

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.
