Simona Bursi

Descrizione:

Simona Bursi (Fano, 1974) is an illustrator, animator and short-film director. She earned her Animation Cinema diploma from Urbino’s Scuola del Libro, refining traditional painting under Giacinto Gaudenzi.

Her professional start came in 1996 at Rainbow beside Iginio Straffi, and she has spent more than twenty years inside Italy’s animation industry, collaborating with studios such as Bozzetto, Gertie, Animation Band, Studio Campedelli and RAI Fiction.

From 1997 to 2007 she worked in Milan as character designer, storyboard and layout artist, and animator on TV series, music videos and shorts. She co-created and co-designed the 52-episode series I Bibi (RAI Fiction / Village Production, 2005), broadcast in Italy and across Europe, and produced animated clips for Lo Zecchino d’Oro alongside educational and musical shorts for children.

Between 2023 and 2025 she has stepped up her own directing practice, making mixed-media and AI-assisted shorts, including:

• Do They Know It’s Christmas (Graffiti Film / RAI / Antoniano, 2023)

• Tribute to Nosferatu (2024)

• Pesci Mandala (Finto Studio, 2024)

• Beyond Silence (Comune di Fano)

• Beyond the Face (2025)

Recent studio work includes colourist duties on the series Magic Mermaid (Rainbow, 2024) and production design on the feature ARF (Genoma Films / RAI, 2023).

Bursi continues to illustrate for publishers such as Usborne, Mondadori, Giunti, Piemme and Lapis, with 100-plus titles in print. Since 2024 she has lectured in Character Design and AI for animation at Milan’s Luchino Visconti Civic School of Cinema.

As a visual artist she shows in solo and group exhibitions (Madre Natura Umana, Dar-sina, OLTRE IL VOLTO), where painting, animation and AI combine in immersive installations exploring imagination, identity and nature.

Breve descrizione: Illustrator-animator Simona Bursi fuses hand art and AI in shorts, TV work and 100+ books; now teaches Character Design in Milan

Tipologia:

Anno: 2025