James Cunningham

James Cunningham

James Cunningham has written, directed and animated three award winning theatrical shorts before Poppy.

Infection competed in competition at Cannes International Film Festival 2000, Sundance Film Festival 2001 and 20 other international Film Festivals. Infection is one of the most successful short films ever made in association with the New Zealand Film Commission.

Delf was selected for the Saatchi & Saatchi new directors Global showcase in 2000 and won numerous awards. Delf is an acronym for 'digitally engineered life forms'.

Blinder was released theatrically in New Zealand. All of these films explored James' vision of what programs, as characters, might look like within computers and digital space.

James has recently taken up the role of 3D Course Leader at Media Design School, the premier Animation and Visual Effects new media school in New Zealand. Prior to that he was Head of 3D at Digital Post working on Visual Effects for local and international TV Commercials, and he was a Technical Director on The Lord of the Rings at Weta Digital Ltd.

He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography and a Master of Fine Arts in digital animation from Elam School of Fine Arts (Auckland, NZ).

Strategic partners

Air New Zealand

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Gold sponsors

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Supporting sponsors

Weta Sauce FX Studios Sidhe - we make games

Park Road Post Production Autodesk Berry and Walker

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