Join us for a virtual conversation with Mireia Vilanova, Producer and Director of Development at animation production and distribution company Cartuna. We will discuss Mireia’s experience working with some of the greatest animation franchises at Cartuna, as well as her experience as an independent producer for live action films, which have been featured at festivals like Sundance, Tribeca, and Palm Springs. We will also discuss advice she has for emerging creatives in both the animation and live action spaces, including both shorts and features.
Mireia Vilanova
Animation & Live Action Producer
About Mireia Vilanova:
Mireia Vilanova is an animation and live action producer from Barcelona based in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in festivals all over the world, including Sundance, Locarno, Tribeca, Santa Barbara and Palm Springs. She currently serves as Producer and Director of Development at the production and distribution company Cartuna, where she has been fortunate to work on some of the world’s greatest animation franchises, including SpongeBob, Dora the Explorer, and Monster High. As an independent producer, her feature credits include By Design (Sundance 2025), I Live Here Now (Utopia Films), Sender (starring Britt Lower and Jamie Lee Curtis) and Cece’s Interlude (Sundance TAAF grant recipient). Mireia is a proud member of the Television Academy, the Producers Guild of America and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). She is a Sundance Producers Lab Fellow, Berlinale Talent, PGA Create Fellow, Film Independent Project Involve Fellow, Women in Film Fellow, and a recipient of the Berlinale VFF Talent Highlight Award for the animated feature Silence Sometimes, currently in development. She holds an MFA from USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program.\
Lexie Chu
Skydance
About the moderator:
By day, Lexie currently works at Skydance Animation as part of the Creative Development team, responsible for packaging talent, bridging the gap between story and business, and partnering hand-in-hand with filmmakers to elevate the full slate of original animated feature films and shorts on Apple TV+ and more coming soon to Netflix in 2024. Her current work primarily focuses on setting up special projects and up-and-coming leadership for success from idea to greenlight; and crafting healthy creative ecosystems to bring out the best in talent.
Previously, Lexie worked on many beloved original features and series at Cartoon Network Studios, Illumination, and Netflix. Lexie also champions inclusion on-screen, off-screen, and every day as the Founder and President of arts advocacy non-profit Asians in Animation. She oversees the development and cultivation of the member base’s career growth across different career levels and develops new initiatives with her team to forge key partnerships with the major animation studios, further studio career pathways for diverse talent, and build high-impact industry mentorship and education with programs such as the Asians in Animation Career Summit.
In her free time, she is an active mentor in the animation community, mentoring with animation non-profits such as Women in Animation, jurying independent filmmaking grants, and consulting with other entertainment advocacy organizations and initiatives to build out their strategy and operations. She has also given seminars, lectures, and workshops and spoken at festivals (such as the Ottawa International Animation Festival), conferences, universities, and high-schools across North America, Europe, and Asia to advocate for and provide entertainment industry accessibility and sustainability.
Having grown up between Texas, England, Italy, Switzerland, and Singapore, her work focuses on building avenues for international storytelling and supporting stories that transcend borders, while proactively championing and opening new doors for diverse animation talent across the globe.
IMPORTANT DETAILS:
This panel will take place virtually over ZOOM. Ticket purchasers will receive a ZOOM link to this panel 2 hours before the published start time. If you don’t already have the ZOOM app, please make sure to download on your device before the panel start time.
If you purchase an All-Access Pass for our August Festival events prior to the date of this panel, you will also receive admission to this virtual panel, included as part of your pass.
If you are a current Annual Member of NFMLA, please email info@nfmla.org to receive a complimentary ticket to this panel. If you are not an Annual Member of NFMLA and would like to join, you can become a member here.
