London animation & VFX studio Jellyfish Pictures announced that Archie Donato has joined the Jellyfish Animation Features team as Creative Director of Animation. Donato brings over 30 years of extensive experience to the role, including 17 years spent at DreamWorks Animation. Most recently Head of Visual Effects at DNEG Animation, Donato has worked on blockbuster film franchises including Star Wars, Terminator, Godzilla and Kung Fu Panda, with his most recent credits as VFX Supervisor on Emmy-nominated Entergalactic and Nimona.
In his new role, Donato will work closely with senior creative teams across all of Jellyfish Pictures’ animation productions to deliver artistic excellence and drive creative innovation. This addition to the senior team follows the recent appointment of two other senior executives in the Animation division: Chrissy Metge, who joined as Executive Producer, Animation and Louis Flores as Visual Effects Supervisor.
Jellyfish Pictures is currently in production on an animated series for Netflix EMEA/Lime entitled Wereworld, based on a popular book series by Curtis Jobling, and an adaptation of one of Roald Dahl’s most beloved children’s books for Netflix. It has also recently started production on a new feature animation for a Hollywood studio.
Paris-based Millimages announced the promotion of Adrien Moretto to the position of General Manager. The 29-year-old former Head of Legal and then General Secretary will now head the studio, known for producing international hits such as 64 Rue Du Zoo, Corneil & Bernie, Lascars, Louie and Molang.
Moretto will continue the strategy implemented for 32 years by Millimages’ founder Roch Lener: to transform all studio IP into a transmedia experience for viewers. The studio has successfully implemented this strategy for Molang, with creative content for TV and platforms, viral content for social media and a wide range of derivative products. Moretto plans to intensify the creation of content exclusive to new media, and to continue developing his network of licensees, all the while continuing to develop and produce high-quality traditional productions.
With a master’s degree in business law and an MBA in audiovisual production, Moretto began his career in the world of audiovisual production in the legal department of Cofiloisirs. In 2018, he joined Millimages’ Business Affairs department, before becoming the Group’s General Counsel in 2021, then General Secretary at the end of 2022. Now one of the youngest general managers in the French AV industry, Moretto will be able to draw on the and expertise of each business unit (especially Production & Development, headed by Bonnie Lener; Digital Content Strategy, Kévin Maintrot; Licensing &a Merchandising, Alexandra Algard-Mikanowski and International Sales, Sépideh Shirazi Moayed) to
perpetuate the studio’s global influence.
Academy Award-nominated French animation studio Xilam Animation has upped Safaa Benazzouz to the position of EVP Distribution. Previously Deputy EVP Distribution, Benazzouz will replace Morgann Favennec. She will continue to be based in Xilam’s head office in Paris and will now report into the company’s Founder and CEO, Marc du Pontavice.
Benazzouz will lead the worldwide distribution strategies across Xilam’s new and forthcoming productions, including Karate Sheep, Oggy Oggy and Buddybot, and its existing catalog which includes Oggy and the Cockroaches, Zig & Sharko, Where’s Chicky? and Athleticus. Additionally, she will be responsible for driving sales across the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Germany, South Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America; and managing the four teams within Xilam’s distribution department: international sales, digital, licensing and marketing.
Benazzouz first joined Xilam as SVP Media Sales Distribution (Latin America, Middle East, Africa and Southern Europe) in February 2019 from French kids’ distribution company Superights. In January 2022, Benazzouz was elevated to Deputy EVP Distribution and, working alongside Favennec, she helped implement new processes and systems within the Xilam Group. Additionally, Benazzouz participated in the strategic development of the department, including Xilam’s new preschool property Oggy Oggy, which launched simultaneously across Netflix, international broadcasters and social media, alongside a dedicated consumer products e-shop.
Following her departure from Xilam, Morgann Favennec has joined Ellipse Animation — a subsidiary of the Franco-Belgian film and audiovisual production group Media-Participations — in the created the position of VP International Financing. Favennec will take up her position on September 15. She will also will be attending Cartoon Forum (September 18-21) for the presentation of the new series project, Komodo No Chill, with the studio team.
Alongside Managing Director Caroline Audebert (to whom Favennec now reports) and VP Creative Development & Strategy Lila Hannou, Favennec will secure international coproduction and presales agreements for all series and features projects produced by Ellipse Animation (around 20 projects are in progress at different stages of development within the company, such as the series The Marsupilamis, Dreamland, Trotro & Zaza and Komodo No Chill). She will also take part in the international development of the Group’s IPs.
