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2022 Jurors

Black and white headshot of Casandra Brewton-Johnson. She is an African-American woman smiling directly at the camera with shoulder length, straightened, dark hair and wearing a dark button shirt.

Casandra Brewton-Johnson

An Atlanta artist specializing in the handmade construction of Stop Motion sets and puppets. She is currently a Production Manager with Primal Screen and the Programming Director of ASIFA-SOUTH International Animation Society headquartered in Atlanta. Previously she was a Project Manager for Slothique Animation Production and a freelance Media Coordinator for School of Humans.

Colored photo of Jalysa Leva in front of a wall of her framed artwork and holding a sticker with characters from her animated series. Jalysa is an Filipino-American woman wearing glasses and a cream sweater vest over a short sleeve white button up shirt. Her hair is shaved on the sides with the long hair on top tied in a top knot.

Jalysa Leva

photo by Alex Kelly

Creator and director of the PBS KIDS animated shorts series Jelly, Ben & Pogo. She has spent the last few years developing her animation career in Atlanta, Georgia where she has worked on projects for Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Sesame Workshop, and more. Her passions lie in educational content for children and sharing Filipino culture. 

Black and white headshot of Jason Shwarz, a caucasian male with glasses, mustache, and beard. He is smiling directly at the camera and wearing a button up shirt and blazer.

Jason Shwartz

Jason Shwartz has been directing animation at Bento Box Atlanta since its inception in 2012. Prior to Bento Box he worked on [adult swim] shows including Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies. He serves as creative director and producer for his own studio, Green Shoe Animation, which creates animated content for clients including Disney, McDonald's, Garfield, Marvel and ESPN.

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2022 Panelists

Colored photo of Steff Farrar. She is a caucasian blonde wearing a blue shirt. She is smiling at the camera while pinching her chin. Next to her in white letters on a black circle reads Exceptional Minds the logo is the company for which S.teff works

The Exceptional Minds logo is white text on a black background with red dots atop of the I's.

Steff Farrar

Director of Vocational Initiatives, Exceptional Minds

Farrar began her career in the film industry in Eastern Canada. After winning a National Apprenticeship for Film and Television award, she became a pioneer in the earliest years of animation in Nova Scotia, where she owned and operated a small, boutique studio and was showcased in MacLean's Magazine as one of Canada's top 100 Young Entrepreneurs.

Steff recognizes that embracing the journey is the key to following dreams!

With over 25 years of experience in the industry, she has enjoyed working in a variety of artistic, management and instructor roles, none more rewarding to her as working in education. Steff is passionate about animation and is dedicated to helping students find enjoyable and successful journeys of their own to pursue in this exciting field.

Photo of Bobby Pontillas, a Filipino-American man standing at a three quater angle in a black suit. He is smiling at unseen photographers while standing in front of an oversized golden Oscar figure.

Bobby Pontillas

Co-founder, Rise Up Animation; Development, Disney Channel & Disney+

Pontillas is a Filipino-American director and animator who has worked for such studios as Disney, Taiko, Blue Sky, ArenaNet, and more. Over his career, he has served as an animator, character designer, and art director. He is an Academy Award nominated director for the animated short film, "One Small Step". 

Black and white photo of Vinod Krishnan sitting in a van. The camera is angled so the picture is artistically off-balance. Vinod is a young man with dark hair and what would be golden brown or olive skin if the picture were not in black and white. in the picture. His gaze is lookin off toward the viewers right and he sports a mustache and short beard.

Vinod Krishnan

Technical Animation Director, Disney

Krishnan has chased his dreams from Bahrain all the way to LA. Vinod has worked on a variety of projects from Avengers: Endgame, the Owl House, Disney's Amphibia, The Venture Bros, Rick and Morty, Black-ish, Grace and Frankie and is also active as a Wacom Artist Representative. He also serves on the Studio committee at SIGGRAPH, as well as a part of ASIFA-South's business department committee member

2022 Recordings

Fast Film Fest 2022 Poster. Gray poster with yellow text, cinema tickets, a film reel, clap board, director's chair float on the exterior edges

Fast Film Fest 2022 Screening

Press Start!

