events

Characters are the foundation of all great stories –  whether for television, branded content, or games. Join our virtual panel of experts from across film/television, games and branded content and hear about the complexities, differences, and commonalities involved in creating compelling characters to engage different audiences.

WATCH THE PANEL HERE

SPEAKERS

Stephen P Neary – Writer, Director, and storyboard artist

Stephen P. Neary is a Hoosier-born writer, director, and storyboard artist living in Los Angeles. Stephen created The Fungies! for Cartoon Network, serving as Executive Producer for the show’s three seasons, which premiered on HBO Max in 2020. Prior, Stephen served as Supervising Producer for seasons two and three of Cartoon Network’s Annie nominated show, Clarence.
Stephen was also a feature story artist at Blue Sky Studios for five years on franchises such as Ice Age, Rio, and The Peanuts Movie, before moving to LA to work at Cartoon Network in 2013. In 2012, his independent short, Dr Breakfast, animated on his daily commute from Brooklyn to Connecticut, was an official selection at The Sundance Film Festival.
Stephen currently works as a feature story artist for clients including Netflix, Illumination, Annapurna, and Sony. He likes to run and paint goofy little autobio comics about his family, which you can read on his Instagram.

Michael Highland- Creative Director, Games at BUCK

Michael Highland is BUCK’s Creative Director for games and has been pivotal in expanding the games offering at BUCK since 2020. His leadership culminated in the release of BUCK’s first original game, Let’s! Revolution! in 2023. The game received universal praise from critics (88 on Metacritic), was nominated for an Annie Award and received an Excellence in Audio Honorable Mention from the Independent Game Festival.
Highland began his career at thatgamecompany, where he initially served as a Feel Engineer before becoming Lead Designer on Sky: Children of the Light. The game, celebrated for its pro-social multiplayer gameplay, became a global hit with over 250 million downloads. Michael then joined Bad Robot Games as an early employee in the role of Design Director. He led the prototyping of an experimental narrative game and gained valuable insights into the challenges that established creative companies face when transitioning into the gaming sector.

Linda Simensky, Head of Animation & Scripted Content, Duolingo

Linda Simensky oversees the characters, storytelling, and scripted content for Duolingo. She is leading the company’s efforts to create scripted and character-driven stories featuring Duolingo’s original cast of characters. Before Duolingo, Simensky was Head of Content for PBS KIDS. She began her career at Nickelodeon, where she helped build the animation department, and then oversaw original animation at Cartoon Network. In addition, Simensky teaches animation history courses at the University of Pennsylvania.

Collision Awards General Manager, Randeep Katari

Randeep Katari is a Creative Exec, Story Person, and Artist living in New York City. Originally hailing from the Canadian suburb of Richmond Hill, Ontario, he grew up with a deep love of storytelling that led him to work as a story artist for studios such as Walt Disney Animation Studios, Blue Sky (Epic, Rio 2, The Peanuts Movie), Nickelodeon, NBC/Universal, Rough Draft, Passion Pictures, and more. As a writer/artist, he’s worked for Google, Facebook and Activision-King. He served as Head of Story for Axis Animation/Timeless Pictures first feature for Netflix, then made the transition to an executive role as a Creative Manager overseeing Animated Film and Series at Netflix. Currently he’s a Creative Producer and Story Consultant for various companies with the mission of “helping people tell stories better”. He’s usually supervised at meetings by his dog Milo.

In celebration of the inaugural Collision Awards, honoring excellence in animation and motions design across all its forms, we are thrilled to extend an invitation to our upcoming London screening on May 8th, The Mill, Technicolor Creative Studios, 127 Wardour Street, LONDON, W1F 0NL

The Collision Awards screening series presents a curation of work from our jurors, partners and community across the globe with work from renowned teams at Aardman, BUCK, Passion Films, Giant Ant, The Line, WePresent, Found Studio and more –   we can’t wait to share this inspiring program with you. 

Come for the screening, stay for drinks (on us)  and community at our post-screening industry drinks. This program is touring through LA, NYC, Toronto and London!

In celebration of the inaugural Collision Awards, honoring excellence in animation and motions design across all its forms, we are thrilled to extend an invitation to our upcoming Los Angeles screening on April 11th, Soho House Toronto, Bishop’s Building, 192 Adelaide St W, Toronto, ON M5H 0A4, Canada.

The Collision Awards screening series presents a curation of work from our jurors, partners and community across the globe with work from renowned teams at Aardman, BUCK, Passion Films, Giant Ant, The Line, WePresent, Found Studio and more –   we can’t wait to share this inspiring program with you. 

Come for the screening, stay for drinks (on us)  and community at our post-screening industry drinks. This program is touring through LA, NYC and London!

In celebration of the inaugural Collision Awards, honoring excellence in animation and motions design across all its forms, we are thrilled to extend an invitation to our upcoming Los Angeles screening on April 3rd, 6:30pm Spring Place 6 St Johns Ln, New York, NY 10013

The Collision Awards screening series presents a curation of work from our jurors, partners and community across the globe with work from renowned teams at Aardman, BUCK, Passion Films, Giant Ant, The Line, WePresent, Found Studio and more –   we can’t wait to share this inspiring program with you. 

Come for the screening, stay for drinks (on us)  and community at our post-screening industry drinks. This program is touring through LA, Toronto and London – details coming soon!

Our New York edition is in partnership with Collision Awards Partner Animation Nights New York and is a great opportunity to meet fellow Collision judges, entrants, fellow animators and be inspired!

In celebration of the inaugural Collision Awards, honoring excellence in animation and motions design across all its forms, we are thrilled to extend an invitation to our upcoming Los Angeles screening on Thursday March 21st, 6:30pm at NeueHouse, 6121 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90028.

The Collision Awards screening series presents a curation of work from our jurors, partners and community across the globe with work from renowned teams at Aardman, Passion Films, Giant Ant, The Line, WePresent, Found Studio and more –   we can’t wait to share this inspiring program with you. 

Come for the screening, stay for drinks (on us)  and community at our post-screening industry drinks. New York, you’re next! 

Join Untold Studios Lead Artists Evelina Dalin and Aimee Westley as they take audiences on a behind the scenes journey through the making of Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary Special, ‘The Star Beast’.

Their work includes crafting the enigmatic Meep character as well as a plethora of other visual effects, including CG environment builds and set extensions, battle scenes and highly complex FX sequences. This special is a rare example of costume and SFX being seamlessly integrated with high end VFX in a sensitive and impactful way.

This event is in partnership with Collision Awards Partner,  Siggraph London. 

Tune in to our first virtual “Ask Me Anything” session with General Manager Randeep Katari on Wednesday, February 14th at 1pm EST. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask Randeep any questions you want about the Inaugural Collision Awards! Including how to enter, what kinds of work we honor, and how to choose the best category for your work. If you want to learn more about the Collision Awards, this is designed especially for you!