Otis College Animation Juniors Land Major Film Festival Selections with White Box

The short animated film by Hazel Wang and Cam Duska will be screened in competitions this month.

A short animated film by Otis College students Hazel Wang (’28 Animation) and Cam Duska (’28 Animation) will screen in competition at two upcoming horror film festivals. Their film, White Box, which originated during an elective class on short films in the College’s Animation program, has earned selection in two of the horror genre’s most closely watched showcases: Screamfest, running October 6–15 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Los Angeles (White Box will screen Saturday, October 10, 11:45 am); and FilmQuest, running October 22–31 in Provo, Utah (screening Wednesday, October 28, 11:00 am). 

The dual selection is no small feat. Screamfest has built a reputation as the premier launching pad for horror films on the festival circuit, often described as the “Sundance of Horror.” FilmQuest carries its own weight in the industry; past winners from the festival have gone on to receive Academy Award nominations, making it a proven bellwether for filmmakers on the rise.

White Box was written and directed by Hazel Wang and Cam Duska and was animated by a team of students from the Animation program: Abigail Pronto, Bianca Ruiz, Leo Cuneo, Mayleen Edwards, and Dani Pagan. 

Druska is from Rhode Island, and Wang is from Guangzhou, China, where she earned a degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine before attending Otis College. White Box is inspired by the experiments on animals Wang was required to participate in during her medical training, including the coldly efficient methods of animal euthanization that were a necessary part of that practice. 

The project took shape in the Animation Short Film elective, which was created by Animation faculty member Ricardo Tobon with the support of Animation Chair Ron Bernard; Tobon teaches the class alongside fellow Otis faculty member Tim Jones.

Tobon is a multidisciplinary artist and creative director with more than a decade of experience across animation, performance capture, and real-time storytelling. His work spans feature films, AAA games, and immersive media, with credits on major franchises including Planet of the Apes, Men in Black, Spider-Man, God of War, and Uncharted. He has collaborated with studios including Sony Computer Entertainment, Weta Digital, Digital Domain, and DreamWorks Animation, and has led teams working across animation, visual effects, and games. Tobon is also the author of the best-selling The Mocap Book, a resource for animators and game developers, and regularly shares his expertise on performance-driven storytelling and production at universities, film festivals, and international conferences.

Jones has worked for over 20 years as a senior animator and lead modeler at Jumpstart Games. During that time, he has worked on titles for NFL and DreamWorks, as well as led the animation and production of several Nickelodeon commercials for games developed by Jumpstart, such as Penguins of Madagascar. In 2010 he was asked to help with the character likeness on the BBC title Dance with the Stars. He has taught since 2008, including giving lectures at SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques). 

Faculty members in the Animation program, including Tobon, Bernard, and others, are optimistic about further selections for White Box beyond Screamfest and FilmQuest as its submissions make their way through the festival circuit. 

About the Animation Program

Otis College of Art and Design’s BFA in Animation offers an immersive, interdisciplinary curriculum that brings together digital cinematography, entertainment, graphic design, and art. Students explore the full animation process, developing skills in storyboarding, character design, 2D and 3D animation, 3D modeling, rendering, sound, visual development, and storytelling. Through hands-on projects and collaborative production experiences, students build the creative, technical, and communication skills needed to become well-rounded animation professionals prepared to work across media and entertainment industries.

Check out White Box on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. 

More on Otis College’s Animation program.

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