/prod01/channel_19/animation/media/marketing-media/student-work/undergrad-courses/animation-farnham/2023/Leonor-Calaca_-BA-_Hons_-Animation_-UCA-Farnham_3.jpg)
/prod01/channel_19/animation/media/microsites/animation/animation-staff/staff/Hattie%2520Croucher.jpg)
Hattie Croucher (Lecturer in Animation)
Hat graduated with a First Class degree from our BA (Hons) Animation course in 2017.
Her films “Fruitcake” and “Blue Light” have earned 16 international awards and have screened all over the world in more than 100 film festivals, in over 35 countries and across 6 continents.
She has given various talks about her process, including at the BAFTA qualifying Aesthetica Film Festival and London International Animation Festival.
She is an active freelance artist and animator, specialising in traditional hand drawn animation and documentary film, with a particular interest in editing and sound design.
Hat has previously taught fine art, graphic design and illustration before joining us in 2019 and teaches drawing for animation, alongside the filmmaking units on the course here at Farnham.
/prod01/channel_19/animation/media/microsites/animation/animation-staff/staff/Elmaz%2520Ekrem.jpg)
Elmaz Ekrem (Technical Tutor in Animation)
Ellie is a Commercial Director for NERD and has directed broadcast work for various clients including Channel 4 and Sky Sports.
She co-directed a Random Acts animated documentary film called ‘The Law of the Sea’ which has been screened internationally and opened for the Trafalgar Square screening of The Salesman in Feb 2017 as part of the Travel Ban protest.
Ellie was a graduate of the Animation BA(Hons) course at UCA and has spent three years as a part-time Graduate Teaching Assistant on the course. She is our tutor technician dedicated to all things technical and supports delivery on the digital units.
/prod01/channel_19/animation/media/microsites/animation/animation-staff/staff/Birgitta%2520Hosea.jpg)
Professor Birgitta Hosea
Professor Birgitta Hosea is an artist, animator and curator working with expanded animation and performance drawing. She was previously Head of Animation at the Royal College of Art (2016-8), Course Director of MA Character Animation (2000-15) and Research Leader in Performance (2011-4) at Central Saint Martins, and has previously taught in Azerbaijan, USA, Romania, Austria, Sweden and China, where she is a Visiting Professor at Chengdu University.
She studied a PhD at Central Saint Martins on animation as a form of performance.
Previously, she studied BA Film and Drama at Glasgow University and an MA in Theatre Design at Glasgow School of Art. She followed a Foundation course in Computing and Fine Art with an MA in Digital Imaging and Animation at Sir John Cass School of Art, London Guildhall University. With experience of freelancing in commercial motion graphics and character animation as animator or director, she became an Adobe Certified Expert and Senior Demo Artist for Adobe.
Making, teaching, curating and writing about moving image, in 2017 she co-curated Boundary Crossings, an artists’ residency and exhibition of animated installation art, with artist Rose Bond at PNCA, Portland, Oregon, USA.
As part of her teaching practice, she has worked on public engagement projects with major museums and archives such as the National Gallery, ENO, London Transport Museum, National Theatre Archives, RSC, the Welcome Digital Collection and the V&A, which involved using animation to reinterpret and recontextualise artefacts from the collections in order to make them accessible to different audiences.
Birgitta teaches across both the BA (Hons) and MA Animation courses here at Farnham.
/prod01/channel_19/animation/media/microsites/animation/animation-staff/staff/Jon%2520Hunt%2520.jpg)
Jon Hunt (Senior Lecturer in Digital Animation)
Jon Hunt is the Senior Digital Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Animation course at UCA Farnham and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
He gained a Distinction in his MA in Animation from UCA after graduating with a BA (Hons) Multimedia Design and Digital Animation course from Cumbria Institute of the Arts. Jon also gained a PGCE in 2009.
He is an active freelance 3D artist and has worked on a range of projects from commercials to music videos for clients including Virgin, Warner Brothers, Ryan air and the FX channel.
For his commitment to students education, he received a UCA Excellence & Achievement award in 2011 and a national award by the Times Higher Education magazine in 2012.
/prod01/channel_19/animation/media/microsites/animation/animation-staff/staff/Gagandeep%2520Kalirai.jpg)
Gagandeep Kalirai (Lecturer in Animation)
Gagandeep graduated with a first class degree from our BA (Hons) Animation course in 2017. She secured the BAFTA Scholarship for her MA at the National Film and Television School.
Her film 'Another Girl' won the Limelight film award for documentary. Her MA film 'Cha' was on the 2021 BAFTA longlist and has screened all over the world. It won best animation at Dehli Shorts International Film Festival, as well as Best Animation at Spark Animation Festival and the Film Festival of Wales and Best Film at the Asian Cinematography Awards.
Gagandeep is a director and animator that identifies as part of the dispora. She is passionate about combining animation and documentary and aims to bring light to issues within ethnic communities that the wider audience is rarely privy to.
