The Warner Bros. Pictures Animation President and CCO hosted filmmakers, artists, and collaborators for an open house highlighting the division’s growing theatrical roster and creative direction.
Warner Bros. Pictures Animation welcomed filmmakers, creatives, and collaborators to its Burbank headquarters Tuesday night for a pre-Annecy open house hosted by President and Chief Creative Officer Bill Damaschke, offering an early look at the studio's expanding theatrical animation slate ahead of its debut at the festival in June.
Joined by Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group Co-Chair and CEO Pam Abdy, Damaschke introduced guests to a division now 250 employees strong with seven films in active production: The Cat in the Hat, Bad Fairies, Margie Claus, Oh, the Places You'll Go!, Dynamic Duo, Hello Kitty, and Lunar Chronicles. Set inside the Frank Gehry-designed Warner Bros. Pictures Animation offices adjacent to the Warner Bros. lot, the event included tours of the studio space, meetings with creative teams, and previews of works-in-progress from upcoming projects.
"Tonight is about the next chapter for Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and the artists building it," said Abdy. "Animation is a core part of how Warner Bros. tells stories – and what Bill and his team are creating here represents the studio at its most ambitious. We are deeply invested in WBPA as a creative home for the filmmakers reimagining what animated storytelling can be, and we have full conviction in the slate they're bringing to audiences starting with The Cat in the Hat this November."
"Warner Bros. Pictures Animation is an artists-first home," said Damaschke. "Our creative philosophy is driven by our storytellers, and we are reimagining what an animation studio can be. We're prioritizing originality when we identify new projects with global potential and curating new films from the incredible existing IP across Warner Bros. Discovery. With a singular focus on theatrical, our upcoming films are full of humor, heart, and hope – stories grounded in universal human themes. We're not bound by any single style of animation, and we're proud to be partnered with some of the most innovative storytellers in the industry."
The event also brought together the creative teams behind Warner Bros. Pictures Animation's upcoming productions, including representatives from UK-based Locksmith Animation, the studio behind Bad Fairies and Lunar Chronicles. Attending from Locksmith were Co-Founder and Chair Liz Murdoch, Co-Founder and President of Production Julie Lockhart, Chief Creative Officer Mary Coleman, CEO Natalie Fischer, heads of story Rikke Asbjoaern and Christopher Garbutt, editor Sim Evan Jones, writer Zoe Tomalin, producer Carolyn Soper, and development executive Elizabeth Reddy, among others.
Additional attendees included New Line Cinema President and CCO Richard Brener; directors Alessandro Carloni, Erica Rivinoja, Jorge R. Gutierrez, Colin Trevorrow, Mark Andrews, Jill Culton, Hamish Grieve, Megan Dong, John Aoshima, and Dave Derrick; writer-producer Ben Falcone for Margie Claus; Lunar Chronicles director Noëlle Raffaele and producer Christina Steinberg; producers Michelle Wong, Beau Flynn, and Ramsey Naito; and writers Pam Ribon, Maria Melnik, and Stephen Desmond.
Guests from across the animation industry included Academy Animation Branch members Bonnie Arnold, Marjorie Cohn, Mike Mitchell, Bruce W. Smith, Gina Shay, Holly Edwards, Kendal Cronkhite, Kristine Belson, Christopher Sanders, Steve Martino, Vicky Jenson, Jerry Beck, and Tim Johnson, alongside Academy Museum Exhibitions Curator Jenny He and ASIFA-Hollywood Vice President Brooke Keesling. Throughout the evening, attendees moved through the studio in small groups, meeting artists and directors while viewing elements of the studio's developing projects.
Warner Bros. Pictures Animation said additional slate announcements are expected in the coming months. The studio's next public presentation will take place at Annecy, where it plans to showcase its theatrical lineup and premiere the Looney Tunes theatrical short Daffy Season.
Source: Warner Bros. Pictures Animation
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
