Ann Brilz, Producer - Pixar Animation Studios
Ann Brilz was the producer for the Annie Award-winning short film Your Friend the Rat, which was featured on the DVD release for Ratatouille. She brings to the studio more than 17 years of expertise in animation and live action. In addition to her work on Your Friend the Rat, Ann managed the production of bonus features and menus for The Incredibles DVD, and played a key role in all aspects of its production from initial design and content concepts to final delivery of the disc. Ann was also Producer of the Toy Story 1 & 2 10th Anniversary Edition DVDs. Prior to Pixar, Ann worked for several animation and production companies - including Colossal Pictures, Wild Brain and Protozoa - honing her skills in 3D animation, web-based animation and DVD production. Ann is a native of Boise, Idaho, and currently resides in San Francisco with her husband and three children.

Jim Capobianco, Director/Writer/Story Supervisor - Pixar Animation Studios
Jim Capobianco could never watch enough animation as a young child. This led Jim to attend the California Institute of the Arts to learn the craft of character animation and film, instructed by mentors such as Joe Ranft and Alexander Mackendrick. Jim has been in the story trenches since he started at Disney Feature Animation in 1992. There, he worked as a story artist on The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Fantasia 2000. In 1997, at the behest of his story teacher and mentor Joe Ranft, Jim moved up to Pixar Animation Studios where he helped to develop the stories for A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, and Finding Nemo. Most recently, he was a story supervisor on Pixar's 2007 release, Ratatouille. Jim also directed the short film, Your Friend the Rat, available on the Ratatouille DVD release. When asked why he chose a career in story development, he replied, "Although there have been many great live-action films, there have been few great animated films. Animation is still an untapped medium and there are many uncharted waters to explore." Jim is currently working on the development of Gary Rydstrom’s original feature film.

Wendy Levy, Director of Creative Programming - BAVC
WENDY LEVY directs new and ongoing content initiatives for BAVC’s Media Arts, Broadcast, Innovation and Preservation programs. She develops new and continuing partnerships in media production, exhibition, and distribution, programs for new media innovation technologies, grants and residencies for independent producers and public broadcasters, and programming for BAVC’s national Video and Audio Preservation Center. Wendy is also the Director of BAVC’s Producers Institute for New Media Technologies. From 2004 - 2006, Wendy served as the Director of Education and Media Arts at BAVC, overseeing client-side operations in the media arts and preservation departments, educational workshops, industry-certified training, and adult workforce development initiatives. Prior to that, Wendy served as the Festival Director for the Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema in San Francisco, and has worked with a range of Bay Area nonprofits, including New Performance Gallery, Performing Arts Workshop, San Francisco Artists-in-Schools, KQED, and the Film Arts Foundation. An accomplished filmmaker, Levy’s films have received numerous awards and have screened at Sundance, Berlin, Lincoln Center, and at festivals around the world.

Sara Pollack, YouTube Film Manager
Sara is the Manager of Film & Animation at YouTube. She is responsible for building and managing the Film community on the site by highlighting exceptional content identified by the YouTube community, developing programs to foster the creation of quality content, and using community feedback and industry expertise to enhance YouTube’s features for both amateur and professional filmmakers. Prior to joining YouTube, Sara was a Production Executive at Big Beach, an independent film production and finance company, where she worked on both feature and documentary films, including Little Miss Sunshine, Everything is Illuminated and Sherrybaby. Before Big Beach, Sara worked at Miramax Films, directly reporting to the President of Production during the studio's release of such award winning films as Finding Neverland, The Aviator and Cold Mountain. Sara received her B.A. in English Literature from Brown University.

Truckee Lynch, Membership Coordinator - Film Arts Foundation
During the last four years Truckee Lynch has consulted with countless independent filmmakers, giving recommendations and advice for a variety of projects. Through Film Arts Foundation he has worked to refine and improve its membership program while continuing to support to the local filmmaking community. In his free time he works as a Director and Art Director on independent features and shorts.

Brian Newlin, Final Layout Artist - DreamWorks Animation
Brian Newlin is currently working on DreamWorks Animation’s fall release Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Newlin’s career at the studio began in 2003 as a Final Layout Artist on Shrek 2, the sequel to the Academy Award® winning computer animated movie /Shrek/. As a Final Layout artist, he is responsible for fine tuning the camera movements and adding in final versions of sets, props, and character in a particular shot. Newlin’s work can also be seen on the animated hit, /Madagascar, Shrek the Third and /the Shrek holiday special /Shrek the Halls/. During his spare time, he is the co-organizer of the annual internal short film festival at DreamWorks Animation. Newlin also enjoys writing, sculpting, and constantly raking up redwood needles in his backyard. Prior to his career at PDI/DreamWorks, Newlin was a Character Animator in the gaming industry on various Playstation games such as Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball and 102 Dalmations. He also held a position at Windlight Studios where he helped to create the Pillsbury Doughboy and Barbie commercials. He also spent six months as a bakery apprentice in a pathetic attempt to stay away computers for a bit. Newlin has a B.F.A. in Computer Animation from the Ringling School of Art and Design...which yes, is the same Ringling as the circus but no, he does not know how to juggle.

Matt Gaser, Senior Concept Artist - Lucasfilm
Matt began his college career at Art Center College of Design in the fall of 1997, majoring in Illustration / Entertainment Design. It was here that he fell in love with concept art, sketching, building models and writing. During his last year at Art Center he interned at Klasky Csupo (Rugrats) as a Background Artist and Prop Designer for three months before graduating. Matt then worked six months freelancing for ad agencies and storyboarding for commercials to include Hallmark and Got Milk. In 2002 he was hired as a full time Senior Concept Artist for the Games industry and visualized such games as "Lord of the Rings the Two Towers" and "Eragon". During this time Matt was published and awarded the Silver Award in Spectrum 12 and the Master Award in Expose 3. He then decided to make a change into the Film Industry in 2006 and joined Lucasfilm Animation to develop conceptual design for the new CG animated "The Clone Wars" Feature and TV Series coming out Summer / Fall 08. You can look at Matt’s full portfolio of work at www.mattgaser.com.