The Animator’s Friend

Me and the homies have been geeking over the animated feature Boys Go to Jupiter for months and months so it was a thrill to get to talk with Julian Glander about it, but mostly we tried to drum up some animation-world drama.
A teenager in suburban Florida desperately hustles to make $5,000 in this dreamy and surreal animated coming-of-age story. Stream Boys Go to Jupiter on Amazon Prime!
Watch our chat on YouTube or Spotify!
Get your hands on a Camp Snap Camera for $5 off by using my link! https://www.campsnapphoto.com/INDIALOMBARDIBELLO
Host your podcast on Podbean, one month free trial! https://www.podbean.com/theanimatorsfriend
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Advertise on Podbean! https://sponsorship.podbean.com/theanimatorsfriend
 
Links to points of discussion:
Julian Glander's website
Julian Glander's Instagram
The Animator's Animations
The Animator's Playlist
Pigeon Bagels - PA
The Animator's Favorites
Buddhist Gumby tshirt from JustinsShirtStore on Etsy
TAF At Ottawa International Animation Festival!
Tubulus Plasticus by YOON
Five Points Bakery - PA
The Animator's Friend on Instagram
 
The Animator's Friend is hosted by India Lombardi-Bello, an animation educator based in New York City. In this series, India creates a platform where animators get to talk about themselves outside the context of their work. A questionnaire format, inspired by the 24 frames per second of animation, allows for personal, lighthearted, and unexpected conversation.
Credits:
Recorded, produced, and edited by India Lombardi-Bello
Digital marketing assistance from Arnesh Kundu
Music by Cloutmeyer
Design by Sawyer Rippon
Special thanks: Kaila Hier; my mom and dad; Kristie Kish; Michael Dondero
All opinions belong to the guests and do not represent any other individual or entity.

Episode 22 is a lucky one with director Natalia Poteryakhin, sharing anecdotes of endurance, logging off, and blind faith, all bolstering her animation career. Further blessing this episode is the appearance of non-human guest Zoe Lombardi-Bello.
Watch on video on Youtube or Spotify!
Sunny Side Down is a sci-fi parody series where existential dread is served hot with a side of 90’s nostalgia.  Just beyond the event horizon of a supermassive black hole floats a tiny diner, frozen in time. Every super short episode drops in on whichever weird alien just got pulled into the black hole’s grasp, cutting between their arrival and off-the-wall conversations with the diner’s cryptic cook, Yabba, about what actually lies beyond.  There is no way back. You either stay at the diner forever, or risk passing through the hole.  Think Spaceballs-level absurdity meets Cheers-style diner regulars, filtered through a radical 90’s sci-fi lens. Expect visual gags, fast setups, and parody riffs on classics like Men in Black, Terminator 2, The Matrix, Starship Troopers, and Contact. This is not hard sci-fi. Physics is optional. Absurdity is mandatory.  At the center of it all is Nat, a human waitress and accidental astrophysics prodigy stranded at the diner after a light travel experiment went wrong. She is stubborn, brilliant, snarky, and desperate enough to believe she can build a machine strong enough to escape a black hole. While serving coffee and dodging alien drama, she secretly hoards space junk to engineer her way home to Earth.  Running the diner is Yabba, an ancient, chainsmoking, four-armed mentor who has kept this place running for millennia. She is tired. She wants to retire. But her only option is the black hole itself, and she will not go unless someone is ready to take over the diner.  Sunny Side Down is not a kids show. Things do not have neat morals. Good behavior is not rewarded. It leans into existential dread, the horror of living in the shadow of a black hole, and the strange comfort of routine in a place you cannot leave. It is purgatory with pancakes.
Get your hands on a Camp Snap Camera for $5 off by using my link! https://www.campsnapphoto.com/INDIALOMBARDIBELLO
Links to points of discussion:
Sunny Side Down
Natalia's website
Natalia's Instagram
The Animator's Animations
MAKE Originals on YouTube
Nice Moves - MN
Creator on YouTube
Tess Martin on TAF
The Animator's Playlist
Anne Beal on TAF
Hellavision
The Animator's Favorites
Emory Allen's website
Anatola Howard's website
Nicole Otaola on TAF
The Animator's Friend on Instagram
 
The Animator's Friend is hosted by India Lombardi-Bello, an animation educator based in New York City. In this series, India creates a platform where animators get to talk about themselves outside the context of their work. A questionnaire format, inspired by the 24 frames per second of animation, allows for personal, lighthearted, and unexpected conversation.
Credits:
Recorded, produced, and edited by India Lombardi-Bello
Booking assistance from Chris Hollis & Amy Steman
Digital marketing assistance from Arnesh Kundu
Music by Cloutmeyer
Design by Sawyer Rippon
Special thanks: my mom and dad; Kristie Kish; Michael Dondero; Barnaby Catterall
All opinions belong to the guests and do not represent any other individual or entity.

