Draft:Kat Alioshin

Kat Alioshin (born 1964) is an American filmmaker known for her work in stop motion animation production. She teamed up with Henry Selick on Nightmare Before Christmas, (1993) James and the Giant Peach (1996), Monkeybone (2001) and Coraline (2009). She produced and directed Animation Outlaws (2019), which premiered at Woodstock Film Festival and in 2020 screened at Annecy International Film Festival in France. Animation Outlaws won Best Documentary at San Diego Comic-Con International in 2022. Alioshin was line producer on The Inventor (2023), nominated for Best Independent Feature at the 51st Annie Awards in 2024. Alioshin co-hosts a podcast called The We Know Jack Show.

Career
Born and raised in San Diego, filmmaker Alioshin studied film and art at University of California San Diego. She worked at the college radio station KSDT as a DJ and promotions manager. While attending UCSD, Alioshin worked her first feature film, assisting the property master for Break of Dawn (1988). She wrote, directed, and produced three short student 16mm films: That Irish Mother of Mine (1985), Poison Pen (1986) and Blackout (1987). Blackout screened at San Francisco International Film Festival in 1987. Roddy Bogawa, a New York filmmaker, hired Alioshin as his cinematographer on Four or Five Accidents, One June (1989) and Some Divine Wind (1990). Both films are on permanent collection at the NYC MoMA.

Graduating UCSD in 1987, her second feature film was an assistant to the property master on Murder In Law (1989), directed by Tony Gill. Then Street Asylum (1989) with Actor Wings Hauser.

Between 1985 to 1989, shaping her career, she helped two hippies run their film festival known as Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation. A Variety article about Spike Decker and Mike Gribble, written by Peter Debruge, cites "they delivered the counter programming, encouraging indie toon creators to develop their more subversive side and rewarding them with national exposure." Alioshin was influenced by multiple styles of animation while working the box office and handing out festival flyers. She ended up working on some of the biggest stop motion films. Credit is given to Spike and Mike who introduced her to animation icons namely Nick Park, Tim Burton, Moebius, Joan Gratz, Danny Antonucci, Alison Snowden, David Fine and Marv Newland. In the Jerry Beck book Outlaw Animation, she is acknowledged by Spike as Irish Katorama.

Breaking away from San Diego and Los Angeles in 1989, Alioshin was production assistant on two live action features in the San Francisco Bay Area including, Pacific Heights (1990) and Dying Young (1991). Her participation in music videos included MC Hammer Pray (1990) and the Chris Isaak video Blue Spanish Sky (1991) directed by the fashion photographer Bruce Weber.

Starting in 1991, Alioshin began her stop motion animation career at Skellington Productions, in San Francisco. The first feature at Skellington was Nightmare Before Christmas, directed by Henry Selick. She was a production coordinator. Right after Nightmare finished, she was production manager on a music video by Primus - Devil Went Down to Georgia (1994) directed by Mike Johnson.

Alioshin moved to Noe Valley, a suburb of San Francisco in 1994 and married Paul Alioshin. Alioshin used the surname Miller until 1995. Credits before 1995 are noted as Miller. The next feature at Skellington Productions was James and the Giant Peach with Alioshin as assistant director to Henry Selick. In the same San Francisco studio, she was line producer for Nickelodeon TV series called Life With Loopy (1997) by Stephen Holman and (W)holesome Products, Inc.

In 1998, a studio was set up in San Francisco for Monkeybone, which is a mix of stop motion and live action. Pairing with Henry Selick, the stop motion was filmed under Production Manager Alioshin at Custer Avenue Stages.

Alioshin moved to Altringham, England in 2002 with her spouse and two young children, working with Mackinnon and Saunders as production manager of puppet fabrication on Corpse Bride (2005), directed by Mike Johnson.

In 2009, Alioshin was producer with Merrick Cheney for main armatures on Coraline. Made in San Francisco then shipped to Laika in Hillsboro, Oregon. Coraline connected Alioshin with Selick again and they set up shop in a old chocolate factory in San Francisco for Selick's Cinderbiter. The film was not finished due to a studio shutdown. Alioshin contributed two years as the puppet department production manager.

Jon V. Peters from Athena Studios, in Emeryville, hired Alioshin for a teaser based on a book titled Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera. Peters retained her as co-producer with Nancyland for a short stop motion and live action piece Mermaids on Mars (2015), winning Best Animation at Carmel Film Festival. She co-produced Cheetos Bones (2016) at Athena. Alioshin left Athena to work with Jim Capobianco at Aerial Contrivances on a film teaser called Leo and the King, that would eventually be used for the stop motion animated feature The Inventor for their Kickstarter campaign.

"La Jolla native Kat Alioshin has produced and directed a documentary about the duo known as Spike and Mike and how their festival has evolved". Animation Outlaws, a documentary about "rough around the edges" Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation show had "examples of groundbreaking works". The documentary features interviews by Weird Al Yancovic, Seth Green, and a "rich selection of animation greats" such as Mike Mitchell, Joanna Priestly, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and illustrators Emek, Everett Peck and William Stout. The documentary premiered at Woodstock Film Festival and screened at Slamdance. Film critic Leonard Maltin and his daughter Jessie Maltin, interviewed Alioshin and Spike in Park City. The documentary received honorable mention at Annecy International Film Festival and Best Documentary at San Diego Comic-Con International. The documentary was released during Covid, going straight to streaming. Chris Gore from Film Threat organized a watch party for the documentary. There were screenings at art house theaters and college campus like Art Center School of Design, Cal Arts and San Francisco State University and continued with many favorable reviews. In 2020, she represented the film in Vancouver Canada at SPARK Animation. with producer Keith Blackmore.

In 2020, she created a podcast with crew member Todd Lookinland about Nightmare Before Christmas called The We Know Jack Show. They have conversations with crew members, discussing behind the scenes. October 31, Walt Disney Family Museum hosted a panel, including Alioshin, to discuss "The Crowning of the Pumpkin King". In late 2020, Alioshin served as line producer for a stop motion teaser, Crickets Would Sing, by Mauricio Baiocchi. The teaser is a work in progress.

In 2021, Alioshin moved to France to work with Foliascope and Curiosity Studio on a Leonardo Da Vinci animated feature by Director Jim Capobianco. Alioshin served as line producer. The stop motion animated feature was nominated for Best Independent Feature by the 51st Annie Awards. In November 2023, she was a panelist at Creative Talent Expo (2023) operated by Tina Price.

In 2023, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Nightmare Before Christmas, the Walt Disney Family Museum organized a live The We Know Jack Show podcast billed as This is Halloween! with Henry Selick, Animator Anthony Scott and podcast hosts Alioshin and Lookinland.

Alioshin is a voting member in Visual Effects Society (VES) and Association Internationale du Film d'Animation (ASIFA) Hollywood.