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Where Today’s Talent
Becomes Tomorrow’s Legends
As the CEO and founder of the global animation studio, Animation Libation Studios, Michael Bonitatis is engaged in promoting newly emerging artists from around the world. Additionally, he has collaborated with industry veterans from Disney, Dream Works, Sony, and Nickelodeon to develop multiple projects. Serving as the Art Director for the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Michael has produced and directed animations and presentations for Fortune 500 companies. Slope of the Curve; an animated short film he produced and animation directed is featured on CNN money. Michael has been a professor of computer-based and traditional animation and animation production for over a decade at several local colleges including East and West Los Angeles College, The Art Institutes, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Fullerton and The Los Angeles Film School. He has also developed and implemented curriculum, led production teams, and served as a consultant in the animation education field. Michael holds a M.F.A. for Animation & Visual Effects from the Academy of Art in San Francisco. He is currently the festival Director for the revival of 'The World Animation Celebration' at Sony Pictures Animation and rapidly establishing it as the premiere animation festival in Southern California.
Michael Bonitatis
CEO/Founder
Joan Lynch
CFO
Joan Lynch is a multiple award-winning producer and senior media executive with three decades of experience building content businesses, launching new platforms, and developing premium intellectual property across broadcast, streaming, documentary, and live events.
She has held senior leadership roles at ESPN, ABC News, Yahoo, and Working Nation, where she led large creative teams, oversaw long-form and live programming, and secured multi-million-dollar funding partnerships. At ESPN, she served as Vice President & Executive Producer of Content Development, helping expand 30 for 30 and overseeing a broad portfolio of original programming.
Lynch is the founder of Scéal Films, where she develops documentary and live-event properties and structures strategic partnerships for global distribution. She currently leads creative, branding, and video strategy for CV6 Therapeutics. Lynch brings deep expertise in business development, IP strategy, capital positioning, and franchise building.
Mike Libonati
Creative Director
Mike Libonati is a Professor of Animation at East Los Angeles College.
His students have had their work presented at Siggraph, CTN Animation Expo and various film festivals throughout the country.
Mike has also been a consultant for the City of Los Angeles on animation curriculum and is passionate about teaching production techniques to students.
He has a MFA from California Institute of the Arts in Animation. He also has a degree in History and Anthropology from Bowdoin College/Glasgow University.
Mike works in 2D and 3D development in Los Angeles for various clients in both film and television including project presentations for Disney Feature, Universal and Fox. Mike also works on renderings for architectural lighting design including projects such as the Coex Mall in Korea, Asia’s largest underground mall, Tesla Motor Company in Los Angeles for Luminesce Design. Mike is a board member of Cinema Without Borders and is passionate about international animation and film. Mike worked on a yearly animation day with Cinema Without Borders highlighting both work and artists presenting from various areas of the world including Latin America, Canada and last year Hungary.
Carol Ashley
Associate Professor of Game Art, Animation and Immersive Media
Carol Ashley is an industry veteran with over 20 years in feature film visual effects and animation, including Composite Supervisor on “The Matrix” and Lighting Technical Director at DreamWorks Animation on “Shark Tale”, “Madagascar”, “Over the Hedge” and “Flushed Away”. She holds an MFA in Film & Video with an emphasis on cinematography and visual effects and a BFA in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts. She has contributed to numerous feature films for Sony Imageworks, Cinetropolis FX, Cinesite, Hammerhead, Rhythm & Hues and Technicolor. Carol began her career at Will Vinson Studios as a Stop-Motion Animator on the California Raisin commercials, including designing and animating the Michael Jackson character for the award winning commercial, “Michael Raisin”. While earning her Master’s she was asked to start up the stop-motion animation program at CalArts and stayed on as visiting faculty for two years after graduating. Carol has also taught at the Art Institute of Atlanta and Hollywood campuses in 3D animation and Visual Effects. Carol is the former Department Chair for Media Arts at The Art institute of California - Hollywood before starting her tenure track position at Cal State Fullerton in Entertainment Art/Animation. She serves as the Director of Outreach at Animation Libation Studios, developing original content and bridging the gap between higher education and the animation industry.
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