Competition Programme

Born in 1944, in Reconvilier, Switzerland, animation director Georges Schwizgebel has created a remarkably original body of work. His films - whose technical execution is always masterful - are marked by a playful approach to narrative, spectacular formalism, and the intermingling of visuals and music. Schwizgebel studied fine arts, and in 1971 co-founded the GDS studio in Geneva, along with filmmakers Daniel Suter and Claude Luyet. His films have won numerous awards at prestigious international festivals such as Cannes, Annecy, Zagreb, Hiroshima, Stuttgart, Ottawa and Espinho.

At the center of Naomi van Niekerk’s artistic practice is the visual interpretation of poetic and narrative texts written by South African authors, which she transcribes through film, performance and printmaking. Her desire to bring inanimate materials to life drew her to sand animation. She currently lives in Lyon where she works as a visual artist and animator on several projects.

Yuanqing Cai, animation director, concept artist. Born in Xuchang, Henan, now lives in Hangzhou. He graduated from China Academy of Art and Gobelins, L'école de L'image. Founder and director of Momiqimio Production.

Yoav Brill and Dotan Goldwaser are directors and animators, graduates of the Animation Department in the Bezalel school of Arts and Design. They served as art directors for several documentary films and series, including the 2021 Emmy award winning Advocate and There Are No Lions in Tel Aviv. Their short films won awards in animation festivals around the world, including Hiroshima, Stuttgart and Busan. Temporarily Removed is their first collaborative film.

Tara Atarzadeh was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1993. She holds a Masters in Animation and has worked as a character designer, accessory maker, 2D and stop-motion animator and director.

Levi Stoops (1990) lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. After graduating from the RITCS (Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema & Sound) as an animation director he worked as a cook to provide for himself while writing his first animation short. During this time his graduation short D:729 was selected on a number of festivals wordwide. Now he made Drijf, his debut short film as a professional director.

Ricardo Kump from São Paulo, Brazil has been working as a designer and set designer for music videos, documentaries and commercials since 2005. Cactus is his first short film.

With a bachelor's degree in film production, Colin Racicot has been directing short fiction since 2010. His passion for drawing and animation has led him to produce motion design content at Outpost and Haus, where he holds the position of artistic director. In 2020, he began developing his very first animated short, Where Rabbits Come From, under the supervision of Sylvain Chomet.

Clémence Bouchereau (1989) is a designer and director specialised in direct animation and traditional techniques. She studied at the Emile Cohl School in Lyon where she learned animation and illustration. She continued her studies at La Poudrière school in Valence from 2012 to 2014. Clémence's films are objects in motion, made where cinema meets craftsmanship.

Geza M. Toth is Oscar nominated filmmaker, university professor and head of KEDD Animation Studio. He works in several artistic fields: producer and director of short films (Icar, Maestro, Ergo, Mama) and animation tv series (Berry and Dolly, The Kuflis). He also works as a director and visual designer for theater and operas (Nibelungen, The Miraculous Mandarin, The Bluebeard’s Castle), illustrating books, lecturing, scriptwriting.

During his study graphic design, Dutch filmmaker Erik van Schaaik started working for Dutch television, creating a series of animated films, live action drama and documentaries, in a variety of styles and techniques. For the big screen he created award-winning animated short films Vent, The Phantom Of The Cinema and the stop-motion horror comedy Under The Apple Tree.

Carlos Montoya has trained as an audiovisual producer and stop motion animator. He has made small documentary works and three stop motion short films, independently produced, which have participated in different national and international festivals. His works can be found as 'Del entretecho'.

Max Kulikov (1992) graduated from Ural State Art Academy, Yekaterinburg, Department of Graphics and Animation, 2016. Director of advertising and creative projects of the studio Light Stories. He directed season 2 of TV series Leo and Tig by Parovoz animation studio, Moscow. Creative producer and production director of the animated series Zebra in the Cell by animation studio Soyuzmultfilm, Moscow, as well as advertising projects for brands Levi's, Kaspersky lab, Sberbank, Central Bank, HSE, Soyuzmultfilm, KINDER, Raiffeisen Bank, and others.

Simone Massi was born in Pergola (Italy) on May 23rd, 1970. After getting his degree in Animated Cinema from the State Institute of Fine Arts of Urbino, he began to work as a free-lance animator.

Pernille Kjaer (1989) is a Danish independent animation filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist. Former student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Aarhus, she completed her studies with a BA in character animation from The Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark. Her work includes short animated films, but also prints, painting and sculptures.

Lea Vidakovic is an artist and animation film director who works with animated installations, expanded media practices and puppet animation. She holds a BA/MA of graphic art and painting (Academy of Arts, Zagreb); BA in animation (Norway); MA of audio-visual arts (KASK, Belgium) and a PhD in animation studies (NTU/ADM Singapore). She is a winner of several art and film awards. She teaches animation at Lusofona University, Lisbon.

Bar Vaknine, Tamar Sharvit and Matan Levi are script writers, designers, and animation film makers. They are graduates of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.

Aleksandr Vasilyev was born in 1979 in Troitsk town (Moscow region), Russia. In 2017 graduated from School-Studio of animation film SHAR as a animation film director.

Vuk Jevremovic (1959, Frankfurt on Main) graduated in Architecture at the Technical Faculty in Belgrade in 1984, and in 2002 he graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich as a masters’ student in the class of Joseph Kosuth. His films have been screened and awarded at film festivals around the world.

