The Animator’s Friend

Pilar and I contemplate Minnie Mouse's wikiFeet rating.   Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma (She/They) is a Spanish-American animator, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist from New York City. They received a BFA in Film/Animation/Video from the Rhode Island School of Design and are currently based in Brooklyn.   Her practice encompasses both digital and traditional techniques, typically using an interplay of the two to give a mixed-media feel to her work. Pilar's storytelling often draws inspiration from ecological systems and their symbolic qualities, and uses folk horror, magical realism, and nature to examine the emotional and psychological self through a poetic and metaphorical lens.   

In true TAF fashion, me and Marcelese Cooper talk about bugs.  

Marcelese Cooper is an artist and educator originally from Santa Clarita, California, and has practiced throughout the Midwest and the South for nearly a decade. Influenced by their experiences as a young, black, queer individual, Cooper explores themes of identity, community, and the black/brown narrative through mediums like animation, performance art, and experimental video. They blend the DNA of dreams, science-fiction, and surreal art-house cinema in their work.

Currently a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Film and Media Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh, C...

From oatmeal to the occult, the London's give equal attention to their pastimes.  They even begrudgingly give equal attention to their dislikes as well which include Long Island and the discomfort of growing up.  These are featured predominently in their most recent film 1981, where the mullets are long, the metal is heavy, and 14-year-old Douglas gets a birthday surprise that will change his life forever.   Andy and Carolyn are writers, directors, animators and co-founders of London Squared Productions. Since 1999, they’ve been creating films, music videos and animated content.      Get 10% off your submission to the Hudson Valley Film Festival with TAFnHVFFr...

Last night, I transcended my human form and turned into a rd carpet correspondent for the Museum of Moving Image's Marvels of Media Festival! We spoke with festival participants and organizers Dani Bowman, Jackson Tucker-Meyer, Josh Sapan, Susanna Hunt, Steven Fraser, Steph Prizhitomsky, Bob Clark, Miranda Lee, and Maxwell Scheller. The festival runs all weekend long, see details here: https://movingimage.org/series/marvels-of-media-festival-2026/

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I know I said we were on a break, but I just couldn't wait to share this bonus episode on Festival Strategy! Festival programmer Warren Etheredge shares how to get the most out of your film's festival run including insights into timeline, assessment, contact, assets, and budget. This episode will be here for you whenever you have a film ready to take out on the road! Listen, take notes, and get 75% off your submission to the Walla Walla Movie Crush this year with the code indiaisawesome! Submission deadline through to May 15th.

As for your regularly scheduled...

Continue your friend-of-the-pod/avatar/oink-oink drinking game with the final portion of my chat with filmmakers Santi MacLean and Joe Zuppulla!  Don't sleep on Doomscrolling and the whole Fun pet namez series!

A young man talks himself through a panic attack. In Doomscrolling, Santi MacLean layers multimedia documents and data moshes on top of a vulnerable outcry. With bulging eyes and spaghetti-like green hair, the young man speaks in the form of a 3D-animated figure. In a high pitch voice, the character extrapolates on recent feelings of self-hatred and general aimlessness, due to financial pressures and up-keeping p...

We may be in Month 2 of 2026, but Santi MacLean, Joe Zappulla, and I are still feeling the new year's energy in TAF's first ever two-part episode!  Relive the feelings of optimism that January 2nd gifted as your resolutions start to lose meaning, like the thumbs-up react on that text message you sent.

A young man talks himself through a panic attack. In Doomscrolling, Santi MacLean layers multimedia documents and data moshes on top of a vulnerable outcry. With bulging eyes and spaghetti-like green hair, the young man speaks in the form of a 3D-animated figure. In a h...

Me and the homies have been geeking over the animated feature Boys Go to Jupiter for months and months so it was a thrill to get to talk with Julian Glander about it, but mostly we tried to drum up some animation-world drama.

A teenager in suburban Florida desperately hustles to make $5,000 in this dreamy and surreal animated coming-of-age story. Stream Boys Go to Jupiter on Amazon Prime!

