remains dedicated to building her community and exploring stories that amplify the diverse tapestry of human experience.

Geométrika is a mathematical odyssey that invites viewers on an experimental journey through the geometric wonders of the universe, reminiscent of watching floaters under your eyelids. Shot on 16mm and hand painted and developed.

Nicole Blundell is a Franco-Ontarian filmmaker and artist, as well as an active member of the Lightproof film collective. Her works have been showcased in galleries and festivals both nationally and internationally.