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Lucasfilm Spotlights Animation for Star Wars Celebration with Star Wars Visions Vol 2 Trailer.

Star Wars Celebration in London offered up a hefty bounty for fans on the hunt for exciting new animated content set in the Lucasfilm universe. Panels featuring filmmakers and cast from Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Visions Volume 2, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and more offered updates, including a new trailer and full cast list for Visions

To close out Star Wars Celebration’s animation panels, on Monday afternoon there was a Star Wars: Visions panel. The panel was filled with an abundance of reveals ahead of the series’ May 4, release — including first story details for all nine shorts, the full cast list, the trailer and key art.

The second anthology will continue to push the boundaries of Star Wars storytelling, with nine new shorts from nine studios from around the globe. Employing an array of animation styles from a variety of countries and cultures, the Volume 2 offers a dynamic new perspective on the storied mythos of Star Wars.

To kick off the panel, host Amy Ratcliffe introduced executive producers of the Emmy-nominated series, Josh Rimes, James Waugh and Jacqui Lopez, who discussed the success of the show’s first season and its unique concept featuring a collection of animated shorts that stretches beyond any one form of animation and serves as a broader framework for Star Wars storytelling.

The Vol. 2 cast list includes:

“Screecher’s Reach”: Eva Whittaker

“I Am Your Mother”: Maxine Peake, Charithra Chandran

“Journey to the Dark Head” (English Dub): Ashley Park, Eugene Lee Yang

“The Bandits of Golak”: Suraj Sharma

“The Pit”: Daveed Diggs

“Aau’s Song”: Cynthia Erivo

After revealing the cast, Ratcliffe introduced the series’ filmmakers, who took to the stage in groups of three to reveal the first details about each of their shorts:

Rodrigo Blaas, writer/director of El Guiri’s “Sith” from Spain

Paul Young, director of Cartoon’s Saloon’s “Screecher’s Reach” from Ireland

Gabriel Osorio, writer/director of Punkrobot’s “In the Stars” from Chile

Magdalena Osinska, director of Aardman’s “I Am Your Mother” from the United Kingdom

Hyeong-Geun Park, director of Studio Mir’s “Journey to the Dark Head” from South Korea

Julien Chheng, director of Studio La Cachette’s “The Spy Dancer” from France

Milind Shinde, founder of India’s 88 Pictures and executive producer of “The Bandits of Golak”

LeAndre Thomas, writer/director/executive producer of “The Pit”

Arthell Isom, founder of D’ART Shtajio and executive producer of “The Pit”

Black entrepreneurs do some of everything, including run anime studios. D’ART Shtajio @dartshtajio is recognized as the first Black owned anime studio and now their work is getting serious recognition. To accompany his recent single, ‘Snowchild,’ recording artist The Weeknd tapped D’ART Shtajio to make a music video. With close to 6 million views on YouTube to date, the work of this Black owned company is getting plenty of shine. According to the company’s website, D’ART Shtajio was founded in 2016 by brothers, Arthell and Darnell Isom. From the outset, the brothers “sought to revolutionize the Japanese anime industry by introducing Westernized elements of art and storytelling to the Japanese standard of animation.” The word Shtajio is a play on words in both English and Japanese to reflect the company’s commitment to building a strong foundation centered on their artists and clients. The firm’s existence is unique in the anime space. Indeed, not only do they do great work but their Instagram page also has content celebrating Juneteenth and affirming the value of Black lives. D’ART Shtajiio’s partnership with The Weeknd is a major step in differentiating them in the industry and providing a larger platform for their work to be seen. Black entrepreneurs can move and thrive in any space, this much is sure. 

Source: @webuyblack

The Netflix Original Anime Film: Sturgill Simpson`s "Sound and Fury" is now up & available to view!Please check it out! I had the privilege of writing and directing the segment “All Said And Done” at anime studio D`ART Shtajio.The honor of my career so far! I hope you enjoy it!

Here it is! I had the privilege of being one of the guest directors on this amazing project at our studio D`Art Shtajio. My name next to industry giants like Koji Morimoto & Michael Arias is a dream come true. Please everyone follow this project on social media to get updates as they are revealed!

Here`s a new trailer for the Sturgill Simpson "Sound and Fury" project I got to partially direct at our studio D'ART Shtajio. I can`t reveal any additional info about the project, but if your familiar with my art-style, you can probably pick out a few sequences I worked on here in this trailer.

Our studio, D`Art Shtajio is producing a pilot film based on the XOGenaSYS comic series. I`ll be working exclusively on this for the next couple months. Look out for it this summer! (Read more about this production here: http://po.st/yM1N2S )