INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITON

MAGDALENA OSIŃSKA -  has directed stop-motion, CGI, 2D and live-action commercials including Wallace & Gromit’s “The Great Sofa Caper” and “Share the Orange.” Osinska directed development of the children’s series Joyets and has also directed films including Spirits of the Piano and Zbigniev’s Cupboard. A graduate of the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, UK, as well as the Polish Film School in Lodz and Art College in Warsaw, Osinska is currently developing two feature films Ro and Jasia. 

Magdalena Osinska is an award-winning director who’s most recently directed Lucas Film’s eagerly anticipated second instalment of ‘Star Wars: Visions’ series, filmed at Aardman HQ in Bristol. Launched May 4th, 2023, on Disney+, the animated film is titled ‘I Am Your Mother’. 

MARK TAYNTON - Head of Adult Swim for EMEA at Warner Bros Discovery, a leading global media and entertainment company. Adult Swim is a leader in adult animation and is the home of global smash hit “Rick and Morty”, the Emmy-Award winning “Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal”, “Royal Crackers”, “Smiling Friends” and many more. South Africa born, but London based, Mark leads all aspects of the fast-growing Adult Swim brand, with a special focus on growing relationships and collaboration opportunities with European content creators. 

EBELE OKOYE - Africa’s pioneering female animator, Ebele Okoye, boasts over 20 years of experience as an animation entrepreneur, changemaker, and equity advocate. Recognised globally, she’s a two-time laureate of the Africa Movie Academy Award. Her accolades extend to institutions like The DEFA Foundation, Focus Features and Robert Bosch Foundation along with honours from the Californioa State Legislature, United States Congress and Amnesty international. With a portfolio spanning international co-productions, jury work, and educational endeavours, including animation tutelage at the Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany, Okoye has left an indelible mark on the animation landscape. She has founded several animation training initiatives including “AniJolly Girls’ Training,” and is the CEO of the EdTech brand SpunkyToonz, promoting healthy, social, and eco-friendly values in young minds 

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE AND ANIMATED SERIES COMPETITIONS

KARI JUUSONEN - After studying both live-action filmmaking and animation, Kari launched his career with a stop-motion short film, Pizza Passionata, in 2001. Two more short films followed, then his first feature, Niko and The Way to the Stars, in 2008. He has been busy with animation ever since and made short films, animated series, and two more animated feature films. 

DIEGO HERGUERA ACOSTA - Licensed architect in Barcelona, where he studied at the ETSABarcelona (UPC). He worked for several years at the Mies van der Rohe Foundation designing exhibitions for the Venice Biennale among others before founding his own art and architecture estudio el palmeral: “el palmeral somos todos”. In 2017 he began working in feature animation film production as a continuation of the shorts he had independently produced, and now leads Sultana Films, an independent animation studio based in Donostia. An avid DIY believer, he is continuously implementing new techniques in what he has termed “digital artisanry” that uses analog and digital, where he is currently working on implementing AI as another tool within the creative process.

MARÍA TRÉNOR - Graduated in Fine Arts from the Faculty of San Carlos (Valencia), she has produced and directed many short 35 mm animated films. Among them is “Con que la lavaré?”, which has won more than fifteen national and international awards, including: 1st Teddy Bear Prize for Best Short Film at the 54th BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL; This short appeared in the official section of the main international festivals, such as SUNDANCE 2005 and ANNECY 2004. His second 35 mm short film, EXILIBRIS, was nominated for best animated short film at the 25th GOYA Awards of the Spanish Film Academy. With her most committed short film "Where were you?" It won the 1st prize for the best project against sexist violence from the Valencia City Council, in addition to numerous official selections and awards at film festivals abroad (USA, Canada, Japan, Kosovo, among others). Currently, she has just finished her first animated musical feature film "Rock Bottom". 

POLISH ANIMATED FILM COMPETITION

MONA SHEDED - Journalist/ Film Critic, Media consultant, Programmer and Program coordinator,
passionate about cinema, history, and anthropology, Studied Egyptology at Cairo University,
Folk Literature at the Egyptian Academy of Art, and Film Criticism at Ain Shams university.
Currently working as Screen Daily Middle East correspondent, editor at Al-Ahram daily
newspaper -one of the oldest journalism outlet in the Arab world-, Head of Department at
Alaa Eldin Children Magazine, Media Consultant at Eazees International Women’s Theater
Festival, and working with Cairo International Film Festival as a Managing Editor for its Daily
Bulletin, a Q&A Moderator, and a Press officer responsible for the foreign press covering the
festival. Writing as a freelance for several websites, Al-Ahram online, Rassef22, Fasllah, ida2at and
Fenon culture magazine. She also contributed as a culture correspondent at many Egyptian and Arabic newspapers and magazines since 2006, such as Al-Ahram Al Massai, Al-Ahram Hebdo, Al-Badeel, Al-Mawkif Al-Arabi weekly magazine and newspaper, Masrahona weekly newspaper, Dar Al
Khaleej newspaper, Al-Shrook Gulf Magazine. In 2016, she worked with Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater (CIFET) as a Managing Editor for its bulletin, as well as managing its Press Office, and a member of its selection committee. I was also a member of the selection committee at the 9th edition of the National Egyptian Theater Festival. She contributed to many festivals’ bulletins such as Cairo Cinema Days bulletin, which is held by Zawya Cinema, and the National Egyptian Theater Festival.
In addition to covering local festivals in Egypt I also travel and cover major international film
festivals, in Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Rotterdam as well as film and theater festivals in Arab
countries such as Morocco, Algeria, and UAE.

JON FRICKEY - was born 1979 in Stade, Germany to American parents. After being awarded his Diploma in Communications Design from the HAW Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, he worked as Art Director with Scholz und Friends Berlin. Since 2006, he is a freelance animation director. His short ­lm CAT DAYS/NEKO NO HI premiered at the 2018 Berlinale, was internationally acclaimed and quali­ed for the Academy Awards. His current short ­lm ZOOPTICON is a animated musical collaboration with ‑ies Mynther and Sandra Trostel. It has received numerous international awards and deals with almost every topic the ­lmmakers could think of. Jon Frickey also works for German televions networks. He writes and animates for the political satire show “extra3” and acts as showrunner for the WDR production “OhneTitel3000”. Jon lives in Hamburg, Germany.

ALBA SOTORRA - is a director and an independent producer. Her films have won prestigious awards, including two Gaudí Awards and a Digital Broadcast Award. She has also been nominated for an EMMY and a Goya Award. A graduate of EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs), she founded AlbaSotorra in 2015, a Barcelona-based production company specializing in animation, real action and documentaries for cinema. 

Motivated by the need to address the lack of diverse perspectives in the film industry, Sotorra is dedicated to produce stories directed by non-hegemonic voices. Her films explore contemporary social and political issues with a strong commitment to these themes. 

With a portfolio that includes participation in internationally renowned festivals such as Berlinale, Tallinn Black Nights, SXSW, HotDocs, Shanghai, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian, and Rotterdam, Sotorra's extensive experience also extends to collaborations in international co-productions with partners in Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, and Greece.  

She is the producer of "Rock Bottom", a musical animation feature film for adults, premiered this year at Annecy Film Festival and opening film at Animator Film Festival.