Watch our chat on YouTube or Spotify!

Get your hands on a Camp Snap Camera for $5 off by using my link! https://www.campsnapphoto.com/IND...

Episode 22 is a lucky one with director Natalia Poteryakhin, sharing anecdotes of endurance, logging off, and blind faith, all bolstering her animation career. Further blessing this episode is the appearance of non-human guest Zoe Lombardi-Bello.

Watch on video on Youtube or Spotify!

Sunny Side Down is a sci-fi parody series where existential dread is served hot with a side of 90’s nostalgia.  Just beyond the event horizon of a supermassive black hole floats a tiny diner, frozen in time. Every super short episode drops in on whichever weird alien just got pulled into the black hol...

Conducted my interview with Arco creators Ugo Bienvenu and Félix de Givry ~on twos~ to learn about their penchant for sandwiches as well as gain more insight into the driving forces of their beautiful film. Experience the podcast with video for a change! I prefer you watch on YouTube B) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHBrnoduxTs

A magical and beautifully animated journey through time, Arco is a dazzling adventure about a 10-year-old boy from a peaceful, distant future who accidentally travels back to the year 2075 and discovers a world in peril. As Arco develops a c...

The Animator's Friend podcast has been turning into The Animator's Italian-American Friend for some time now, and 3D artist/designer Andres Salazar has made matters worse by getting your host's spaghetti in a knot with some hot takes on Italian cuisine.

Andres is a Colombian-American designer and 3D artist based in Astoria, New York. His work explores the magic in the mundane, blending photorealistic 3D creations with surrealist visuals to spotlight the beauty of quotidian spaces. He is drawn to procedural software like Houdini and inspired by 20th-century design movements. He lives at the junction of visual...

I enjoyed chatting with fellow Beatles freak Tess Martin about our other shared fixation: The Netherlands. What business does their coffee have being so good? How easy is it to be a working artist there? Is the countryside really like those old Dutch paintings? Find out within.

Tess Martin is a film and visual artist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She brings her perspective as someone who was raised between cultures to exploring themes of belonging, identity and connection. Her short films, videos and installations address our vulnerability: in relation to nature, the onslaught of time and t...

I learned all about Danielle Goldwert's numorous hobbies and have a feeling I barely scratched the surface! Stop-motion animation is just one of her many interests, which she executes perfectly in her film waterlogged. Hear about how Danielle's creative interests and doctorate research converge.

In waterlogged, a climate scholar confronts the haunting reality of his research as surreal environmental catastrophes unfold around him, blurring the line between his personal despair and the global human experience. The story explores the psychological toll of inaction, asking whether hope can be found amid the rising tides of collective negligence.

Between moments of being outsmarted by a mosquito, hear Simeon Kondev expose the metal-head within.

Simeon is a Bulgarian-American animator whose latest cartoon Society Animals deserves your follow on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Get your hands on a Camp Snap Camera for $5 off by using my link! https://www.campsnapphoto.com/INDIALOMBARDIBELLO

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Preempting their Student Academy Award win for their student film The Shyness of Trees, listen to Loick Du Plessis D'Argentre, Simin He, and me giggle over unexpected animation crushes, rats, and French cliches.

In the film, Hélène, 40 years old, comes to visit her aging mother in the french countryside. But her mother isn't being her usual self. She seems to have formed a strange bond with the plants, insects, and the old oak tree at the end of her garden...

Get your hands on a Camp Snap Camera for $10 off by using my li...

You can find Amanda, me, and her dog Bacca under the pergola, discussing our shared provenance which includes italianess, shyness, and punkness.  Her film Confetti is available online for the first time through Director's Notes and her and fellow animator James Thacher have just started their own studio called Magician with a screening coming up at Ridgewood Community Cinema on 11/2/25 at 7pm. 

Amanda Bonaiuto is an animation director, artist, and assistant professor of Illustration at Parsons School of Design. Her films have screened at film festivals and institutions globally, including Slamdance Film Festival, Annecy International Animation Festival, Otta...