Holder of a DESS in international trade negotiation from La Sorbonne Nouvelle, Favennec has been in key positions in the animation industry over the past 20 years. She was head of acquisitions at The Walt Disney Company from 2004 to 2006, before taking charge of youth programs at M6 Groupe. In 2013 she was appointed Deputy Managing Director at Superights. Since July 2017, Favennec was EVP, Distribution at Xilam, supervising and orchestrating international distribution strategies, contributing to the overall influence of the company’s productions.
Cormier has worked for more than three decades in audiovisual production and post-production, content creation and as an innovator in creative technology, both in Canada and the United States. He has experience in senior management and holds an executive MBA from McGill University. At age 24, Cormier co-founded Buzz Image, the first post-production studio in Canada to offer digital VFX. In 1995, he created an innovative product that allowed filmmakers to review several production processes in real time which drew interest from Bell/Téléglobe, and he would later partner with the company.
In 1999, Cormier was recruited by Ascent Media for the Los Angeles-based position of Senior Vice President. He created a financially successful studio dedicated to producing films, ads and TV series. He relocated to New York in 2004, where he joined the post-production group Nice Shoes and made his mark by implementing synergies, cost-saving measures and more efficient processes. In 2005, he moved on to Ringside in Detroit, where he served as President. During his six years with the company, he transformed it from a traditional advertising and digital production and post-production studio to a fully integrated creative-services house. After returning to Montreal, Cormier led the global expansion of Moment Factory’s production services. In 2020, he joined MELS, where he created a virtual production division in addition to heading the company’s digital creative services.
Mocap & performance capture specialist The Imaginarium Studios announced three key appointments, all of whom will report to CEO Matt Brown:
Working out of both company facilities at Pinewood Studios and Ealing, new Business Development Manager for gaming Alex Hill‘s immediate focus will be to strategically strengthen and further position the studio to service existing and new gaming clients. He will also partner with existing film & TV clients to provide them with top quality services while procuring new clients and identifying fresh business ventures and opportunities.
Prior to joining The Imaginarium Studios, Hill was a Lead Producer in the central Zynga creative Marketing team, managing asset creation for games such as Star Wars Hunters, Game of Thrones, Words with Friends, CSR2 Racing and FarmVille 3. Before this he was the Senior Manager of Creative Services at Activision Blizzard, delivering localized artwork assets in 15-20 languages for all AAA Franchise titles globally on PlayStation, XBOX, Nintendo, PC and mobile.
Dan Baybutt returns to The Imaginarium Studios as Post Production Supervisor, having originally started his career with the company back in 2015. In between, he worked at Wētā FX, where he was a motion editor, prior to this he worked at ILM as a mocap TD. Throughout his career, he has played a pivotal role in bringing memorable performances to films that have heavily relied on motion and performance capture, such as Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Batman and Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. He’s also been instrumental in many gaming productions and virtual concerts like ABBA Voyage.
As Operations Manager, Lucy Pennington will be based at Pinewood and the company’s offices in Ealing, she’ll be responsible for all aspects of logistics and planning support to the production clients before, during and after their residency at the studio. Pennington is on familiar ground, having joined the company from Pinewood Studios where she worked as a receptionist providing excellent customer service as the first point of contact welcoming Visitors, Productions, Tenants and Staff.
More Hirings, Promotions & Signings:
- Studio AKA announced accomplished animator and character designer Margherita Premuroso as the latest addition to its director roster.
- Superights has reorganized its sales team, upping Hugo Brochard to International Sales Manager and hiring on Élodie Friess as new Sales Coordinator, both reporting to Nathalie Pinguet, Deputy MD Sales & Acquisitions.
- Framestore has welcomed two seasoned VFX Supervisors to its Montreal Team: Francois Lambert and Jeremy Robert.
- DNEG has forged a new creative partnership with BAFTA-nominated VFX Supervisor Jake Morrison.
- Tokido announced the appointment of magician-influencer Sean Sotaridona (Sean Does Magic) as global brand ambassador for its in-house IP Piñata Smashlings.
- Pixotope virtual production platform solutions company is bolstering its outreach to broadcast and Asia-Pacific markets, naming Phil Ventre VP of Strategy & Global Business Development and Vivian Yu Marketing Director, APAC and Global Sales Enablement Lead.
