The Ottawa International Animation Festival’s industry event, the Television Animation Conference or TAC, announces Michael Polis of Wildbrain Entertaiment and Moral Orel creator Dino Stamatopoulos will be the keynote speakers for the 2011 edition.
The eighth edition of TAC will begin with a keynote speech by Polis, president of Wildbrain Entertainment and exec VP of branded entertainment and consumer products at DHX Media. Polis joined Wildbrain in 2007 as chief marketing officer and has led and supervised global marketing and licensing efforts on behalf of Wildbrain’s entertainment assets, including the groundbreaking series Yo Gabba Gabba!
Kicking off the second day of TAC will be a keynote by Stamatopoulos, a comedy actor, writer and producer who has worked on such projects as Mr. Show, TV Funhouse, Mad TV, The Dana Carvey Show, Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. He created the stop-motion animated series Moral Orel for Adult Swim, which premiered on Christmas of 2005 and aired its final episode in December 2008. The second season of Stamatopoulos’s newest stop motion series, Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole, also on Adult Swim, will air in 2012. Since 2009, Stamatopoulos has also been appearing in a recurring role as “Star-Burns” on the NBC comedy series Community. He also works as an occasional consultant and writing contributor on the show.
This year’s TAC will be held at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier on Sept. 21 and 22, the first two days of the festival. The conference is a specialized industry forum designed for professionals in animation content creation, development, production, distribution and marketing. Since its inception in 2004, the conference has consistently been full to capacity each year with producers, broadcasters and other industry leaders.
More information on TAC 2011 can be found by visiting www.animationfestival.ca.
