Sam Chou

Background

About Sam Chou

Sam Chou is an award-winning animation director and showrunner whose films have premiered at Sundance, TIFF, Annecy, and the Ottawa International Animation Festival. His 2024 short The Death of James won the Audience Award for Animated Short at the Austin Film Festival, Best Canadian Short at TAAFI, and an Honourable Mention at the Fargo Film Festival. In 2023 he directed In The Heat, which premiered at Annecy and went on to win Best Short Film at the Vancouver Short Film Festival, Best Animated Short at Midwest WeirdFest, and Gold at the Collision Awards. That same year, he wrote and directed VRDLK: Family of Vurdulak, which premiered at Fantasia and won Best Animated Short at FilmQuest and the Audience Award at Lusca Fantastic Film Fest. Chou first broke out with Crime: The Animated Series, which premiered at Sundance and TIFF and won Best Animation Series for Adults at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. He also collaborated with Mattel on He-Man: First Snowfall, which screened at Fantasia in 2017. Beyond short films, he has directed series for major brands, including Max Steel: Team Turbo (Mattel/Netflix) and Kody Kapow (Universal Kids/NBC). In 2023, he received the Kaj Pindal Award, one of Canadian animation’s highest honors, recognizing his creative leadership and impact on the medium. He began his career as a traditional animator on features such as Osmosis Jones (Warner Bros.), Eight Crazy Nights (Sony), and 101 Dalmatians II (Disney), a foundation that continues to shape his visual storytelling today.