Athena Georgaklis

Athena Georgaklis is the Head of

Content for Nelvana. A highly

respected animation executive,

Athena leads the acquisition of

rights and the development of all

original content for Nelvana. Athena

is committed to develop creator-

driven content, working with the

studio’s producers, creators, and

talent around the world that will

resonate with kids of all ages, and find a home in all markets. She helmed the creation of Nelvana’s The Most Magnificent Thing, DNAce, Agent Binky: Pets of the Universe Ready for Space Travel, The Hardy Boys live action series and many more to come.
Athena has worked in Canadian broadcast and production for more than 22 years. Prior to Nelvana, she oversaw all original animation production for Corus Entertainment’s kids’ networks, supervising the development and production of Canadian content in both English and French. During her time, she led the production and development of hit shows like Johnny Test, Camp Lakebottom, Mysticons, 6TEEN, Cupcake and Dinosaur, Rocket Monkeys, and the Total Drama Island franchise.

Raila Gutman

Raila is the Director, Member

Development at the CMPA-BC

where she supporting BC

independent producers. Working

closely with members and

up-and-coming producers, Raila

oversees professional

development opportunities,

international development and

outreach as well as managing

the event sponsorship portfolio

and working with community

partners.

Raila was the inaugural Program Director for the Pacific Screenwriting Program, a non-profit co- founded by CMPA-BC, Netflix and Creative BC in August 2018. The PSP provides support and career-advancement opportunities to BC-based film and television writers. Under Raila?s leadership, the PSP made meaningful strides in building and nurturing BC?s screenwriter community. Before the PSP, Raila served as Marketing Director at Corus Entertainment.

Alison Fraser 

Alison brings a wealth of experience

in delivering national programs,

and leading large marketing,

communications and content

delivery initiatives with organizations

such as Microsoft, Telefilm Canada,

ELLE Canada and TELUS to the

jury. She started her career in TV

working with Court TV, HBO and

BET in New York City. She holds

an undergraduate degree in Communications from York University, a master’s degree in Journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, completed the Women in Film and Television Media Leadership Program at the Schulich School of Business, and is pursuing an Executive MBA at SFU. She also serves on the boards of Women in Film and Television – Vancouver, Eastside Culture Crawl and the Community Arts Council of Vancouver.

Kylie Ellis

Kylie Ellis has worked in the

entertainment/animation industry

for more than 20 years. Currently

she serves as the VP, Production

at WildBrain Studios. Prior to this

she acted as Supervising

Producer on the animated action

series, Invincible, with Skybound

Entertainment and produced a

yet to be announced series with

one of the top animation studios

in the country. Kylie has worked

in a range of production roles on animated projects including series Ed, Edd n’ Eddy for Cartoon Network, Bob the Builder for HiT Entertainment, and feature films Escape from Planet Earth and Ratchet and Clank. She is passionate about collaborating with artistic, technical and production talent to provide a creative and collaborative environment in which teams can thrive. Kylie is also the Chair of Women in Animation, Vancouver Chapter, where her dedication to advancing the careers of women in the field of animation is front and centre.