Portland-based stop-motion shop LAIKA (Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings) has teamed up with The Gotham Film & Media Institute to launch an animation accelerator designed to support creators developing pitches for short films.

The LAIKA x Gotham Animation Accelerator is a program for early- to mid-career animation creators looking to gain experience and mentorship by developing a production-ready pitch for a short film project. Applicants can work in any animation style, targeting any age range.

Selected participants (the program has not determined how many yet, but they’ll be announced in May) will take part in a six-month program that includes monthly mentorship sessions with industry professionals, coverage in The Gotham’s Filmmaker Magazine, access to LAIKA’s studio, participation in programming at Annecy, and a chance to pitch their project during The Gotham’s Gotham Week (a market and expo for the screen industry that runs in late September/early October).

The accelerator is open to animation directors, storyboard artists, vis-dev artists, character designers and animators with experience in the business. Writer-creators can also apply if they’re partnered with an experienced animation artist.

The submission window starts today and closes on April 2. Applicants looking to enter should have a pitch deck ready with a logline, synopsis or brief treatment, as well as visuals in the form of concept art, storyboards, animatics or animation samples.

Based in New York, Gotham is a non-profit organization that supports independent content creators. This accelerator marks the first time it has created an initiative focused specifically on animation.