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Jeff Chiba Stearns is an Emmy® nominated and multi award-winning animation and documentary filmmaker. He is also an accomplished illustrator and artist. Born in Kelowna, BC, of Japanese and European heritage, he graduated from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design with a degree in Film Animation in 2001. Soon after, he founded Vancouver-based boutique animation studio Meditating Bunny Studio Inc., which specializes in the creation of animation and documentary films aimed at both children and adults that combine different philosophical and social elements together to create humorous, entertaining, and inspiring stories.
From animated viral video ads and broadcast commercials for companies like Sharpie, 3M, and Post-it Note, to short and feature films like The Horror of Kindergarten (2001), "What Are You Anyways?" (2005), Yellow Sticky Notes (2007), One Big Hapa Family (2010), Ode to a Post-it Note (2010), Yellow Sticky Notes: Canadian Anijam (2013) and Cats (2014), Jeff's work has broadcast around the world, screened in hundreds of international film festivals and garnered 33 awards.
"What Are You Anyways?", winner of 7 film festival awards, was the first animated film that explored multiethnic issues and lead Chiba Stearns to become an international spokesperson on mixed-race identity. He coined the term "Hapanimation" to describe his style which blends Japanese animation with a North American animation style. Yellow Sticky Notes (2007), winner of the Prix du Public at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival was animated with just a black pen on over 2300 sticky notes and is the official selection of over 90 international film festivals, winning 10 awards and was nominated for an Emmy® in 2011. Yellow Sticky Notes was also one of the first films acquired by YouTube's Screening Room and has since achieved over 1.8 million views.
Jeff Chiba Stearns' first feature documentary, One Big Hapa Family (2010), is about children of mixed-Japanese descent and the high Japanese-Canadian interracial marriage rate in Canada. Jeff is directing and producing his second feature-length documentary entitled Mixed Match about the complexities multiethnic people face when trying to find bone marrow transplants. The film is set to release in 2016.
In 2010, he was awarded the Emily Award from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design for outstanding achievements of an alumni. As well, he was awarded the Cultural Pioneer Award by Harvard University in 2011 for his continued exploration of multiethnic identity in his work. That same year, he won a Webby Award for Best Branded Entertainment for his 3M commissioned film Ode to a Post-it Note. On top of filmmaking, Chiba Stearns has also instructed college animation, written articles for national publications and lectured around the world on topics of multiracial identity, cultural awareness, filmmaking, short film distribution, and animation.