Conducted my interview with Arco creators Ugo Bienvenu and Félix de Givry ~on twos~ to learn about their penchant for sandwiches as well as gain more insight into the driving forces of their beautiful film. Experience the podcast with video for a change! I prefer you watch on YouTube B) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHBrnoduxTs
A magical and beautifully animated journey through time, Arco is a dazzling adventure about a 10-year-old boy from a peaceful, distant future who accidentally travels back to the year 2075 and discovers a world in peril. As Arco develops a charming and touching friendship with young girl named Iris, they band together and along with her trusted robot caretaker Mikki, set out on a quest to get Arco home, while the two children may also be the only ones who can save our planet. A wondrous odyssey filled with hope and optimism for our future, Arco is an enchanting fable from breakout filmmaker Ugo Bienvenu, produced by Remembers’ Bienvenu and Felix de Givry, and mountainA’s Natalie Portman and Sophie Mas.
Oscar voting opens today, so if you are a member of the Academy, I hope you will consider Arco as you cast your ballot.
Get your hands on a Camp Snap Camera for $5 off by using my link! https://www.campsnapphoto.com/INDIALOMBARDIBELLO
Links to points of discussion:
Arco
Ugo Bienvenu on Instagram
Félix de Givry on IMDB
"Voyage Cromatique" at Metrograph - NYC
The Animator's Animations
TAF at Annecy 2025
Remembers Studio
Barnaby Catterall's website
The Animator's Favorites
CalArts
The Animator's Playlist
The Animator's Friend on Instagram
 
The Animator's Friend is hosted by India Lombardi-Bello, an animation educator based in New York City. In this series, India creates a platform where animators get to talk about themselves outside the context of their work. A questionnaire format, inspired by the 24 frames per second of animation, allows for personal, lighthearted, and unexpected conversation.
Credits:
Recorded, produced, and edited by India Lombardi-Bello
Booking assistance from Cori Futrovsky and Kaila Hier
Digital marketing assistance from Arnesh Kundu
Music by Cloutmeyer
Design by Sawyer Rippon
Special thanks: my mom and dad; Nikolas Fortune Hagen; Michael Dondero; Ash Suh
All opinions expressed by host and guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of anyone else or any entity

The Animator's Friend podcast has been turning into The Animator's Italian-American Friend for some time now, and 3D artist/designer Andres Salazar has made matters worse by getting your host's spaghetti in a knot with some hot takes on Italian cuisine.
Andres is a Colombian-American designer and 3D artist based in Astoria, New York. His work explores the magic in the mundane, blending photorealistic 3D creations with surrealist visuals to spotlight the beauty of quotidian spaces. He is drawn to procedural software like Houdini and inspired by 20th-century design movements. He lives at the junction of visual effects and design.
Get your hands on a Camp Snap Camera for $5 off by using my link! https://www.campsnapphoto.com/INDIALOMBARDIBELLO
Links to points of discussion:
Andres Salazar's website
Andres Salazar's Instagram
Josh Pilch's RHCP parody song
Josh Pilch on TAF
DCOY Studios
Camp Snap website
Michael Dondero on TAF
The Animator's Playlist
The Animator's Favorites
Beacon's Closet
Crossroads Trading
Massawa - NYC
Spicy Village - NYC
TikTok of guys trying out new cuisines in NYC
Chris Rutledge's website
Ehsan Parizi on Instagram
Joseph Toreki's website
XK Studio
Future Deluxe Studio
Papel de Punto
Jasper Lin on TAF
Wenyi Zhang's website
The Animator's Animations
Ars Electronica - Austria
Brand New School
Jimena Martinez's website
The Animator's Friend on Instagram
 
The Animator's Friend is hosted by India Lombardi-Bello, an animation educator based in New York City. In this series, India creates a platform where animators get to talk about themselves outside the context of their work. A questionnaire format, inspired by the 24 frames per second of animation, allows for personal, lighthearted, and unexpected conversation.
Credits:
Recorded, produced, and edited by India Lombardi-Bello
Digital marketing assistance from Arnesh Kundu
Music by Josh Pilch (the song is parody and should be enjoyed as such) and Cloutmeyer
Design by Sawyer Rippon
Special thanks: Andres & Jimena for hosting me; my mom & dad; Darren Santa Maria; Malt Adult

