José García Moreno
About
José García Moreno (b. 1961, Mexico City) is a filmmaker, artist, and scholar whose work spans experimental animation, broadcasting, and academic leadership.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in Communication Arts and Philosophy from the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) in 1984. At 21, he was selected for the inaugural World Showcase Fellowship Program, a year-long international leadership training initiative hosted and designed by the Walt Disney Company. During the 1980s, he became recognized as one of Mexico’s most innovative radio producers—launching, designing, and programming three of Mexico City’s most influential stations: Rock 101, Radio Mexiquense, and Opus 94.
He later studied in Prague at the renowned film school FAMU (Filmová a televizní fakulta Akademie múzických umění v Praze) and apprenticed at the historic animation studio Bratři v triku, founded by Czech animation pioneer Jiří Trnka. Under the studio's banner, he directed his first professional film, Open on Sundays (1989). He subsequently came to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the UCLA Animation Workshop at the School of Theater, Film and Television, where he earned his Master of Fine Arts (MFA).
José’s films have screened and won awards at major international festivals, including Annecy, Anima Mundi, São Paulo, Clermont-Ferrand, and Guadalajara, earning prizes in Havana, Toronto, San Francisco, Mexico City, Montreal, and Japan. He is a two-time recipient of the Best Short Film Script Award from the Mexican National Film Institute (IMCINE), an Ariel Award nominee from the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences (1990), and a recipient of the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation / CONACULTA grant (2000), with which he produced Catrina, Posada, and the Big Stone (2001).
His animated works are held in the permanent collections of the Luis Ángel Arango Library in Colombia and the Federal German Film Catalogue (Katalog der Filmsammlung). His body of work is featured in Italian historian Giannalberto Bendazzi’s landmark treatise Animation: A World History, and in 2013, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) published his book on narrative techniques and visual storytelling, Animando al Dibujo. His experimental animations have also been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally, including the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), Museo Dolores Olmedo (Mexico City), Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), the Ixtli Visualization Observatory at UNAM, and the Laband Art Gallery (Los Angeles).
In recent years, his creative practice has expanded into theater and public literacy. In 2018, he contributed animation to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Emmy Award–winning children’s literacy series Storyline Online, and collaborated with David Garden on Emperor of the Moon—a stop-motion production utilizing laser-cut miniature sets that earned a Meritorious Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.
Prior to entering academia in the United States, José served as Director of Broadcasting Channels and Chief Producer at PCTV (Productora y Comercializadora de Televisión), Mexico’s largest cable television production and distribution company, encompassing more than 600 cable systems. There, he oversaw proprietary channels, a national news network, live broadcasting, programming, marketing, broadcast design, acquisitions, and distribution.
In 2003, José relocated to Los Angeles to join the faculty at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) with a commitment to serving the greater good through education. As Chair of the Animation Department in the School of Film and Television, he spearheaded the department's move to a newly remodeled facility, driving program expansion, fundraising initiatives, and national visibility that helped elevate LMU Animation to 8th in the United States. Beyond LMU, both UNAM and the Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM)—two of Mexico’s premier universities—have retained him as a consultant to develop their film and animation programs. In 2010, ITESM named him one of its "Academic Leaders of the World," where he co-produced four short films addressing human trafficking in partnership with the U.S.-based Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST).
At the university level, José was appointed to LMU’s Strategic Planning Committee by President David Burcham in 2012, chairing the Strategic Committee for Internationalization. In 2021, President Timothy Law Snyder appointed him to the Steering Strategic Planning Committee, where he co-led the Campus Team on Innovative and Inclusive Pedagogy and Curriculum.
Since 2019, José has served as Director of the Academy of Thought and Imagination (ACTI) at LMU, reporting directly to the Vice President for Mission and Ministry. Through funded fellowships and collaborative initiatives, he has fostered interdisciplinary research and dialogue across spirituality, science, and the arts. His leadership at ACTI earned him the 2021 Collegium Visionary Award—presented by a consortium of 64 Catholic universities and colleges—recognizing “his embrace of sacramental imagination, his attentiveness and ability to draw connections… and his desire to foster conversations that link spirituality, science, and the arts.” That same year, he secured the exclusive rights to the estate of the late figurative artist John August Swanson for a series of animated documentaries co-produced by ACTI and LMU.
He lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife, Martina, and their daughter, Karolina.