Join us for the first annual Philly Animation Festival, hosted by Moore College. The event celebrates the artistry of animation from Philadelphia and around the globe with film screenings, workshops, and family-friendly events. To kick off its inaugural year, Philly Animation Fest will be co-hosting Moore College’s animation artist panel, Game Changers, which is free and open to the public.
Schedule
- Doors open: 5:00 PM
- Philly Showcase screening: 6:00 PM
- Game Changers panel: 6:30 PM
- Reception: 8:00 PM
Tickets & Info
Admission Details
The Game Changers panel is open to the public as part of Moore College’s AGA series. The rest of the Philly Animation Festival requires a ticket for entry.
Moore students receive free admission to both Game Changers and all festival screenings and events by showing their student ID.
Panelists
Elyse Kelly is an award-winning director and producer with a passion for human-centered stories. She’s told stories that span the obscure and the celebrated — from tree poaching in the Pacific Northwest to chart-topping music icons. Kelly’s work has won awards and screened at festivals worldwide, including Sundance, Tribeca, and Annecy. She’s directed content for clients such as Netflix, the ACLU, The Atlantic, the United Nations Foundation, and Meow Wolf. In 2022, Kelly founded Neon Zoo, an independent film studio that uses storytelling to create meaningful impact. Alongside her career as a filmmaker, Kelly is an educator, currently teaching animation at Georgetown University.
Kelli Williams is an animator and visual artist. She uses stop-motion animation, photography, augmented reality, installation, and humor to create work that comments on society through the lens of social media and technology. She is an alumna of Morgan State University where she majored in Fine Art, with a concentration in photography. She received her Master of Fine Arts from Columbus College of Art & Design. She is a professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally and has been featured in the Huffington Post, Columbus Live, Hyperallergic, Artnet, Baltimore magazine, and Netflix’s Peabody Award–winning short film, Cops and Robbers.
Linda Simensky teaches animation history at the University of Pennsylvania, writes about animation, and consults on character development and storytelling for television and apps. Most recently, Simensky was Head of Character Development and Scripted Content for Duolingo. Before that, she was Head of Content for PBS KIDS. Simensky began her career at Nickelodeon, where she helped start the animation department and launch popular series including Rugrats, Rocko’s Modern Life, Hey Arnold! and Doug. She then oversaw original animation at Cartoon Network and helped establish Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank.