I enjoyed chatting with fellow Beatles freak Tess Martin about our other shared fixation: The Netherlands. What business does their coffee have being so good? How easy is it to be a working artist there? Is the countryside really like those old Dutch paintings? Find out within.
Tess Martin is a film and visual artist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She brings her perspective as someone who was raised between cultures to exploring themes of belonging, identity and connection. Her short films, videos and installations address our vulnerability: in relation to nature, the onslaught of time and the precariousness of memory. Tess has both a classical fine art and an animation background and these come together in her work: she pushes the conceptual potential of hand-made animation and the narrative potential of site-specific pieces. 
How Now, House? investigates our yearning to leave traces behind through the prism of one house in Rotterdam. Using archives, personal memories and the philosophy of time, the film questions whether a space can ever really belong to one person, or time period, at all. How Now, House? will be screened at the upcoming London Short Film Festival, Jan 23-Feb 1, 2026.
Get your hands on a Camp Snap Camera for $5 off by using my link! https://www.campsnapphoto.com/INDIALOMBARDIBELLO
Links to points of discussion:
Tess Martin's website
Tess Martin's Instagram
The Holidays at Metrograph
The Animator's Friend on Instagram
Camp Snap website
Animator's Picnic - NYC
How Now, House?
1976: Search for Life
The Animator's Animations
Science New Wave Festival - NYC
Alice Saey's website
Nienke Deutz's website
Kaboom Animation Festival
The Animator's Playlist
Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald
The Animator's Favorites
Leon & Cocina's website
Anifilm - Czech Republic
Animafest Zagreb - Croatia
Annecy International Animation Festival - France
Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam - Netherlands
International Film Fest Rotterdam - Netherlands
Turku Animated Film Festival - Finland
Animateka - Slovenia
Kristie Kish's website
Brooklyn Public Library
St. Joost School of Art & Design - Netherlands
Dok Leipzig - Germany
London Short Film Festival - UK
 
The Animator's Friend is hosted by India Lombardi-Bello, an animation educator based in New York City. In this series, India creates a platform where animators get to talk about themselves outside the context of their work. A questionnaire format, inspired by the 24 frames per second of animation, allows for personal, lighthearted, and unexpected conversation.
Credits:
Recorded, produced, and edited by India Lombardi-Bello
Booking assistance from Beth Quittman
Digital marketing assistance from Arnesh Kundu
Music by Cloutmeyer
Design by Sawyer Rippon
I thanked an overwhelming amount of people in the recording, so here I'll just thank these linkable entities: Mother's Milk, Commodore II, and Malt Adult.

I learned all about Danielle Goldwert's numorous hobbies and have a feeling I barely scratched the surface! Stop-motion animation is just one of her many interests, which she executes perfectly in her film waterlogged. Hear about how Danielle's creative interests and doctorate research converge.
In waterlogged, a climate scholar confronts the haunting reality of his research as surreal environmental catastrophes unfold around him, blurring the line between his personal despair and the global human experience. The story explores the psychological toll of inaction, asking whether hope can be found amid the rising tides of collective negligence.
Danielle is a Ph.D. student in social psychology at NYU, and a member of the Center for Conflict and Cooperation at NYU and the Climate Cognition Lab at Stanford. Her research program integrates social psychological theory with large-scale behavioral science methods to identify, test, and translate effective strategies for motivating collective action on climate change. She addresses a core challenge in social psychology: how to change beliefs and behaviors in politically polarized, emotionally charged, and globally diverse contexts. In her work as an artist, she primarily use portraiture to explore the human condition and my own experiences, while also extending her artistic pursuits into filmmaking.
Get your hands on a Camp Snap Camera for $5 off by using my link! https://www.campsnapphoto.com/INDIALOMBARDIBELLO
Links to points of discussion:
Danielle Goldwert's website
waterlogged's website
dgoldwert on Instagram
Hudson Valley Film Fest's website
Hudson Valley Film Fest on Instagram
Hudson Valley Film Fest on FilmFreeway
TAF at the Hudson Valley Film Fest
TAF Interview with Kristie Kish
The Animator's Friend on Instagram
The Animator's Playlist
Creative Spaces/Contested Spaces: Reinterpreting Italian-American Public Art in New York City
Akaine Kramarik
The Animator's Favorites
RiverRun International Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
TIFF
Indie Shorts Awards
The People's Union Economic Blackouts
The Animator's Animations
 