View Gagandeep's personal website
Email: gagandeep.kalirai@uca.ac.uk
/prod01/channel_19/animation/media/microsites/animation/animation-staff/staff/Jim%2520Le%2520Fevre.jpg)
Jim Le Fevre (Lecturer in Animation)
Jim Le Fevre is a Lecturer on the BA(Hons) Animation course and the MA Animation course at the UCA Farnham and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
Jim graduated from the Edinburgh College of Art in 1997 and his student film ‘The Little Princess’ Birthday Party’ won him a variety of awards including a BAFTA (New Talent Awards) and a BAA in 1998.
He attended the NFTS postgraduate course in Animation Direction but left to direct his first broadcast work, Henry’s Heroes, for BBC Wales which won six Promax awards in 1999. In 2000 he was signed as a director to the (then) up-and-coming company Nexus Productionsand continued to create more than a hundred commercials and short films for them until 2016.
During that time he has been experimenting with a variety of technologies and in 2006 created a technique he called the Phonotrope (a contemporary version of the Zoetrope) and a unique interactive animation installation called ‘Frames’
He has spent the last two decades taking workshops nationally and internationally for organisations such as the National Saturday Club, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Arts and Tasmeem Doha for the VCUDoha.
Between 2016 and 2019 he has contributed to the Animation course at the UCA in Farnham as a visiting and sessional lecturer. In 2019 he joined the team as a permanent member of staff helping to deliver both the MA and BA courses.
He is still creating films, both experimental and traditional whilst thoroughly enjoying sharing his experience of working as an animation director over the last twenty years to excited and exciting students.
/prod01/channel_19/animation/media/microsites/animation/animation-staff/staff/Martin%2520Pickles.jpg)
Martin Pickles (Theory Lecturer in Animation)
Martin Pickles is a lecturer in Animation Critical Theory on the BA (Hons) Animation course at UCA Farnham.
He is the founder and director of the London Animation Club, a monthly animation screening event, and was a judge at the London International Animation Festival 2018.
Martin studied Classics at Oxford University and has an MA in Animation from the Royal College of Art.
He has lectured at a number of British universities and shows his films at animation festivals and galleries around the world. His area of specialism is British Animation of the post-war period, out of which he has made two films for the Halas & Batchelor Film Archive and one for the Bob Godfrey Collection.
He also works as a freelance animator, producing animations for Alain de Botton's School Of Life, Leonard Cheshire, BBC Breakfast, CNN and the Mindfulness In Schools Project.
/prod01/channel_19/animation/media/microsites/animation/animation-staff/staff/Maryam%2520Mohajer.jpg)
Maryam Mohajer (Year 0 Lecturer in Animation)
Maryam’s film ‘Grandad Was a Romantic’ won the 2020 BAFTA for short animation.
Maryam studied for her first degree in Painting at Azhad University in Tehran, followed by BA (Hons) in Illustration and Animation from Kingston University, before achieving her MA in animation from the Royal College of Art.
Her other films 'Red Dress. No Straps' and 'And Life Went On' have screened in various international film festivals. Both her Fine Art background and her cultural background play a big part in Maryam's work.
She has worked as a freelance animator on various projects such as 'Essex Road 6' commissioned by Tintype Gallery and the British Art Council and 'To be Someone Else in a Battle'; a collaboration with musician Amir Sadeghi Konjani, commissioned by London Symphony Orchestra. She has designed, co-designed and delivered various animation, illustration and storytelling workshops to students from 7 to 25 years of age.
Maryam teaches on the Animation and Illustration foundation year at UCA Farnham.
/prod01/channel_19/animation/media/microsites/animation/animation-staff/staff/Patrick%2520O'Mahony.jpg)
Patrick O'Mahony (Stop-Motion Animation Technician)
Patrick is an Irish animator and Royal College of Art graduate. He is our dedicated technician for stop motion animation.
His short films have been shown worldwide and he has been teaching stop-motion workshops to various age groups since 2015. He has experience working in the art department on various short films and commercials and co-directed a short online ad for a human rights charity. In his spare time, he is trying to perfect a card trick he's been learning since 2007.
Email: patrick.omahony@uca.ac.uk
/prod01/channel_19/animation/media/microsites/animation/animation-staff/staff/Josh%2520Saunders.jpg)
Josh Saunders (Lecturer in Animation)
Josh Saunders studied Graphic Design and Illustration at Central Saint Martins for his BA before attending the Royal College fo Art where he was awarded his MA in Animation.
His debut film 'The Grey Hound' won the Royal Television Society Award 2017 for postgraduate animation. It was screened at a variety of international film festivals, was nominated for the British Animation Awards People's Choice Award 2018, and was picked for the BFI's Best of Post Room 2018.
He heads up our first year Drawing for Animation Unit, and works as a freelance illustrator and independent animation director. Selected clients include Cartoon Network, Harper Collins and the Royal Society of Literature.
/prod01/channel_19/animation/media/microsites/animation/animation-staff/staff/James%2520Wright.jpg)
James Wright (Technician in Sound for Moving Image)
James delivers sound recording and editing workshops across Animation and Film at UCA Farnham. His experience includes working as a freelance sound editor/designer alongside which he also produces experimental ambient music and abstract beat-making throughout his lunch hour much to the excited bemusement of his colleagues.
Email: jwright14@uca.ac.uk