Prime Minister Andrew Holness will also join the event opening; free virtual event runs April 21-25; Luhn is an industry veteran storyteller, writer, and animator whose credits include the ‘Toy Story’ films, ‘Monsters Inc.,’ ‘Finding Nemo,’ and ‘Cars.’
KingstOOn 2021, Jamaica’s premier Animation Conference and Film Festival slated for April 21-25, 2021, will kick-off with opening keynote speaker Matthew Luhn, a writer, branding consultant, creative writing instructor, and speaker with over 25 years' experience.
“It is indeed an honor to have the likes of Matthew Luhn at our KingstOOn opening,” commented Margery Newland, Project Manager for the Youth Employment in the Digital and Animation Industries. “This has been made all the more special, with a welcome by the Honourable Prime Minister himself, who has emphatically articulated the importance of the creative industries, and animation in particular, to the generation of employment opportunities for our nation’s youth.”
Luhn’s story credits include the Toy Story films, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars, Monsters University, Ratatouille, and UP. His clients have also included companies such as Target, Procter and Gamble, Adidas, Sony, Mattel, Facebook, Charles Schwab, Microsoft, Warner Brothers, Google, Salesforce, and Disney. At 19, Luhn was the youngest animator to work on The Simpsons TV series.
Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, will be joined at the event opening by Tahseen Sayed, World Bank Country Director for Caribbean Countries, Latin America, and Caribbean Region. The YEDAI Project is funded by a US$20 million World Bank loan to the Government of Jamaica for training young Jamaicans in the digital and animation industries.
This year’s KingstOOn also features a film festival with an array of diversity-centric animated films from the Caribbean and the rest of the world, a business exchange forum, and its signature Pitch Boot Camp and Competition for the five Caribbean-based front-runners in the Best Concept category.
The Animation Conference will begin on April 21, with the Film Festival slated to start on April 15 with films being accessible on demand after they are aired.
Additional information and free registration are available here.
Source: KingstOOn Animation Conference and Film Festival
