Alli Mackay

I'm 24, and have been an independent animator and filmmaker since age 10. After having my cartoons broadcast nationwide on CBC Television’s “The Outlet” at a young age, I became infatuated with creating animated media for both children and adults. In 2018, I completed my BFA at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, majoring in Film & Integrated Media.

I believe in the storytelling power of 2D animation as a medium, and use it to approach topics usually reserved for live action cinema, such as gender identity, introversion, and mental illness. Growing up in the rural farming town of Bawlf, Alberta, I busied myself by self-teaching traditional animation and film editing. These days, I've been developing a style built around combining live-action, rotoscoping, and digital 2D animation techniques. I also work with both 16mm film and digital video for my live-action films.

I am a nonbinary person, and my work reflects this by featuring diverse subjects and perspectives.

Currently, I live on Vancouver Island, Canada. My short films have been featured in festivals worldwide, including Festival du Nouveau Cinema, San Francisco Transgender Film Festival, Seattle Translations Film Festival, Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival, and the Vancouver Short Film Festival.

My short animated documentary, Flash Flood, is currently being distributed by the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center. (CFMDC)

My process involves collaboration with animators, background artists and musicians all over the world, all through the internet. Someday I hope to run an independent, online animation studio that creates original shorts.