Encanto

Composer
GERMAINE FRANCO

Songwriter
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA

Director
BYRON HOWARD
JARED BUSH

MODERATED BY JAZZ TANGCAY (Variety)

Screening Link available upon Registration

YouTube Live Stream Q&A 
Thursday, December 9, 2:00PM (PT)

Welcome to the family Madrigal where every member is blessed with a magic gift unique to them. Everyone, that is, except Mirabel. When the family’s home – an enchanted place known as an “Encanto” – is threatened, Mirabel may be the family’s only hope.  PG | 109mins

Germaine Franco is the first woman to score a Disney animated feature film. She is the first Latina invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences music branch and to receive the Annie Award for outstanding achievement for music in an animated feature for her contribution to Coco. Germaine co-wrote and produced five of Coco’s six original songs with co-director, Adrian Molina, including “Un Poco Loco” and “Proud Corazón”, and provided additional music. Franco serves on the Advisory Board for Women In Media and The Neighborhood Music School in Boyle Heights. On International Women’s Day 2018, Univision celebrated her work as “15 Latinas Who are Changing the World As We Know It,” alongside Rita Moreno and Emma Gonzalez. 

Recently, Franco scored Kung Fu Panda: Land of Awesomeness for Universal Studios Beijing. She scored two No.1 Netflix films, Work It, directed by Laura Terruso, and The Sleepover, directed by Trish Sie. Franco completed two feature films for Universal Animation, Curious George: Go West, Go Wild, and Curious George: Royal Monkey. She co-wrote and produced the main title theme song for the hit Nickelodeon show The Casagrandes. In 2019, Franco scored two of the six top-grossing box office films in Hollywood, Little and Dora and the Lost City of Gold, out of the six films scored by women composers that year. Additional scores include Tag, directed by Jeff Tomsic, and Dope, directed by Rick Famuyiwa. Her work is heard in concert halls around the world including the Walt Disney Concert Hall with The Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Puerto Rico Symphony, The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The National Symphony Orchestra, The Chicago Philharmonic, among others. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda is an award-winning songwriter, actor, and director. He has worked on the book, music, and lyrics for Hamilton, tick, tick…BOOM!, In The Heights, Bring It On: The Musical, the revival of Stephen Schwartz’s Working, Spanish translations for the 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story, Vivo, His Dark Materials, We the People, Fosse/Verdon, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Saturday Night Live, DuckTales, Modern Family, and Mary Poppins Returns. Miranda also wrote and produced eight original songs for Walt Disney Animation Studios’ upcoming feature film Encanto. The Hamilton Mixtape, a concept album inspired by the show’s score, was released in 2016. A film of the 2015 Broadway company of Hamilton was released on Disney+ in 2020. Miranda received an Emmy® Award with Tom Kitt for their song “Bigger” from the 67th Annual Tony® Awards. Miranda contributed music, lyrics, and vocals to several songs in Disney’s feature film Moana, which earned him a 2017 Oscar® nomination and a 2018 GRAMMY® Award for the original song “How Far I’ll Go.”

He received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 2002. He lives with his family in New York.

Byron Howard previously directed Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Oscar®-winning feature Zootopia with Rich Moore. Howard also directed Disney Animation’s worldwide hit feature Tangled with Nathan Greno, and the duo teamed up again for the short film Tangled Ever After.

Howard earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at The Evergreen State College in Washington, where he pursued his interest in filmmaking by studying cinematography, art, and literature. In 1994, Howard officially joined the Walt Disney Animation Studios in Florida as an inbetweener and clean-up artist on Pocahontas.  He quickly went on to become an animator on Mulan, and a supervising animator on Lilo & Stitch, and Brother Bear, as well as doing character design on both those films. Howard later relocated to California where he continued his study of cinematography and drawing as a story artist and character designer at Walt Disney Animation Studios before becoming a director in 2006. Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Oscar®-nominated feature Bolt marked Howard’s debut as a feature film director (alongside Chris Williams). Howard also designed some of the characters in that film.

In addition to his lifelong passion for animation and a career spanning the last 20+ years, Howard’s interests include art, music, theater, travel, and a deep love for animals.

Jared Bush helms Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 60th feature film, Encanto, directing alongside Byron Howard. He was previously co-director and screenwriter on the Oscar®-winning feature Zootopia as well as screenwriter for the Oscar-nominated Moana and executive producer on Raya and the Last Dragon. He was also co-creator, executive producer, and writer for Disney XD’s animated comedy-adventure series Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero. Bush, who began his career as a script reader for Oscar®-winning director Robert Zemeckis, worked as a staff writer on the series Baby Bob, starring Adam Arkin and Elliott Gould. Bush added producing to his repertoire, serving as executive story editor and co-producer of Will Smith’s series All of Us. Bush has developed original television series for Revolution Studios, Fox and NBC, and feature film projects for New Line Cinema, Columbia/Tristar, and 20th Century Fox. 

A Harvard University graduate with a degree in English and American literature, Bush is an avid traveler who has visited 40 countries on six continents, and an accomplished trombone player who has played with several jazz bands over the years. Bush currently resides in Los Angeles, Calif., with his college sweetheart and three sons. 

*** IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ ***

FREE for current SCL members (click HERE to check membership status).

Attendees will be emailed a Screening Link upon Registration and a Q&A YouTube Live Stream link on Thursday, December 9, 10 minutes before Q&A start.

Attendees can ask questions on YouTube chat, and the SCL Host will pass them on to the Moderator. The SCL Member Code of Conduct applies to online Q&As.

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