The Animator's Friend is hosted by India Lombardi-Bello, an animation educator based in New York City. In this series, India creates a platform where animators get to talk about themselves outside the context of their work. A questionnaire format, inspired by the 24 frames per second of animation, allows for personal, lighthearted, and unexpected conversation.
Credits:
Recorded, produced, and edited by India Lombardi-Bello
Digital marketing assistance from Arnesh Kundu
Music by Cloutmeyer
Design by Sawyer Rippon
Microphones provided by SVA MFA Computer arts
Special thanks to Darren Santa Maria; my mom and dad; Michael Dondero; Kristie Kish; Nayon Cho; Hudson Valley Film Fest

Between moments of being outsmarted by a mosquito, hear Simeon Kondev expose the metal-head within.
Simeon is a Bulgarian-American animator whose latest cartoon Society Animals deserves your follow on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Get your hands on a Camp Snap Camera for $5 off by using my link! https://www.campsnapphoto.com/INDIALOMBARDIBELLO
Links to points of discussion:
The Animator's Friend on Instagram
University of Kentucky
The Animator's Playlist
Emily Curran at Buzzfeed
Kate Costello's website
Emily Zullo's website
The Animator's Favorites
NPR Morning Edition
Ichthus Music Festival - KY
Brent Sievers on The Animator's Friend
Gooeyduck on YouTube
skincrawlies on YouTube
Fruit Suit Critters on YouTube
The Animator's Animations
 
The Animator's Friend is hosted by India Lombardi-Bello, an animation educator based in New York City. In this series, India creates a platform where animators get to talk about themselves outside the context of their work. A questionnaire format, inspired by the 24 frames per second of animation, allows for personal, lighthearted, and unexpected conversation.
Credits:
Recorded, produced, and edited by India Lombardi-Bello
Digital marketing assistance from Arnesh Kundu
Music by Cloutmeyer
Design by Sawyer Rippon
Microphones provided by SVA MFA Computer arts
Special thanks to Darren Santa Maria; my mom and dad; Miyu Distribution

Preempting their Student Academy Award win for their student film The Shyness of Trees, listen to Loick Du Plessis D'Argentre, Simin He, and me giggle over unexpected animation crushes, rats, and French cliches.
In the film, Hélène, 40 years old, comes to visit her aging mother in the french countryside. But her mother isn't being her usual self. She seems to have formed a strange bond with the plants, insects, and the old oak tree at the end of her garden...
Get your hands on a Camp Snap Camera for $10 off by using my link! https://www.campsnapphoto.com/INDIALOMBARDIBELLO
Links to points of discussion:
The Animator's Friend on Instagram
The Shyness of Trees on Youtube
The Animator's Animations
Loick Du Plessis D'Argentre's website
Loick Du Plessis D'Argentre's Instagram
Simin He on Instagram
Gobelins
The Animator's Playlist
Routard Guide
Sables - NYC
The Animator's Favorites
 
The Animator's Friend is hosted by India Lombardi-Bello, an animation educator based in New York City. In this series, India creates a platform where animators get to talk about themselves outside the context of their work. A questionnaire format, inspired by the 24 frames per second of animation, allows for personal, lighthearted, and unexpected conversation.
 
Credits:
Recorded, produced, and edited by India Lombardi-Bello
Booking assistance from Luce Grosjean at Miyu Distribution
Digital marketing assistance from Arnesh Kundu
Music by Cloutmeyer
Design by Sawyer Rippon
Microphones provided by SVA MFA Computer arts
Special thanks to my mom and dad; Darren Santa Maria; Sarah Shmidt; Luce Grosjean & Emma Berebbi at Miyu; Lena Greene; Michael Dondero; Kristie Kish

You can find Amanda, me, and her dog Bacca under the pergola, discussing our shared provenance which includes italianess, shyness, and punkness.  Her film Confetti is available online for the first time through Director's Notes and her and fellow animator James Thacher have just started their own studio called Magician with a screening coming up at Ridgewood Community Cinema on 11/2/25 at 7pm. 
Amanda Bonaiuto is an animation director, artist, and assistant professor of Illustration at Parsons School of Design. Her films have screened at film festivals and institutions globally, including Slamdance Film Festival, Annecy International Animation Festival, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, among others. Her work has been recognized by press outlets such as It’s Nice That, The New Yorker, Vimeo, and NPR. She holds an MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts, and a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She offers workshops, mentorship, and animation publications through a collaborative project called Magician Studio.
Amanda uses animation to experiment with choreographic movement, relational ruptures, and the ever present tension between bodies and space. Her work examines experiences of turmoil in mundane spaces; the bedroom, the funeral home, the emotional dance created through chains of physical association. She is fascinated by the porousness of lived experience. Her films consider how our environments exert influence as we reciprocally construct our own world.
She hosts Animator Picnics in NYC several times a year (one forthcoming in October). Reach out if you’d like to be added to the email list: a.t.bonaiuto@gmail.com
 
Links to points of discussion:
Amanda Bonaiuto's Instagram
The Animator's Animations
Cooking classes at Eataly
The Animator's Playlist
The Animator's Friend on Instagram
Art Shack Bedstuy
"Material Worlds: Amanda Bonaiuto" by Case Jernigan with Evergreen
Haneen Koraz on Instagram
The Animator's Favorites
Hedge by Amanda Bonaiuto
Anibar
Fest Anca
Kaboom Animation Festival
GLAS Animation Festival
 
The Animator's Friend is hosted by India Lombardi-Bello, an animation educator based in New York City. In this new series, India creates a platform where animators get to talk about themselves outside the context of their work. A questionnaire format, inspired by the 24 frames per second of animation, allows for lighthearted and unexpected conversation.
 
Credits:
Recorded, produced, and edited by India Lombardi-Bello
Digital marketing assistance from Arnesh Kundu
Music by Cloutmeyer
Design by Sawyer Rippon
Microphones provided by SVA MFA Computer arts
Special thanks to my mom and dad; Darren Santa Maria; Jose Vargas; Malt Adult; Lisa LaBracio; Andy London; Anna Samo; Kristie Kish.

If you need a bar recommendation, enjoy Lena's encyclopedic knowledge of cool karaoke bars, including the ones that exist only in her mind. Throats Karaoke Bar is the setting of her latest short film Tuna Tartare, which challenges you to be yourself but hotter.
Set in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, Tuna Tartare is a trashy, karaoke musical about an expired can of tuna fish and her BFF Susan (a fake Louis Vuitton purse) as they struggle to pursue their artistic dreams in a world that has long since dismissed them. Upcoming screenings include Tuna's NYC premiere at The Downtown Festival on 10/11 at 2:30pm and at the Woodstock Film Festival's Saturday Evening Cartoons block on 10/18 at 4:30pm.
Lena Greene is a director, animator, illustrator, storyboard artist and character designer based in NYC. Her work is campy, playful, and absurdist, and her characters are often striving to “make it” in a world that has long since overlooked them. She has directed widely screened animations for Lauren Greenfield, Lana Del Rey, Celeste, Gohar World, Comedy Central’s Saturday Morning(ish) Cartoons, and Blumhouse’s Crypt TV. Lena was a storyboard artist on seasons 1 and 2 of Adult Swim & HBO’s Teenage Euthanasia, season 2 of PBS & Augenblick Studio’s City Island, and a character designer on season 3 of Adult Swim & HBO's Smiling Friends. She has made animations for clients such as Vice, Droga5, Edelman, Gucci, Knoll, Tory Burch and collaborated on four large-scale 3D zoetropes with Camille Henrot. Lena was an adjunct animation professor at Queens College, and is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design where she received a BFA in film, animation and video. Lena hosts a recurring karaoke talent show on Montez Press Radio, which has been highlighted in Document Journal, The New York Times, Frieze, Dazed, Cultured Mag, and the LA Review of Books.
Links to points of discussion:
Tuna Tartare's website
Lena Greene's website
Lena Greene's Instagram
The Downtown Festival - NYC
HollyShorts Film Festival - LA
Ficus Interfaith on Instagram
Earth on Instagram - LA
Plank Skate Mag
Montez Press Radio
Insa - NYC
Woodstock Film Festival
Miyu Distribution
Animest - Romania
The Animator's Playlist
Planet Rose - NYC
Montero's - NYC
Winnie's - NYC
Singer's - NYC
Gogopa - NYC
Mary's Crisis Cafe - NYC
Asia Roma - NYC
The Animator's Favorites
The Animator's Friend on Instagram
Christopher Rutledge
Andrew Onorato on Instagram
Lucas Ansell's website
The Animator's Animations
 
The Animator's Friend is hosted by India Lombardi-Bello, an animation educator based in New York City. In this new series, India creates a platform where animators get to talk about themselves outside the context of their work. A questionnaire format, inspired by the 24 frames per second of animation, allows for lighthearted and unexpected conversation.
 
Credits:
Recorded, produced, and edited by India Lombardi-Bello
Booking assistance from Luce Grosjean at Miyu Distribution
Digital marketing assistance from Arnesh Kundu
Music by Cloutmeyer
Design by Sawyer Rippon
Microphones provided by SVA MFA Computer arts
Special thanks to my mom and dad; Cynthia Chu; Michael Dondero, Kristie Kish; Darren Santa Maria; Malt Adult and Sarah Schmidt; Montez Press Radio.