If you need a bar recommendation, enjoy Lena's encyclopedic knowledge of cool karaoke bars, including the ones that exist only in her mind. Throats Karaoke Bar is the setting of her latest short film Tuna Tartare, which challenges you to be yourself but hotter.

Set in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, Tuna Tartare is a trashy, karaoke musical about an expired can of tuna fish and her BFF Susan (a fake Louis Vuitton purse) as they struggle to pursue their artistic dreams in a world that has long since dismissed them. Upcoming screenings include Tuna's NYC premiere at The...

The Animator's Friend is live-to-tape at the The Animator's Picnic!  As part of the 2025 Ottawa International Animation Festival (aka my favorite festival)!  After meeting her for the first time at the last OIAF, I asked my fellow media pass girlie Sarah Schmidt of Malt Adult to join me to talk to the good people at The Animator's Picnic!  In true TAF-fashion, we talked a little shit, swooned over our favorite festival picks, and absolutely refused to talk about AI.

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In anticipation of the Made in New York: Best of NYC Indie Animation showcase and panel at Metrograph this Saturday (9/13/25, 5pm), I had the opportunity to speak with Signe Baumane and Debra Solomon about the screening, making it in NYC, and 417 Hz YouTube videos.

Just as New York has long been the capital of America’s artistically ambitious “Second Cinema,” a scrappy foil to the Los Angelino industry of streamlined entertainment, it is also home to a counter-tradition of independent animation that has nothing to do with what happens out there in Burbank at the House of the Mo...

Nayon and I met on a grueling hike in the French alps after a revelrous week at Annecy International Animation Festival, bonding us in a unique way.  I can say for myself, she saw my most bratty, unvarnished self within only hours of meeting, which I can't say for most people! Hear us reminisce.

Nayon Cho is an animation director and artist born in Seoul, based in New York. She uses a technique which combines drawings, photographs, cel and computer animation. Experimenting with timing and abstraction in 2D narratives, her works explore themes of gender dynamics and s...

We're at the drive-in this week for the Hudson Valley Film Festival's 10th Anniversary!  There's no doubt how much this fest loves animation, and they invited me and my friend Kristie Kish to interview selected animators including Ryan Castrillo, Michael McGoldrick, John Quinn, Zac Max, and friends of the pod Arnesh Kundu, Michael Dondero, and Shengnan Dong.  We were also honored to be part of Laura Faith's Filmmakers Journey discussion.

The Hudson Valley Film Festival is a grassroots arts fest run by local creatives, featuring a curated and diverse selection of independent, short films screened at the Wa...

Tala really knows what it means to live life creatively! She blurs the boundaries between her art practice and personal life to lead an existence that feels like a work of art in and of itself. You can experience this rapturous reality by attending one of her many retreats, workshops, and community events! Join her orbit: @talaschlossberg.

Tala Rae Schlossberg is an American experimental artist known for her distinct animated style, original voice and inventive storytelling. Her animation practice merges rhythm, wordplay, and systems of logic to construct entirely new ways of seeing. Schlossberg’s distinctive visual la...

Cynthia and I are passionate about being able to communicate with cockroaches one day, but for now, we'll have to settle on talking to eachother. Listen to us in our middle-of-the-night post-lasagna daze, spiraling over roller-coasters, ghosts, and crystals.

Cynthia Chu is a 2D illustrator and cel animator originally from NYC. Her style goes between painterly and moody to silly and simple. Past Clients include Nickelodeon, SONY, Girl Rising, STARZ, MTV, and Court TV.  She is available for freelance Color Design, BG Paint, and 2D Cel Animation.

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We are live-to-tape at the 2025 Annecy International Animation Festival!  Take a pew with me and my friend Barnaby Catterall (who I met at Annecy 8 years ago!) as we chat with Animation Talent Picnic attendees about how well they tan, what animal would play them in a Better Man type biopic of their life, and what they have or have not yet seen at the festival this year.

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In the interest of making new friends while attending Animafest Zagreb this year, I hung out at the festival picnic to record some impromptu conversations. This feels especially meaningful since Animafest is where I got the idea for the podcast this time last year! I was graciously joined by Sawyer Rippon, designer of the TAF logo, to chat with some new buds about Animafest's programming, frogs, and the beauty of the animation community with guests.

