Having spent decades working alongside storytellers, artists, and animators—first through my years of involvement with animation journalism and later within the world of feature animation production—I have come to appreciate children’s stories that understand an important truth: emotional growth does not happen through lectures. It happens through empathy, imagination, and discovery. The Pout-Pout Fish is one of those deceptively simple stories. At first glance, it appears to be a playful underwater tale about a gloomy fish who swims through life convinced that sadness defines who he is. His expression never changes, his outlook remains fixed, and he repeatedly introduces himself…
Author: Nellie Tehrani-Ryce
Nellie Tehrani-Ryce
Nellie Tehrani-Ryce is an editor, festival reporter, and animation industry executive with more than two decades of experience in film and animation. As Associate Editor of Cinema Without Borders, she has covered major international film festivals, conducted interviews with filmmakers and animation artists, and contributed to the publication's editorial development. She also serves as the Programming Director of International Animation Day in Los Angeles, helping curate programs that celebrate global animation and emerging talent. Her distinguished career includes leadership positions at Paramount Animation, Psyop, Technicolor, and Animation Magazine, where she championed creative excellence and talent development within the animation industry.
Animation has always excelled at transforming inner conflicts into visual spectacle. Fear becomes a monster. Self-doubt takes physical form. The struggle to belong becomes an epic quest. In KPop Demon Hunters, those ideas are fused with the electrifying energy of K-pop to create one of the most entertaining and emotionally sincere animated experiences in recent years. The premise is delightfully bold. By day, Rumi, Mira, and Zoey are global music sensations, adored by millions of fans around the world. By night, they become demon hunters, defending humanity from supernatural forces threatening to break through into the real world. What could…
On Saturday, May 16, 2026, East Los Angeles College and Cinema Without Borders will hold the 11th anniversary of the annual ELAC International Animation Day Festival, dedicated to European animation. The event will take place at East Los Angeles College. The focus country of the festival will be announced in mid-February 2026. The goal of the ELAC International Animation Day Festival is to provide an in-depth and engaging introduction to contemporary international animation. The program includes screenings of short animated films from around the world, critical analysis, Q&A sessions with a panel of well-known animation experts, and a tribute to…
There are years when Annecy dazzles with technical innovation, years when a new visual style captures everyone’s attention, and years when a particular studio dominates the conversation. Annecy 2025 was different. More than anything else, it was a festival about empathy. Walking through the narrow streets surrounding Lake Annecy, one could sense that animation artists from around the world were grappling with similar questions. How do we maintain our humanity in increasingly polarized societies? How do we communicate across cultural, generational, and ideological divides? And perhaps most importantly, how do we continue to imagine a future worth fighting for? The…
There are films that rely on dialogue to explain themselves, and there are films that trust images, movement, and emotion to communicate something universal. Flow belongs to the latter category. Quiet yet powerful, simple in its premise yet profound in its emotional impact, Flow is one of those rare animated features that reminds us how much can be said without a single spoken word. The story follows a solitary cat navigating a world transformed by an overwhelming flood. Forced from the familiarity of its home, the cat finds refuge aboard a drifting boat occupied by an unlikely group of animals.…
On Saturday May 17th 2025, East Los Angeles College & Cinema and Without Borders will celebrated the 10th anniversary of the annual ELAC International Animation Day Festival, dedicated to Latvian Animation. This event was held at East Los Angeles College The goal of the ELAC International Animation Festival is to give an in-depth and entertaining introduction to contemporary international animation. Screenings of short, animated films from around the world, analyses, and Q&As with a panel of well-known animation experts, and a tribute to an international animation artist working in the U.S. animation industry are all part of the festival program.…
Every year, Annecy offers a glimpse into the future of animation. Yet the 2024 edition of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival felt less concerned with predicting what comes next technologically and more invested in asking an older, more difficult question: how do we remain human in increasingly uncertain times? Perhaps that is why so many of this year’s films lingered in the mind long after the lights came up. The festival showcased works preoccupied with loneliness, memory, ecological loss, resilience, and the complicated ways in which people continue to seek one another despite disappointment and fear. It was a…
here are animated films that entertain, animated films that impress, and then there are those rare works that seem to emerge from somewhere deeper—places where memory, regret, imagination, and hope coexist. The Boy and the Heron belongs firmly in that last category. Watching the latest feature from Hayao Miyazaki, I was reminded of why animation remains one of cinema’s most profound artistic languages. It has the ability to give shape to emotions that live beyond words. In this film, grief becomes architecture, uncertainty becomes landscape, and healing takes the form of a journey through worlds that obey the logic of…
On Saturday May 18th 2024, East Los Angeles College, Cinema and Without Borders Foundation in cooperation with the Consulate General of France in Los Angeles, L’Agence du court métrage, Villa Albertine Los Angeles and Sony Classic Pictures will celebrate the ninth edition of the annual ELAC International Animation Day Festival, dedicated to French Animation. This event will be held at East Los Angeles College, located at 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez, Monterey Park, CA 91754. Screenings will be held at the Building S1 Screening Room 112. Free parking will be available in Structure 4. On the corner of W Floral Drive…
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio arrived at a time when audiences had grown accustomed to polished, fast-paced animated spectacles. Yet, from its opening moments, the film announces that it intends to move differently. It asks viewers not merely to watch a familiar fairy tale unfold, but to reconsider why stories endure in the first place. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 95th Academy Awards, the film represented a significant moment for stop-motion animation and for artists who continue to champion the medium’s tactile beauty. As someone who has spent decades working alongside artists and filmmakers in…