From left to right: Marina Antunes, Kalina Borkiewicz, Tim Cheung, Dawn Fidrick, and John Kalaigian
Join us for an exciting episode of SIGGRAPH Spotlight, where SIGGRAPH 2025 Computer Animation Festival Director Dawn Fidrick sits down with an incredible lineup of friends and colleagues — Marina Antunes, Kalina Borkiewicz, Tim Cheung, John Kalaigian. Together, these past, present, and future Computer Animation Festival directors pull back the curtain on the submission process, sharing insider tips on what reviewers and juries look for in standout entries. They also tease what to expect from this year’s program and offer a glimpse into the dynamic world of computer animation at SIGGRAPH. Whether you’re a seasoned participant or a first-time submitter, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss for submitting to the Computer Animation Festival or attending the show!
Make your mark on SIGGRAPH 2025 by submitting to the Computer Animation Festival by 18 March.
About Our Guests
Marina Antunes joined the Spark Computer Graphics Society as Festival Director in 2014. Throughout her tenure, the festival has grown into Western Canada’s premiere animation festival, featuring a number of specialty programs including the “Made in Canada” program celebrating Canadian creators, “Mother of a Medium” featuring works from female filmmakers, and “Spotlight on France” which celebrates the best of French animation. In 2019, the SPARK ANIMATION FESTIVAL became Academy Award® accredited, the only festival in British Columbia to hold that distinction. Marina is also a writer and podcaster with over 20 years of experience, first on a personal blog followed by a decade-long tenure on the now retired Row Three. In 2008 she joined the writing staff at Quiet Earth, becoming Editor-In-Chief in 2014, a role she held until the site’s closure in 2023. Over the years, she has produced and hosted a number of podcasts including Before the Dawn, a long-running podcast on the Twilight franchise, Girls on Pop, a podcast on film and popular entertainment from women’s perspective and After the Credits, bi-monthly film podcast with over 330 episodes. Marina is a member of the Online Film Critics Society, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, Visual Effects Society, ACM and ACM SIGGRAPH. She is the President of the Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH chapter, and has served on juries for several film festivals.
Kalina Borkiewicz specializes in computer graphics for scientific data storytelling. Until 2024, she was the Director of the Visualization Program and the Director of the Advanced Visualization Lab (AVL) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, where she worked for 10 years. The AVL creates cinematic scientific visualizations for documentary films and museums, making science topics like galaxies, tornadoes, and molecular structures beautiful, interesting, and exciting for audiences of all ages. Currently, Kalina is pursuing a PhD in graphics and visualization at the University of Utah. She is also an Associate Graphic Editor for The New York Times, combining computational photography and machine learning in service of visual data journalism. Kalina is a serial SIGGRAPH volunteer; she served as the Director of the SIGGRAPH 2023 Computer Animation Festival, she is the current Chair of the SIGGRAPH 2025 Courses program, and she is the Program Manager for Women of SIGGRAPH Conversations.
Tim Cheung has over 30 years of experience in the computer animation industry, leading some of the most talented production teams in both North America and Asia. In 1995, he joined Pacific Data Images, which later became PDI/DreamWorks, and worked on their first animated movie, Antz, followed by Shrek, Shrek 2, and Shrek the Third in 2007. Rising through the ranks from animator to Head of Character Animation, Cheung supervised Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third, while also helping manage animation teams and develop the animation pipeline and software in collaboration with the R&D team. In 2007, he brought his Hollywood experience back to Hong Kong, joining Imagi Studios as Vice President of Animation, where he worked on Astro Boy and Gatchaman, leading a team of over 400 production artists. As an Executive Advisor for Taiwan’s CGCG Inc., Cheung has contributed to high-profile TV animated series such as Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, Gabby’s Dollhouse, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch, while also consulting on animated feature film projects in China. In 2013, he founded DoubleBlink Studios, with teams in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia, to meet the growing demand for quality animation production in Asia. In 2022, Cheung became a board member of Act Plus Education Foundation, a non-profit organization teaching animation to young people with learning disabilities, equipping them with special skills to potentially find work in the industry.
John Kalaigian is a 20 year veteran of the Computer Animation and Visual Effects industry. John has a passion for interpreting complex and challenging design needs into aesthetically pleasing results, by balancing a mix of novel and traditional solutions. Currently, John serves as a consultant, assisting clients integrate pipeline workflows in order to efficiently maximize their creative potential. Previously, John served as Head of the CG Department at Hornet, a highly decorated and award winning, multidisciplinary animation studio in New York City. He and his team adopted a flexible and modern pipeline for commercial and short film CG and VFX workflows, and migrated to a contemporary production management toolset. Before joining Hornet, John was part of the Blue Sky Studios family for 9 years, where he was a Senior Technical Director in the Assembly / Environment Dressing, Character Simulation, and Training Departments. His work included films such as Epic, Rio2, The Peanuts Movie, Ice Age: Collision Course, Ferdinand, Spies in Disguise, and Nimona*. A longtime attendee of SIGGRAPH, in the past 5 years he has turned his attention toward volunteering and mentorship; an immensely rewarding opportunity to collaborate alongside a cohort of industry veterans and students alike. Most recently, John and his team organized and produced the SIGGRAPH 2024 Computer Animation Festival, reviving the Animation Theater Daytime Selects screenings to the programming slate. Previously, John served as Chair of the SIGGRAPH 2021 Production Sessions program, which included memorable Special Sessions: Celebration of Cinefex and THE ACADEMY: BEYOND THE OSCARS®, THE OTHER 364 DAYS. Beyond volunteering with SIGGRAPH, John also served as Co-Chair of the Visual Effects Society New York Section.
