Sundance winner Renee Zhan joins BlinkInk
London-based studio BlinkInk have announced the addition of acclaimed director Renee Zhan to its increasingly impressive talent roster.
Hailing from Houston, Texas and presently based in London, Renee’s notable contributions to animation go back to her studies at Harvard University where she produced the films Pidge and Hold Me (Ca Caw Ca Caw). A subsequent travelling fellowship led to the completion of her film Reneepoptosis, described by the director as “a bunch of Renees who go on a quest to find God, who’s also me”, which screened internationally and picked up the Jury Prize for Animated Short at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
Renee continued her journey at the UK’s National Film & Television School, with her mixed-media graduation film O Black Hole selected for major events including the Chicago Film Festival and the London Short Film Festival while her latest, Soft Animals, has already been selected for Annecy, TIFF, Edinburgh, Encounters and Doc Leipzig. Renee’s relationship with BlinkInk began with her involvement in Progress, the studio’s episode of Adult Swim’s Off The Air.
Renee Zhan (image via BlinkInk)
Her work explores a range of topics such as body, nature and sexuality. Yet all of her films are well balanced between the lovely and the visceral with pockets of dark humour emerging when you least expect it. Renee has a real knack for finding beauty in everything and the end product is deeply satisfying to watch.
Renee uses lots of different textures and materials that have a tactile feel to create work full of richness. From hand-drawn 2D to watercolour to claymation, she is constantly pushing boundaries so that every project is uniquely different.
-BlinkInk
See more of Renee’s work at reneezhan.com and blinkink.co.uk