Junyi Xiao is an award-winning filmmaker and animation artist. His films have been selected and screened at many international animation festivals all over the word including Annecy and Hiroshima. In 2015 and 2017, his films After School and Elsewhere were nominated for two Annie Awards.

Joachim Hérissé is an animator, author and director of animated films. Self-taught, he first worked as a 3D animator in Parisian special effects and animation studios. He then produced his first cut-out animation series for Canal+ jeunesse, such as Moko enfant du monde, Un funny d'animal or Bama le caïman. Passionate about puppet animation, he devoted himself to writing and producing stop motion animation and created the company Komadoli Studio in 2015. His latest short film Écorchée was multi-awarded and selected for the César 2023.

Claudius Gentinetta was 1968 born in Lucerne. Studies in graphic design and animation in Lucerne, Liverpool and Kassel. 1995 scholarship year in Cracow. Working as freelance graphic artist and animator in Zurich. He is one of the most acclaimed animation filmmakers in Switzerland. He is especially known for his award-winning short films The Cable Car, Sleep and Selfies.

Lucija Mrzljak (1990) completed her master’s in animation as a student of Priit and Olga Pärn in Estonia. Her student films Shuma and Corner screened at festivals around the world. In 2019, she made a music video for the Oscar-winning musician Glen Hansard. She has worked with Morten Tšinakov on short films for the Estonian animation studio Eesti Joonisfilm and the Adriatic Animation Studio in Zagreb. Alongside her work as an animation filmmaker, she is also an illustrator and a guest lecturer in animation and illustration at the Estonian Academy of Fine Arts.

Morten Tšinakov studied animation at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn where he made two films. Since graduating, he has been working at the Estonian animation studio Joonisfilm where, in collaboration with Lucija Mrzljak, he has co-created A Demonstration of Brilliance in Four Acts, The Stork and Eeva.

Franck Dion has worked in several fields. He collaborates with publishing houses, magazines, creates sets for the theater and also designs animations for documentaries. With a few friends, he founded the production company PAPY3D in 2006. Frank’s films The Phantom Inventory (2003), Monsieur COK (2008) Edmond was a donkey (2012), A Head Disappears (2016) received numerous awards at festivals around world. Franck also produced the graphic universe of the digital fiction Alienare (Seuil editions) in collaboration with Chloé Delaume as well as the Illustrations of the board game Dixit Daydreams (Libelud editions).

Flóra Anna Buda graduated as an animation film director at MOME in Budapest. She is deeply interested in dreams and science, but she likes to feed her stories with personal content. In 2018, she directed the short film Entropia selected in many festivals (including the competition at the Berlinale).

Vuk Palibrk was born in 1987 in Belgrade, Serbia. He graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 2011 in the course of Illustration and Book design. In 2016 he finished his master studies at Berlin University of the Arts in the department of Visual Communications. He works on illustrations for various papers and publications, short comics, animated films and different kind of short animated formats.

Tanja Brzakovic was born in Belgrade. She received a master‘s degree in Directing from the University of Belgrade in Serbia, as well as from the University of Hamburg, in Germany. She writes and directs shorts, documentaries and video art. Her films have been screened at festivals all over the world and garnered numerous awards. Tanja is a member of European Film Academy.

Mattias Mälk (born 1987) made his directing debut at Eesti Joonisfilm studio back in 2014 with the film noir monster movie Northern Starfish. Horror and comedy further crept into his second animated short film Strawberry Eaters (2018). Mattias' most comedic animated short film to date Operation LARP (2023) is a silly mix-up leads soldiers to clash with larpers. Besides writing screenplays and directing, Mattias has worked at the studio as an inbetweener, animator, compositor and 3D artist.

Raphaëlle Stolz was born in 1989 in Geneva, Switzerland. 2011 Graduates with a degree in Illustration and Painting from the École Emile Cohl in Lyon. 2014 Graduates from the École des Gobelins in Animation. A multidisciplinary artist, she is a director of animated shorts, an AD, a set designer, an animator and a painter.

Choi Min-ho was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1970. He graduated from the Korea National University of Arts majoring animation.

After studying graphic design and training at the Beaux-Arts d'Épinal, Osman Cerfon completed his studies at the La Poudrière school where he directed three films, including Tête-à-tête, his graduation film. He worked on various projects as a scriptwriter or technician for Folimage, then for Jesuisbiencontent, the studio that produced the two parts of Chroniques de la Poisse. Since 2013, he has been working closely with Miyu Productions, an animation studio that produced his short film Je sors acheter des cigarettes.

Anita Lebeau has created several acclaimed short films with the National Film Board of Canada – Louise, Big Drive and A Change of Scenery. Anita has also produced, written and directed a number of documentary films, and taught digital animation at the University of Manitoba School of Art. In 2019 she debuted her independent animated film, Face|Time.

Jorn Leeuwerink (1990) tells seemingly sweet fables about serious themes, with dark humor and a playful visual style. His graduation short Flower Found! was included in the prestigious Animation Show of Shows, selected for 70+ festivals (a.o. Annecy, Zagreb and Hiroshima) and won 17 prizes. Pig marks his professional debut. Besides directing animation, he co-founded and curates the annual Fluxus Animation Festival.