Wednesday, October 21, 2026

The Annie-Winning LightBox Expo Returns to Pasadena for the Eighth Annual Artist Gathering

By THERESE EDU

LightBox Expo co-founders Bobby Chiu and Jim Demonakos bring their gathering for entertainment artists back to the Pasadena Convention Center Oct. 23-25 for an eighth year, the first since the event received a Special Achievement Annie Award. Demonakos said the award recognized one idea: “What I feel we got recognized for with the Annies was showing that from the get-go, artists are number one.”

The three-day show fosters community, professional development and artistic creation in films, animation, games, TV and illustration. It reaches past the convention center to Pasadena Central Park, the plaza and streets around the Civic Auditorium, and it arrives as many artists, in Chiu’s words, feel “there aren’t as many opportunities in studios for many different reasons.”

“We feel like LightBox is a home for artists,” Demonakos said in a joint interview with Chiu. He said the event was built so attendees know “they’re not replaceable by machines, they’re not replaceable by prompts. They’re a huge part of what makes the entire entertainment industry thrive.” Under the expo’s posted policy, creative content generated using AI tools is not permitted for display or sale at the event.

ASIFA-Hollywood announced Jan. 5 that LightBox would receive the Special Achievement Award, which acknowledges unique and outstanding achievement not recognized within the Annies’ existing award categories. It was presented to Chiu and Demonakos at the 53rd Annie Awards on Feb. 21 at UCLA’s Royce Hall. In a Sept. 2 press release announcing this year’s show, Demonakos said, “After receiving the Special Achievement Annie Award for the lasting impact on the community, we are even more inspired to further our mission, building a place where artists can be celebrated, connected and treated with respect.”

Chiu got his big break designing characters for Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” and won an Emmy for co-creating the animated series “Niko and the Sword of Light,” according to his studio biography; he also co-founded Imaginism Studios and the online art school Schoolism. Demonakos, LightBox’s convention director, founded Emerald City Comic Con and directed the documentary “Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters.” The first LightBox Expo was held Sept. 6-8, 2019, at the Pasadena Convention Center.

Chiu said the expo is responding to a tighter studio job market by showing artists other paths. “We have a ton of independent artists talking about how to make alternative ways of living through content creation, through really strengthening their brand,” he said.

Demonakos said Pasadena works as the event’s home in part because of what surrounds the convention center. “It feels like there’s just a lot to do in the area without you having to feel like you have to leave Pasadena just to get something done,” he said. The weekend opens Thursday, Oct. 22, with a Community Picnic from 1 to 3 p.m. at Pasadena Central Park, 275 S. Raymond Ave., where attendees bring their own food and a sketchbook. On Friday from 10 a.m. to noon, Paint the Scene sends plein air painters out from the plaza in front of the Civic Auditorium, with professional mentors on hand for artists of all levels. A Sketchcrawl starts at the LIGHTBOX letters outside the Civic Auditorium at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, and Drag & Draw, a life-drawing session with drag queen models, runs from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday on the Civic Auditorium Landing.

“I would love to think that the people of Pasadena feel the energy of creativity when they see people drawing, sketching, and painting all around the city,” Demonakos said. “I feel like it’s so additive to Pasadena and its culture to show that it’s such a center that inspires so much great artwork to be created.”

New this year is the Storyboard Deli, where attendees take a number and wait for a portfolio review, a live demo or a conversation with story artists Michael Daley, Josh “Hat” Lieberman and Christian Roman, who have a collective 66-plus years of experience. It runs during show hours all three days at Booth 1500 in the Exhibit Hall & Ballroom Building lobby. Chiu said the idea came from the artists who organized it. “If you’ve ever been to a deli, a popular deli, you grab a number, you wait for your number to be called,” he said.

For students nervous about showing their work to a professional for the first time, Chiu offered his own memory. “I still remember the first time that I went to an event and saw an artist I knew and admired and how much nervousness I had to just go and talk to that person,” he said, recalling that he told himself, “Walk forward and brain, you better figure it out because we’re going to get there soon and you better say something.” A short exchange with someone already doing the work, he said, can change the artist. “It gives you so much more belief and so much more inspiration, and there’s really nothing comparable.”

The Concept Art Awards, presented with the Concept Art Association, take place Saturday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Civic Auditorium and are open to anyone with a LightBox badge. This year’s Lifetime Achievement honorees are Yoshitaka Amano, known for “Final Fantasy,” and Eyvind Earle, honored posthumously, a 2015 Disney Legend whose credits include “Sleeping Beauty.” Speaking as a longtime fan of both artists, he said, “It’s just exciting to know that these artists who are so influential are getting a level of recognition, even if in Eyvind’s case, it’s posthumous.” Amano will be doing a signing at 3 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday in the Exhibit Hall Lobby Signing Area, limited to 100 people per signing and one item per person, first come, first served.

Chiu said the event is not only for working artists. “If you’re a fan of something, why not meet the people that were behind the thing, learn their thoughts, learn how the thing became the thing, because they are the ones making those decisions,” he said.

Demonakos said Artist Alley has 250 tables and draws 1,500 applications, and no artist may exhibit more than two years in a row. “So every year, it’s 80% new,” he said.

Evening programming centers on the Civic Auditorium. On Friday, Brazilian filmmaker Fernanda Salgado’s animated feature debut “Ana, en passant,” about a young Black woman who travels from Paris to Belo Horizonte after her Brazilian grandmother’s death, screens from 6:30 to 8 p.m., followed at 8:15 p.m. by a program of award winners from Spain’s Animayo festival. On Saturday at 6:30 p.m., writer-director Louis Clichy introduces his animated feature “Iron Boy” at Regal Paseo, 300 E. Colorado Blvd.; a LightBox badge is required. A program of the 2026-27 awards season’s animated shorts follows at 9 p.m. in the Civic. The weekend closes Sunday with The Art of “Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender” panel at 4 p.m. and a screening of the film from 5 to 6:45 p.m., the only event on the schedule at that hour.

Looking ahead, Chiu compared the founders’ goal to the way public recognition of athletes grew over time. “There was a time where athletes, for example, didn’t get the same kind of recognition that they get now,” he said. Adding, “That’s been one of our missions since the very beginning — to elevate the status of the artists, the creatives.”

LightBox Expo 2026 runs Friday, Oct. 23, noon to 6 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 24, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, Oct. 25, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena. Will Call opens Thursday, Oct. 22, from 2 to 6 p.m. in the Exhibit Hall & Ballroom Building. Tickets are sold through Leap Events at events.leapevents.com/tickets/lightboxexpo2026. Parking and transportation information is on Visit Pasadena’s convention center page, visitpasadena.com/convention-center/attendees/directions-parking.

The full schedule is at lightboxexpo.com/schedule.