Brown Bag Films restructures leadership, launches innovation division BBF Labs

Cathal Gaffney and Caitlin Friedman

Dublin-based animation studio Brown Bag Films has restructured its leadership team and launched an innovation-focused division called BBF Labs.

Cathal Gaffney, co-founder of Brown Bag and formerly the chief operations officer at Canadian parent company 9 Story Media Group, is becoming chief innovation officer at BFF Labs. In his new capacity, he will continue to be managing director at Brown Bag.

At the same time, Caitlin Friedman has been promoted to executive VP of global production and current at Brown Bag, overseeing global production across the company’s studios in Dublin, Toronto and Bali.

In her expanded capacity, Friedman, who was formerly the senior VP and general manager at 9 Story Media Group owner Scholastic Entertainment, will still develop and produce select Scholastic properties as an executive producer.

Brown Bag co-founder and creative director Darragh O’Connell will continue in his role overseeing the creative direction across the studio’s slate.

The company said the new structure is designed to “strengthen creative oversight, innovation and global coordination.”

Both Friedman and Gaffney will report to Vince Commisso, president and CEO of 9 Story Media Group. In the context of her work on Scholastic projects, Friedman will continue to report to Iole Lucchese, exec VP, board chair, chief strategy officer and president of Scholastic Entertainment.

Brown Bag said the newly launched BFF Labs division will focus on “advancing” how animation is created, produced and delivered across the group. Within that, Gaffney’s role is to guide the studio’s artificial intelligence strategy and improve production workflows.

“Innovation has always been a part of our DNA, but BBF Labs represents a deliberate investment in making it a core pillar of how we work,” said Gaffney.

“This is about building the future of the studio – developing new pipelines, integrating emerging technologies like AI responsibly, and empowering artists with tools that help them work more creatively and efficiently. Our goal is innovation that’s practical, transparent, and artist-first.”

Friedman added: “Brown Bag Films has an extraordinary creative foundation, and I’m excited by the challenge of building on that – supporting both owned IP and service work, and making sure creative vision carries cleanly through every stage of production as we expand into new formats, audiences and partnerships.”