Jellyfish Pictures Appoints ‘Nimona’ VFX Supervisor Archie Donato As Managing Director Of Animation

Independent U.K. vfx and animation studio Jellyfish Pictures has appointed vfx veteran Archie Donato as its new managing director of animation. Donato has been serving as creative director of animation at Jellyfish since September of last year.

Donato joined Jellyfish from DNEG, where he served as vfx supervisor and later head of vfx, working on titles such as Netflix’s Emmy-nominated series Entergalactic and Oscar-nominated Nimona. Donato previously worked for leading vfx companies, including Rhythm & Hues, Industrial Light & Magic, and Technicolor. He also did a 16-year stint at Dreamworks, where he served as cg lead on Kung Fu Panda, lighting supervisor on Rise of the Guardians, and cg supervisor on Mr. Peabody & Sherman, among other roles. In his new role, Donato will head Jellyfish’s senior creative, production, and operation teams on all animation productions.

Jellyfish Pictures CEO David Patton told Deadline, which broke the news:

It’s an exciting time within our business for Archie to be stepping up into this new role. Archie’s considerable industry experience and detailed understanding of animation creative and production makes him the perfect leader for our Animation business. Having a ‘Creative’ at the top of our animation division not only demonstrates our commitment to putting creativity at the heart of our business but also ensures we deliver on our ambition to be the very best creative partner for our animation clients.

Donato added:

I’m incredibly excited to assume the role of Managing Director of Animation at Jellyfish Pictures and look forward to helping the company expand its feature animation and episodic business. It is an absolute honor and privilege to manage some of the most talented artists and production teams in the business.

Jellyfish is currently working on animated adaptations of Roald Dahl’s The Twits and Curtis Jobling’s Wereworld and an untitled Dreamworks Animation feature.