A graduate of the Samsung Art and Design Institute in communication design, KIM Kang-min, born in 1979, first approached stop-motion animation when he worked on a music video for the Korean band Windy City. He made his name with the animation shorts <Visit> (2009) and <Deux Regards> (2009), the latter of which was in competition at the Zagreb International Animation Festival. He then moved to the US to attend a BFA and a MFA programs in Experimental Animation at t...More

A graduate of the Samsung Art and Design Institute in communication design, KIM Kang-min, born in 1979, first approached stop-motion animation when he worked on a music video for the Korean band Windy City. He made his name with the animation shorts <Visit> (2009) and <Deux Regards> (2009), the latter of which was in competition at the Zagreb International Animation Festival. He then moved to the US to attend a BFA and a MFA programs in Experimental Animation at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). His graduation work <38-39°> was completed in 2011 and was screened at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival before winning Best Short from the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Now a freelance animator and graphic designer based in Los Angeles, KIM established Studio Zazac in 2013 and began a long collaboration with Open the Portal, whose founder he met at CalArts, and for which he produced a large number of commercials. His 2015 short, the stop-motion animated <Deer Flower>, was a tremendous hit on the festival circuit owing to his creative use of different techniques such as 3D printing, hand-drawn animation and textured paper cut-outs. It was shown at Sundance and won Best Animation Short at the Melbourne International Film Festival, on top of a Special Jury Mention at Animafest Zagreb and the KAFA Award for Best Korean Picture at the Busan International Short Film Festival, among others, and went on to be nominated for an Annie Award. His following title <JEOM> (2017) made into the Animation Spotlight section of Sundance and earned a Special Jury Recognition from the SXSW Film Festival. <KKUM> (2020), a minimalist stop-motion animation made entirely with Styrofoam for a budget of USD 80, became one of the rare few titles to take home both the Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short Animation and the Public Prize at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Less