Hothouse 15
About the program
Hothouse is an apprenticeship program for emerging Canadian animation filmmakers. It was created in 2003 by NFB Animation Studio producers Michael Fukushima and David Verrall. The aim is to make animation more quickly and more flexibly in celebration of the shortest of short forms while maintaining the hallmarks of NFB animation: creative and technical excellence.
This is not “quick and dirty” but rather “intense and amazing.” Think of horticultural hothouses where gardeners create optimal growing conditions to encourage the flowering of exotic orchids and other blooms in weeks rather than months.
Hothouse is not a funding program nor school: it is an apprenticeship in real-world animation filmmaking with the NFB as producer and distributor.
Table of Contents
2025 participants
Meet the participants of this years’ edition. Click on each photo for full bio.
Aerin Wu
Apprentice Filmmaker-Animator
Katie Finn
Apprentice Filmmaker-Animator
Max Ma
Apprentice Filmmaker-Animator
Megan Dupont
Apprentice Filmmaker-Animator
Mitchell Keys
Apprentice Filmmaker-Animator
Team and timeline
Lillian Chan
Mentoring Director
Fred Casia
Associate Producer
Maral Mohammadian
Producer
NFB English Animation Unit
Hothouse 15 production crew
Read more on the NFB Blog
Hothouse 14: Journey There and Back
After graduating from the UBC Film Production program back in 2004, I had no idea where or if my degree would take me anywhere. I was more afraid of entering the real world than my immigrant parents, who let their youngest daughter pursue a degree in the fine...