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Listen to my chat with my two favorite Annecy Achievers Michael Dondero and Shengnan Dong, whose film Nostril has been programmed into Annecy International Animation Festivals 2025's WTF Block!  If you are going to Annecy, book your ticket for one of the WTF blocks ASAP or rush day of!

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Two episodes in one month!? Don't get used to it!... yet.

Brent Sievers was in NYC a few weeks ago to receive a Webby for his show The Land of Boggs, becoming the podcast's first Angelino; allaying any blind East Coast/West Coast allegiances with his holistic perspective on the bites, the vibes, and the views.

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T...

The Animator's Friend reaches Unc Status by having Jasper Lin on the show. In our chat, Jasper does everything in his power to get us both canceled by crowning me the Joe Rogan of Animation, starting animation beef with Oscar winners, and attempting to settle multiple disputes with me on mic. 

Jasper is an animator, computer artist, and educator. His work ranges from narrative short films to experimental video and sound pieces, but his interdisciplinary background and DIY work ethic have led him to fill a wide variety of roles in production, design, and academia.  Jasper received an...

Sit poolside with me and Nicole Otaola as we discuss pauses, pivots, persistence, politics, and Jurassic Park. 

Nicole is an artist and filmmaker currently based in Miami, FL.  She is a recent graduate of the BFA Animation Program at the School of Visual Arts.  She is an animation generalist, previously at Augenblick Studios - clients including PBS, Netflix, Irony Point, G-Fuel, Toei Animation, and Expensify.  More recently, she worked on City Island PBS Kids as a Production Coordinator.  In addition to animating, illustrating, storyboarding, and compositing, she also likes to make tunes.

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I think the theme of my chat with Anne is BALANCE: the balance between creative desires; improvisation and planning; nature and opportunity; perfection and imperfection; Alice in Wonderland and Scar; the artist and the critic. The deep sea angler fish serves as a sublime enactment of this search for harmony.

Anne Beal is an award-winning animation filmmaker and multimedia artist whose work merges experimental animation, painting, and sound. Informed by her musical training, she embraces the intuitive elements of cinematic language.

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This month, I made a new friend! John Morena joined me to talk all the most taboo topics: religion, and the tristate pizza wars.

Morena is a Bronx-born animator and art director, currently living in Brooklyn.  His films have been selected by such prestigious festivals Annecy, Ottawa, Hiroshima, Anima Mundi, Animafest Zagreb, and the International Children's Festival. He is currently working on an anthology piece Films for No One which you can keep stay up-to-date with on Instagram.

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This month, The Animator's Friend is joined by the self-proclaimed Animator's Friend's Friend Josh Pilch. Josh is an animator at Augenblick Studios and has worked on such projects as City Island and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. He has his own improv podcast Big Town Improv which can be found on all major podcast platforms. This lively conversation leaves listeners wondering... is Josh brat? Is Josh a bully? Was Josh really raised amish? You be the judge!

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The Animator's Friend is hosted by India Lombardi-Bello, an animation educator at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. In this new podcast, India creates a platform where animators get to talk about themselves outside the context of their work. A questionnaire format, inspired by the 24 frames per second of animation, allows for lighthearted and unexpected conversation.

In this episode, India sits down with director and educator Lisa LaBracio to discuss their shared Italian heritage, social norms, failure, chocolate, and Animation Speak/Easy.  Among other things!

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Welcome to the inaugural episode of "The Animator's Friend," hosted by India Lombardi Bello, an animation educator at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. In this new podcast, India creates a platform where animators get to talk about themselves outside the context of their work. A questionnaire format, inspired by the 24 frames per second of animation, allows for lighthearted and unexpected conversation.

In this episode, India sits down with Kristie Kish, an Emmy-nominated director, producer, animato, motion designer, and entrepreneur known for her work with Nat Geo Wild, Sci-Fi, and Nickelodeon.

Join...