Watch the Recording

The screening and awards ceremony for the 4th Fast Film Fest took place virtually on Friday, March 4, 2022 at 8pm (EST). The 2022 theme was Press Start! The screening consisted of a sampling of animations from previous years before screening the 2022 juried submissions. Interspersed between the submission videos were introductions from each of the jurors, Casandra Brewton-Johnson, Jalysa Leva, and Jason Shwartz. After all the videos screened, the audience voted via poll for the 2022 People's Choice. Then the winners were revealed.

I'll Make Me a World: creating spaces for an under-represented workforce

Presented by Steff Farrar & Bobby Pontillas

Watch the recording

Title image for the I'll Make Me a World Panel. The Fast Film Fest logo which is a series of thin white overlapping lines that spell out Paper Animation to the left of 3 triangles that hint at an abstract origami form. To the right of the logo are headshots of Steff Farrar, a smiling blond with shoulder length hair and her chin resting on her hand. Then there's a studio shot of Bobby Pontillas sketching on a digital tablet.

iMovie Basics

Presented by Alison Valk

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Paper Animation film fest logo written in white text below it, a photo of Alison Valk to the right of the logo with a purple background. Alison is a caucasian with chin length brown hair.

Bringing Inanimate 3D Objects to Life          

Presented by Jerushia Graham

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Title image for Bringing 3D Inanimate Objects to Life. The Fast Film Fest logo which is a series of thin white overlapping lines that spell out Paper Animation to the left of 3 triangles that hint at an abstract origami form.

A Career in Animation: Ask Me Anything             

ASIFA-South in Conversation with Vinod Krishnan

Watch the recording

Title image for A Career in Animation shows the Fast Film Fest logo which is a series of thin white overlapping lines that spell out Paper Animation to the left of 3 triangles that hint at an abstract origami form. To the right of the logo is a black and white photo of Vinod Krishnan

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2021 Jurors

Black and white head shot of Artist, Casandra Brewton-Johnson, an African-American woman with straight hair to her shoulders smiling at the camera

Casandra Brewton-Johnson

Colored headshot of Lisa Ferrell, television and film producer. She is an African-American woman with a straight black bob with straight bangs. She is smiling at the camera with her head turned at a 3/4 angle towards the viewer.

Lisa Ferrell

Head shot of Allyssa A. Lewis, Executive Director of animation staffing agency, My Animation Life. She is an African-American woman smiling, wearing a white dress and standing in front of a magnolia tree.

Allyssa A. Lewis

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2021 Recordings

Fast Film Fest 2021 Screening Poster shows multiple ticket stubs arranged in rows at an angle. The stubs alternate between the color turquois and orange on a navy blue background with the text outlining the screening date information and partners below.

Fast Film Fest 2021 Screening

Community: The World as We Know It

Watch the Recording

The screening and awards ceremony for the 3rd Fast Film Fest took place virtually on Friday, March 19, 2021 at 8pm (EST). This 2021 theme was Community: The World as We Know It. The screening consisted of a viewing of a selection of films by Saul Eidison, the 2020 People's Choice Awardee, before screening the 2021 juried submissions. Interspersed between the submission videos were introductions from each of the jurors, Casandra Brewton-Johnson, Lisa Ferrell, and Allyssa A. Lewis. After all the videos screened, the audience voted via poll for the 2021 People's Choice. Then the winners were revealed.

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Lessons from a Life in Animation

Presented by Sandee Chamberlain, Demetrius Dukes, & Timothy Steele

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Headshots of the panelists for Lessons from a Life in Animation.

