During his 28 years of experience in the entertainment industry, Julien Meesters’ vision and passion for advertising, cinema, animation and special effects have served the most ambitious and award-winning projects.
He started his career as a freelance Flame operator in 1993 after graduating in film editing. He joined the Mikros Image team in 1997 where he collaborated on many highly acclaimed projects in the fields of advertising, music videos and feature films, including Renault Space (Gilles Bawens), Club-Internet (Nick Mathieu), Sensual Wave (Laurent Seroussi) and The Crimson Rivers (Mathieu Kassovitz), among others.
In 2002, he left Paris to join Digital Domain teams in Los Angeles as Flame Artist and DFX Supervisor for advertising and feature film projects. He collaborated notably with Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation), and Marc Romanek (Faint – Linkin Park). In 2003, he returned to Mikros Image as VFX Creative Director and VFX Supervisor. In this position, Julien Meesters worked with world-renowned artists and directors. He also developed a global approach to supervising visual effects on ambitious projects such as Dior – J’adore Égéries and Canal + – L’Ours, involving 3D, 2D and physical techniques, which led him to the position of Studio Manager and Creative Director in 2009.
During these years, Mikros Image has developed a strong focus on animation and projects in this area, which is reflected in numerous in-house short films and commercials. This led to its first medium-length film, Logorama, in 2010. Following this first animation success, hailed with the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, Julien Meesters got strongly involved in the development of the Mikros Image group’s animation feature activity. This resulted in the opening of the Mikros Animation studio in Paris in 2012, following the awarding of its first major project, Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods. This was followed by numerous collaborations with French and international studios: Mune: Guardian of the Moon, The Little Prince, Sahara, Captain Underpants, Sherlock Gnomes, Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero, Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion, and recently The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run and Paw Patrol, The Movie.
In 2014, Julien Meesters was appointed Deputy CEO and Chief Creative Officer of the Mikros Image group. In this role, he took charge of the management and strengthening of the group’s activities, along with its international development in Belgium, Canada and the United Kingdom, while maintaining its position in the French market. In 2015, he co-directed the integration of Mikros Image within the Technicolor group.
In 2020, Julien Meesters was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Mikros Image group, which remains a leading actor in animation, VFX creation and post-production for feature and short films, series and advertising, meeting and surpassing the requirements of the national and international market. Always involved in projects, he was nominated in 2022 at the French academy award Les César for best Visual Effects for a feature film with “Lost Illusions” by Xavier Giannoli.
In 2021, Technicolor regroups all its animation operations under the Mikros Animation brand led by Andrea Miloro, who joined as President. Julien Meesters is appointed SVP Mikros Animation, Head of Creative of the newly formed entity.
