Growing up a child of the 80s, Athena Georgaklis loved cartoons and while she knew she wanted to work in film, her career in animation came almost by chance after taking a job as an assistant at the then-fledgling Teletoon. Once she realized that animation was what she wanted to do with her life, there was no turning back.
With a willingness to learn and take on new challenges, Athena rose to the role of Director of Programming at Teletoon before making another big leap and leaving behind the world of acquisitions for the world of creation, first as Head of Development at Nelvana Studios and most recently, as Vice President.
With a career that spans many aspects of project creation from, development to delivery, Athena has seen and experienced it all: from early morning pitch meetings gone wrong to delivering projects with lasting impact. In our conversation, Athena shares insights into the ups and downs of content creation, management in a post-pandemic world, the importance of believing in yourself and your work, and she provides invaluable tips and advice for content creators selling their work.
Links:
Thank you to our sponsors!
TERABYTE: Creative BC.
MEGABYTE: Animal Logic · Capilano University · Netflix.
KILOBYTE: Atomic Cartoons · Bardel Entertainment · Doberman Pictures · DNEG · Image Engine · Industrial Light & Magic · Mainframe Studios · WildBrain Studios.
BYTE: Animasia BC · CMPA BC · Digi BC · NOX VFX · Rotomaker · Scanline VFX · The Little Dev Shop · Vancouver Film School · Versatile Media · Walt Disney Animation Studios · Wētā FX.
PARTNERS: ACM SIGGRAPH · SIGGRAPH Asia.
ORGANIZERS: Spark CG Society · Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH.