Mahsa Ghorbankarimi

Mahsa Ghorbankarimi grew up in Tehran, the eldest daughter of Iranian animation filmmakers Mahvash Tehrani and Hosseinali Ghorbankarimi.From a young age she was introduced to the art of animation and cinematography in her parent's animation studio and raised with the perspective that art, storytelling and the wisdom of the ages can be found in those who have seen much, done much and who have traveled the world over.As a young person she journeyed to many places including China, England and the United States. She lived through the Iranian Revolution followed by eight years of war, events that changed the entire fabric of a society and every individual therein.By the time she was a young woman, Mahsa had experienced enough geographic, cultural and socio-political diversity to make her keenly aware of the nature of things and of the nature of man.Her parents taught her the language of cinema through the work of renowned filmmakers including Akira Kurosawa, Francis Ford Coppola, Alfred Hitchcock, Bahram Beizai, Sam Peckinpah, Abbas Kiarostami and Dariush Mehrjui.In 1991 she received a full scholarship to Tehran University after placing third in the country's nation-wide Concourse Entrance Examination. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1996 and immigrated to Canada to pursue a career in film and animation. She received Diplomas in Computer Animation and Technical Direction from Sheridan College.Over the years she has worked at a number of animation studios on feature films and award-winning television projects in both lead and supervisory capacities in Art Direction, Lighting, Compositing and CG Supervision: Projects include Walt Disney's The Wild (2006), Christopher Reeve's Everyone's Hero (2006), Vincenzo Natali's Splice (2009), Chris Landreth's award winner The Spine (2009), and Mia and me (2011) winner of the prize for best animated series for children at the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film.She is married to stop-motion director Alexander Gorelick. Together they have a daughter, Mina. Mahsa has two siblings, both filmmakers. Her brother Mohammad Ghorbankarimi is writer/director of the award winning feature The Desert Fish (2013). Her sister Maryam Ghorbankarimi is director of the short Ties (2005). Her mother Mahvash Tehrani is recognized as Iran's first female cinematographer. Show less «