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Animation as a Tool for Social Change

Presented by Ginger Tontaveetong

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Fast Film Fest Logo and Head shot of Ginger Tontaveetong on a black background

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Stop Motion How-To

Presented by Kiera Quinn

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Fast Film Fest Logo and Head shot of Kieran Quinn on a black background

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Post-Production Tips Using iMovie

Presented by Alison Valk

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Fast Film Fest Logo over a Monitor and iPad

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Stop Motion 101

Presented by Jerushia Graham

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Fast Film Fest Logo and photo of paper puppets, scissors, and paper fasteners

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2020 Jurors

Bio headshot of Fatimah Abdullah, a brown skinned woman smiling closed mouth at the camera. She stands in front of a purple background sporting a natural hairstyle, glasses and a white shirt.

Fatimah Abdullah

Bio headshot of Brian De Tagyos, a caucasian male with blue eyes, brown hair, beard, and mustache. He stands in front of a blue-grey background wearing a plaid button shirt with a collar, and is smiling directly at the camera.

Brian De Tagyos

Bio headshot of Marisa Ginger Tontaveetong

Marisa Ginger Tontaveetong

Bio headshot of Amanda Ray, an African-American woman wearing long braids smiling directly at the camera.

Amanda Ray

2020 Recordings

Inclusion in Animation

ASIFA-South in conversation with Davonne Dupart & Jules Premus

Watch the recording

Title image for Inclusion in Animation shows the Fast Film Fest logo which is a series of thin white overlapping lines that spell out Paper Animation to the left of 3 triangles that hint at an abstract origami form. To the right of the logo are two headshots of the presenters. The top headshot is of Davonne Dupart, a smiling African American Woman with shoulder length black hair wearing a black and white checker scarf. The lower headshot is just a little more to the right and circular in shape. The image is of Jules Premus, they smirk at the viewer sporting short straight dark hair.

Q & A with Brian de Tagyos

Watch the recording

Title image for Q & A with Brian de Tagyos shows the Fast Film Fest logo which is a series of thin white overlapping lines that spell out Paper Animation to the left of 3 triangles that hint at an abstract origami form. To the right of the logo are two headshots of Brian de Tagyos. He is a Caucasian male with brown hair and blue eyes.

Innovation in Animation

ASIFA-South in conversation with Taylor Church, Jeffrey Yu, & Jenna Zonna

Watch the recording

Title image for Innovation in Animation shows the Fast Film Fest logo which is a series of thin white overlapping lines that spell out Paper Animation to the left of 3 triangles that hint at an abstract origami form. To the right of the logo are three headshots of the presenters.

2018 Jurors

Three-quarter shot of Matt and Mike Chapman standing in front of a blue background looking off toward the upper left corner of the photo. Matt is holding a plush doll of their animated character Homestar Runner. The character is a white figure without a nose, wearing a blue beanie with a propeller on top, a red shirt with a white star and no arms

Matt & Mike Chapman

photo credit: Adventure Classic Gaming

Bio headshot of Jon Dilling, Senior Video Editor for Warner Media. The photo is black and white. Jon is a Caucasian man with dark hair, wearing glasses and a dark shirt. He is smiling directly at the camera with is head slightly tilted.

Jon Dilling

bio headshot of Alison Valk, Multimedia Librarian for Georgia Tech Library. She is a Caucasian woman with a chin length bob of dark brown hair. In her photo she is sitting profile facing the right side of the picture frame.

Alison Valk

Photo of a stop motion workshop. Students working at a table with clamp lamps and collage background on the table.

Photo of the 2018 Screening. The two hosts stand at the front of an auditorium in front of a blank screen facing the audience.

Photo of the museum staff in front of the photo wall at the screening

Bio headshot of Julie Miller the graphic designer who created the Fast Film Fest Logo. She is a Caucasian woman with long brunette hair.

 
 
A special thanks goes to Julie Miller for designing the Fast Film Fest Logo.
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Partners

Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking Logo features a rectangle with the bottom right corner folded up in a triangle

ASIFA International Animation Society logo featuring the bold black block letters ASIFA above the words International Animation Society. The ASIFA has smaller letters floating inside the black letters just after the S. The small letters are a teal O and U followed by a small pink T and H to spell out the word South.

GA Tech Library logo which features a gold tech tower nestled between the words GA Tech and Library