Tommy Pallotta

Biography: Tommy Pallotta is a storyteller who creatively blends technology with filmmaking, animation, and interactivity. Microsoft Research recognized his penchant for innovation where he led a research team to create and design interactive, animated storytelling experiences. Pallotta also directed the first machinima music video, In the Waiting Line, and the rotoscoped MTV Breakthrough video Destiny, both for the band Zero 7. He has produced several short animated films that garnered numerous awards, including Snack and Drink, which is now part of a permanent collection in the New York Museum of Modern Art. Tommy first connected Richard Linklater with animation when he produced the award-winning feature film Waking Life. He followed up with Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, starring Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Jr. He then directed the Emmy-nominated transmedia thriller, Collapsus. Most recently he co-directed the feature documentary/ animation hybrid: Last Hijack. The interactive companion of Last Hijack won an International Digital Emmy Award.