Aristomenis (Meni) Tsirbas is a film director, producer, writer, editor, animator, concept designer, storyboard artist, and visual effects supervisor. He has directed two feature films, several national television commercials, music videos, and short films. Meni's films have received over two dozen international awards from film festivals such as Sundance, Hollywood, and Palm Springs. He is president of MeniThings Productions.

Background

Meni was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada where he majored in film production at Concordia University. After directing commercials at his Montreal company, Trimension, Meni moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 1996 to work as a CG artist on James Cameron’s ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...

'' and national advertising spots for Nike, 7UP and Coca-Cola. He then rose to VFX supervisor for Miramax’s ''A Wrinkle in Time'', Disney's ''

My Favorite Martian ''My Favorite Martian'' is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 29, 1963, to May 1, 1966, for 107 episodes. The show stars Ray Walston as "Uncle Martin" (the Martian) and Bill Bixby as Tim O'Hara. ''My Favorite Martian'' was th ...

'' and Paramount’s '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine''. In 1999, Tsirbas returned to directing full-time with a string of award-winning short films, game cinematics, and music videos including SIGGRAPH’s ''Ray Tracey in Full Tilt'', Microsoft’s ''Mech Warrior: Vengeance'', ''Terra'', and ''The Freak'', before embarking on his first feature film, ''

Battle for Terra ''Battle for Terra'', originally screened as ''Terra'', is a 2007 American animated Action film, action-Adventure film, adventure science fiction film, based on the short film ''Terra'', about a race of beings on a peaceful alien planet who face d ...

''. Meni followed up with two more short films, Anthro and Exoids at DAVE School and

Gnomon School of Visual Effects Gnomon is a for-profit college located in the NoHo Arts District in North Hollywood, California. The school focuses on artistic and technical training for careers in the visual effects and games industries. It was founded in 1997 by Alex Alvar ...

respectively, before joining

Blur Studio Blur Studio Inc. is an American visual effects and computer animation company which specializes in CGI visual effects, CGI animation, and CGI design. Located in Culver City, California, the studio has produced CGI-animated films, teasers and ad sp ...

in 2012, where he directed a dozen national American television spots for Goldfish Crackers. In 2019 Tsirbas directed his second feature, ''

Timescape ''Timescape'' is a 1980 science fiction novel by American writer Gregory Benford (with unbilled co-author Hilary Foister, Benford's sister-in-law, who is credited as having "contributed significantly to the manuscript"). It won the 1981 Nebula a ...

'', which was released in 2022.

Feature films

* ''

'' (2009) (Writer, Director) * ''

'' (2023) (Screenwriter, Editor, Director)

Short films

* ''Ray Tracey in Full Tilt'' (2000) (Writer, Director, Animator) * ''MechWarrior 4: Vengeance'' - Opening Cinematic (2000) (Director) * ''The Freak'' (2001) (Writer, Director, Animator) * ''Terra'' (2002) (Writer, Director, Animator) * ''Plus Minus'' (2010) (Co-Director) * ''Exoids'' (2012) (Writer, Director)

Commercials

* E.T. ID for MusiquePlus (1996) (Writer, Director, Animator) * Montreal International Auto Show Theatrical Commercial (1996) (Writer, Director, Animator) * Virtual Andre (1997) (Concept Designer, Animator) * Taco Bell Mario Kart 64 (1998) (Storyboard Artist, Concept Designer, Camera, Animator) * Goldfish: The Thing (2017) (Director) * Goldfish: Selfies (2017) (Director) * Goldfish: Spinny Spinny Spin Spin (2018) (Director) * Goldfish: Comic Book (2018) (Director) * Goldfish: Brooke Ball (2018) (Director) * Goldfish: The Internet (2018) (director)

Music videos

* Tears For Fears: Closets Thing to Heaven (Concept Design, VFX Director) * Udora: Fade Away (Director)

Visual effects

* '' Star Trek: Voyager'' (TV series) (1995) (Digital Artist) * ''Titanic'' (1997) (Feature film) (Digital Artist) * '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (TV series) (1999) (Visual Effects Supervisor, Station X) * ''My Favorite Martian'' (Feature Film) (1999) (Visual Effects Supervisor, Station X Studios) * ''Dogma'' (Digital Creative Director, Station X Studios) * ''A Wrinkle in Time'' (Visual Effects Supervisor, MeniThings)

Awards

* 1997 Clio Award, Silver Clio - Animation, Nike Virtual Andre * 2001 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, Best Animation, Ray Tracey in Full Tilt * 2002 The Hollywood Film Awards, Best Animated Short, The Freak * 2002 Palm Springs International ShortFest, Jury Award, The Freak * 2002 One Reel Film Fest, Best Animated Film, The Freak * 2002 IFCT, Best Use of Computer Animated Imagery, The Freak * 2003 Sundance Film Festival, Honorable Mention, The Freak * 2003 San Francisco IFF Golden Gate Award, The Freak * 2003 Malibu Film Festival, Audience Choice Award, The Freak * 2003 Black Maria Film Festival, Directors Choice, The Freak * 2003 Festival Du Cinema De Paris, Best Director, The Freak * 2003 Philadelphia Film Festival, Best Short, The Freak * 2003 Hong Kong Film Fest, Best Animated Film, Terra * 2003 Palm Springs International ShortFest, Audience Award, Terra * 2003 Ulisses Film Festival, Best Animated Film, The Freak * 2003 Cinanima, Best Animation Direction, Terra * 2004 Anima, First Prize, The Freak * 2004 AIFF, Audience Award, The Freak * 2004 Black Maria Film Festival, Directors Choice, Terra * 2004 San Diego Film Festival, Audience Award Best Short, Terra * 2007 Tehran International Film Festival, Grand Prix, Battle For Terra * 2008 Giffoni Film Festival, Silver Gryphon Award, Battle For Terra * 2008 Heartland International Film Festival, Crystal Heart Award, Battle For Terra * 2008 Ottawa International Animation Festival, Best Animated Feature, Battle For Terra

References

External links

*
MeniThings.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsirbas, Aristomenis Film directors from Los Angeles Film producers from California Canadian animated film directors Canadian animated film producers American animated film directors American animated film producers Film producers from Quebec Artists from Montreal Film directors from Montreal Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Concordia University alumni