Jason Maurer

Jason Maurer is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, animator, and educator who serves as Head of Animation at Florida State University’s College of Motion Picture Arts. His work is rooted in the belief that technology is most powerful when it serves character, emotion, and a distinctly human point of view. At FSU, he guides emerging filmmakers through the art and craft of visual storytelling, drawing on a career that spans feature animation, independent filmmaking, commercial production, and public-service media.

Maurer co-directed and helped develop the story for the animated feature Delgo, an official selection of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Seoul International Animation Festival and winner of Best Feature Film at Anima Mundi. He has also directed commercial and independent projects recognized with ADDY and Telly awards. In 2018, Maurer directed and co-produced It’s OK to Tell, a Lauren’s Kids public-service announcement about child sexual abuse prevention. Inspired by survivor, author, and child-protection advocate Lauren Book’s Lauren’s Kingdom and narrated by Book, the animated PSA was created to encourage children experiencing abuse to speak with a trusted adult. The project received a Suncoast Regional Emmy Award in the Public Service Announcement category.

A recipient of Florida State University’s Undergraduate Teaching Award and its 2023–24 Innovation in Teaching Award, Maurer is committed to pairing professional rigor with a supportive, sustainable creative practice. His teaching emphasizes story development, aesthetics, previsualization, animation production, and the responsibilities filmmakers carry as authors. As emerging technologies reshape the industry, his work also examines the ethical use of artificial intelligence in creative production—approaching AI as a collaborative tool while preserving human accountability, transparency, and authorship. Maurer earned a B.F.A. in Illustration and an M.A. in Animation from the Savannah College of Art and Design.