INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION

Diana Martirosyan is a film critic and cultural journalist, based in Yerevan. Has graduated Russian-Armenian University, “Journalism” faculty and got a Bachelor’s degree, then studied at Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinematography, “Film studies” department.  Used to work at Armenian TV and radio stations, broadcasting cinematic news and film interviews. Since 2007 she is involved in various cultural, urban and cinema events, festivals and projects. Cooperates with Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival and ReAnimania International Animation Film & Comics Art Festival of Yerevan. She has also covered many international film festivals for local Armenian outlets, some articles are published in English and Russian, specifically for Yerevan magazine, Regional Post - Caucasus and etc. Diana curates auteur film events and promotes public discussions, Q&As and screenings among local audiences, spreading awareness about author cinema on her Instagram page as well. Co-hosted and produced YouTube show “I’d like to talk” discussing with social media personalities, bloggers and social workers burning social-cultural topics in an entertaining way. Currently works at Yerevan State Theatre and Film Institute as lecturer of “Contemporary Cinema” subject.

Vassilis Kroustallis - he is a Greek film and animation professional. He is the Head Editor of Zippy Frames, a leading online international journal on independent animation. He has served as jury member in many animation festivals. He received (2016) the Society for Animation Studies Award for Best Scholarly Article in Animation. His short film scripts The Hotel and Mar(t)y have beeen awarded at various international competitions. He is a voting member of the Annie Awards and a Rotten Tomatoes approved film critic; since 2019, he also works as PÖFF Shorts Animation Programme Director (Estonia).

Yoshimi Itazu - born in Japan in 1980, Itazu began his professional career at the young age of 18 joining Studio Gallop, where he apprenticed under veteran animator Tsukasa Tannai (Castle in the Sky). As an animator, he has worked with directors such as Satoshi Kon (Paranoia Agent, Paprika), Hayao Miyazaki (The Wind Rises, The Boy and the Heron) and Mitsuo Iso (Denno Coil). He made his debut as character designer and lead animator in a feature film in Keiichi Hara’s Annecy-winning Miss Hokusai (2015). His first directorial effort was the Fukushima disaster-themed short Pigtails (2015), which garnered 24 awards. In 2017, he directed his first TV series, Welcome to the Ballroom, and in 2023 he helmed his first feature film, The Concierge, that was awarded at 18th Fantasia Film Festival and the 25th Bucheon International Animation Film Festival.

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM COMPETITION

Géza M. Tóth - Oscar nominated film director, opera director, PhD, DLA university professor, founder of the KEDD Animation Studio, Budapest, member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. As a filmmaker and producer he created some author's short films (e.g. Icar, Maestro, Ergo, Mama, Yes, Matches), animation tv series (e.g. Berry and Dolly, The Kuflis, Boribon, Mitch-Match, Tales of Nasreddin Hodja), experimental art projects, immersive projects and opera directions (e.g. XYZ, The Miraculous Mandarin, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, The Wooden Prince, Nibelung Tetralogy, Mattheus Passion). He has been  teaching from 1994 at some art universities, such as MOME, Budapest; Royal College of Art in London; Babeș–Bolyai University, Cluj and University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest, where he was the rector from 2014 to 2019.

Steve Henderson holds several prominent positions in the animation community. As Festival Director & CEO of Manchester Animation Festival, the UK’s largest animation event he leads the artistic direction of the organisation. As co-owner and editor of Skwigly.com, the nation’s leading online animation magazine and community platform he contributes articles and regularly conducts podcast interviews with top figures in the animation industry. He also consults for industry and sits on juries of major international festivals. With a scholarly background, Steve obtained a PhD from Loughborough University, concentrating on Animation Archives and British Children's Television Animation and has taught at various institutions.

Weronika Płaczek (born 1985) – cultural activities animator, founder and head of the International Animated Film Festival Animocje. Since 2009, she has been associated with Municipal Centre of Culture in Bydgoszcz, where as a curator she coordinates projects related to animated films and is responsible for organizing and coordinating musical and interdisciplinary events. She serves as a jury member at festivals (Opolskie Lamy, ReAnima Festival, StopTrik Festival), selects films (including for the Zoom-Zbliżenia Festival, Lublin Film Festival, Animocje, Fonomo Music & Film Festival, Warsaw Animation Festival), and curates film screenings (including for Animocje, Fonomo Music & Film Festival, StopTrik Festival, LGBT+ Film Festival, Warsaw Animation Festival).

INTERNATIONAL ANIMATED SERIES COMPETITION

Renata Gąsiorowska - animation director and illustrator, graduate of the Łódź Film School. She is the author of short films, animated music videos, illustrations, and short comic forms. Her film "Cipka" was screened at numerous film festivals (including Sundance, Clermont-Ferrand, Annecy, Oberhausen, and Animafest Zagreb) and received multiple awards. Her most recent short film, "Dom w skorupce", was produced for HBO Poland as part of the pandemic anthology "W domu". She is currently working on her feature-length debut.

Joe Holman is an experienced sculptor, puppet designer and modeller with credits including, "Frankenweenie", "Fantastic Mr Fox and Corpse Bride". Joe is also a part time tutor at the National Film and Television School England.

