Studio brings on Pete Candeland along with the Annie Award-winning pair Victor Maldonado and Alfredo Torres, respectively, bolstering the animation division’s creative roster.
Award-winning animation studio LAIKA has announced the addition of key talent to its animation division’s creative roster with the hire of animation director Pete Candeland and the Annie Award-winning duo Victor Maldonado and Alfredo Torres, known as Headless. The appointments, effective immediately, were announced today by LAIKA CEO & President Travis Knight.
Maldonado and Torres won Best Animated Feature at the 2007 Goya Awards, Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars, for Nocturna, about an orphan boy who is afraid of the dark. The Los Angeles-based filmmakers have directed three episodes each of Love, Death & Robots, a Primetime Emmy Award-winning animated anthology for Netflix and executive produced by David Fincher.
The duo also worked on Guillermo del Toro’s 2016 series Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, produced by DreamWorks Animation and Double Dare You Productions. The series episode “Win, Lose or Draal” garnered Maldonado and Torres an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production. Additionally, they worked as animation segment directors on the drama A Monster Calls by Spanish director J.A. Bayona, starring Sigourney Weaver and Liam Neeson, winner of nine Goya Awards. Most recently, they developed feature films and series at Skydance Animation.
Candeland is a multi-faceted director adept at 2D, 3D, and live-action mix animation. His high concept style and strong narrative are displayed in his popular music videos for Gorillaz, Rock Band game franchise spots, and emotive BBC trailers. He uses state-of-the-art technology combined with his distinctive visual style in all his work.
Source: LAIKA
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
