Kids’ TV execs flock to Dingle

Animation Dingle in Ireland has drawn executives from Amazon, Apple, the BBC, Cartoon Network, Disney, Netflix, Nickelodeon and RTÉ to its latest edition.

Alice Webb

The two-day event, which begins today, will feature keynote speeches from Alice Webb, director of BBC Children’s and BBC North, as well as Disney Channel’s VP of content, animation, digital and acquisitions for EMEA, Orion Ross; Peter Lord CBE, co-founder of UK animation firm Aardman; and Pixar’s supervising animator Bobby Podesta.

This year, as part of the annual Irish Animation Awards, the Murakami Award will be presented to Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O’Connell of Dublin-based Brown Bag Films, part of 9 Story Entertainment.

The event was co-founded by John Rice, CEO of Irish production company Jam Media, and Maurice Galway, CEO of Dingle International Film Festival, which is now in its sixth year. Its main funders are Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Film Board.

“Animation Dingle has really struck a chord with both students and industry. As always, we are eager to maintain our current gender balance of 1.1 female/male ratio and our 50.50 ratio of students/industry,” said Rice.