Nik Phelps - born in Texas, composer/musician Nik Phelps now lives and works in Gent, Belgium. He has played with musical artists as diverse as Eric Johnson and Lou Rawls, Frank Sinatra and They Might Be Giants, Frank Zappa and Mary Martin. He recorded for over 10 years with Tom Waits, playing on three soundtracks and five CDs with Tom, from The Black Rider, Bunny, and Mule Variations to Alice, Blood Money and Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards. He began working with film music in 1988 with the Club Foot Orchestra, the influential San Francisco soundtrack group that was the premiere modern silent film orchestra. Since 1995 he has been working in the animation world and was nominated for an Annie Award for his music for the CBS TV series The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat. In 1996 he founded the Sprocket Ensemble, a project combining live music and animated film. He is active in the animation scene, creating music and sound for animators such as Nina Paley, Bill Plympton, Lei Lei and Ivan Maximov. Nik enjoys working with directors of all ages in the field of music and sound design and working with schools, forums and festivals conducting workshops dealing with performance technique and the creative process. He has been a jury member at numerous animation festivals and is currently involved in giving Performance for Pitching workshops at pitching forums throughout Europe.

 POLISH SHORT FILM COMPETITION

Rose Bond creates work at the juncture of expanded cinema and experimental animation. Her large-scale animated installations navigate the allegories of place and illuminate urban space with fragments of the often overlooked – the ‘other’. With roots in frame-by-frame, hand drawn animation, she has since turned her focus towards public media performances. Her current work-in-progress, Earths to Come, an interdisciplinary collaboration with composer inti figgis-vizueta and Roomful of Teeth, pushes her cinema-born aesthetic into the spatialized terrain of VR and domes. Earths to Come, was developed in part at a Multi-disciplinary residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in NYC and at the 2024 Venice Biennale Immersive College.

Dante Rustav - film director, program director of TIAF festival. Was born in Tashkent (Uzbekistan).  Directed his first short film in 2020, based on his own script "The Invasion" and won the Jury Award at 26th Nancy IFF (France) Special Award at 25th Split IFF. Also was shown in festivals at Tirana IFF, "ShortShorts" (Tokyo), “GoEast” (Wiesbaden) etc. Since 2016, he has been promoting independent Uzbek films (in which he acted mostly as a producer) - during this time, the films have been shown at 300 international festivals with various awards. He is also an animation teacher in international laboratories and studios for teenagers and children. The focus of these labs is on regions of Central Asia where adolescents have far fewer educational opportunities.  Since 2020, he has been involved in curatorial programs, participating as a selector and jury in various festivals. In 2022 founded and hosted - first in 30 years of the Uzbekistan independence - International Animation Festival (TIAF). And at the moment he is the program director of TIAF festival.

Mike Hollingsworth - He served as Supervising Director/Co-Executive Producer of all six seasons of BoJack Horseman and piloted the first season of Tuca and Bertie. His BoJack episode “Fish Out of Water” won the 2017 Annecy Cristal and was voted the number one episode of television by Variety and Time magazines that year. On the show he also did voices, some writing, and most of the animal gags. He has written on Comedy Central’s Triptank and was Supervising Director on HBO’s The Life and Times of Tim. His independent animated shorts have been featured in The Annecy Animation festival in France, The HBO Aspen Comedy Festival, The Nicktoons Animation Festival, The Pictoplasma Conference in Germany and Animation Block Party, to name a few.  Most recently Mike was the Supervising Director for Standing By for Hulu/Bento Box. Before that, he was under an overall deal at Netflix Adult Animation where he was an EP on Inside Job and EP/writer/Supervising Director on Cat Burglar.

OPEN CALL

Robin Klengel (1988 in Graz), lives and works as an artist and cultural anthropologist in Vienna and Graz. He researches, writes texts, gives lectures and courses and makes films in the field of artistic-scientific research of urban and digital spaces. He studied cultural anthropology in Graz and Berlin. Since 2021 he is co-chairman of the interdisciplinary art and culture space Forum Stadtpark in Graz. He co-founded the collective in 2018.

Michael Stumpf (1985 in Wels), studied Philosophy in Vienna as well as Media Culture and Art Theories in Linz (unfinished). His research interlaces a background in phenomenology with media and culture semiotics, analyzing the relevance and operating mode of popular cultural tropes. He works as an artist, designer and coder. Stumpf co-founded the collective in 2018.

Nancy Denney-Phelps is a journalist writing about European animation and festivals as well as a producer of music for animation.  Along with her composer/musician husband Nik Phelps, she co-founded the Sprocket Ensemble dedicated to presenting live performances of original music with screenings of contemporary animation from around the world. Nancy's writings have appeared in such publications as CARTOON and ANIMATOON as well as on her regular blog for AWN (Animation World Network).  She is also a regular correspondent for ASIFA/San Francisco and a member of the ASIFA International Board of Directors as well as an Ambassador At Large for the Emile Awards. Nancy has served on numerous International Animation Festival juries and taught time management for animators at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Art and Design.  She is the pitching coach at ANIMARKT in Lodz, Poland as well as a member of their Brain Trust Advisory Board.  She also awards the annual Nancy Award at the Kaboom Animation Festival in Amsterdam. Her strong interest in the history of animation has led her to present programs on the history of animation traced through music at many animation festivals and conferences worldwide.  She also works as advisor to several animation festivals and in 2019 was the recipient of a Life Time Achievement Award from ANIMAKOM Animation Festival in Bilbao, Spain. In 2024 Nancy’s book, ON THE ANIMATION TRAIL 20 Years of Animation Festivals was published.

Miłosz Margański - a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. Since 2009, he has been working with virtual reality and developing interactive projects at the intersection of art, science, and technology.  He leads the second Animation Studio and serves as the Dean for Student Affairs at the Faculty of Animation and Intermedia at the University of the Arts Poznań.