Zsofia Opra-Szabo - Animator, Designer
Zsofia Opra-Szabo is an emerging filmmaker with a background in theatre design and an interest in crossing the boundaries between theatre, film and puppetry.
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Upon graduating from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, she worked as a set-, costume- and puppet designer at various theatres in Hungary and Romania. In 2014, she won an award for best costume and set design for the Hungarian production of An Imaginary Report on an American American Rock Festival. She completed her second Masters in Theatre Design at University of Alberta in 2015. Based on her experimental art project Sophia, she created a short stop-motion animation film of the same title for which she received grants from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Her animation short Sophia was selected to many film festivals around the world and won several awards: Best Animation -The Grand Budapest Film Festival, Budapest, Hungary 2019; Best Canadian Short - Atlanta Award - Qualifying Film Festival, New York, 2018; Best Animation and Best Screenwriting - FAVA, Edmonton, Canada, 2018; Audience Choice Award - FAVA, Edmonton, Canada 2018; and also the prestigious Edmonton Film Prize 2018. Zsofia has also developed and taught several puppetry courses at the University of Alberta and worked as valuable crew member of on several film productions.
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Currently, Zsofia is working as an animation filmmaker and theatre designer in Canada and United States but also creates installations and fine art projects and teaches art workshops.