Valerie Barnhart

Valerie Barnhart is an award winning indie animation director based in Ottawa Canada. She got her BFA in Visual Arts from Emily Carr University with a studio focus on Drawing and Print Media. Her academic focus was on Decolonization Politics and Non Western Art. She went on exchange to Wilhem de Kooning Academie in the Netherlands where she studied trend watching and stone lithography. Valerie's unique design styles have been completely informed by the masters of art and methodical apprache in a process rooted in discovery.

Completely self taught, Valerie's debut, an animated true crime docu-horror, "Girl in the Hallway" screened at 117 festivals, winning 27 awards and qualifying for the Oscars in both short doc and short animation categories. 

Valerie went onto direct, design, cowrite,  animate, and voice act in her second film, "A Divine Comedy: What the Hell" at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB/ONF) Where the film is currently out in the genre  festival circuit. Letterbox currators declared that "What the Hell" was best of the fest for Fantasia's 2024 season. 

Returning to her roots, Valerie is working on her solo animated feature, "The Midnight Painter".  

When not making movies, Valerie could be found at the library feeding her ongoing reading addiction.