Dr Leila Honari is an animator of Persian background; whose first profession was as a designer of traditional carpets. Her principal research interests lie in the field of cultural and historical animation. She focuses on making animated projects that weave social, cultural, cross-cultural, and historical themes within a symbolic context, examining motif and metaphor in relation to animated storytelling, using hand-drawn, painterly, and patterned-form techniques.
Her practice-based creative art research extends across the subjects of women's studies and migrant arts in the field of animation and illustrative arts. Currently, she is completing “NO-BODY” a short animated film concerning the evolution of Iranian womanhood that tells the story of women in Iran from prehistory until the current moment and their ongoing struggle for agency and justice.
Leila leads the Art Direction major in the Griffith Film School’s animation program. Her teaching centres on concept design and creative development from a dedicated foundation of drawing, covering human and animal figures, interior and external environments, objects and landscapes, including colour, perspective, layout and form within the context of animation production.
Leila is also the director of Sufi Art Group and one of its founders. The Sufi Art Group aims to preserve the art and culture of love and devotion philosophy of Sufism as the concept revives people’s artistic needs may be met through more sublime immaterial processes.
