Anna Vasova
Anna Vasova is a scriptwriter and producer. She started as a Script Executive at Czech TV, later became its Director of Programmes. After that she coordinated international co-productions in Eurovision, Geneva. In 2018 she has co-funded an animation outfit 13ka.Now Anna works there as a producer and/or writer on international feature films and a series (for example Katarina Kerekesova’s Websters or Kristina Dufkova’s Living Large). Anna occasionally lectures at FAMU, participates at international workshops as a tutor and works as an expert for the MEDIA programme.
Draško Ivezić
Draško Ivezić was born in 1975 in Pula, Croatia. He now lives in Angoulême, France. He works as an animated film director, screenwriter, producer, and voice actor. He co-founded Adriatic Animation in Croatia. He collaborates with talents from Croatia and Eastern and Central Europe.Ivezić has worked on various projects as a creative producer. These include short films, TV shows, and feature films. In his 12-year career, he has produced 14 short animated films. His work has won awards at major festivals like Animafest Zagreb, OIAF, and Annecy. It was chosen for Sundance, TIFF, and Berlinale. It is also on the shortlist for the 2024 Oscars.
Yves Nougarede
Yves Nougarede discovered animation through television and soon began experimenting with clay animation using an 8mm camera. After refusing military service, he joined the film department of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where he immersed himself in the world of animated cinema.Since 1997, this role has allowed him to view over 3,000 films annually. In 2012, he became a permanent member of Annecy’s selection committee, and in 2016, he also took charge of programming Virtual Reality works. After 28 years of dedicated service, he stepped down from the Festival in May.
Helga Fodorean
Helga Fodorean is a cultural manager and film producer with a scriptwriting background and a soft spot for animation. She co-produced Balázs Turai’s award-winning short Amok, among other festival-favourite shorts. Since 2018, she’s been part of the Animest team, now running the show as president and financial director. She’s also big on supporting women in animation, making that a key part of her mission at Animest.
Laura Almantaitė
Festival director and film producer Laura Almantaitė started her career in the audiovisual sector in 2007 with the Paris-based Media Consulting Group.Laura has worked on a dozen film projects, both as a consultant and a producer, including documentary, animation and fiction films; she focuses on social topics and international coproductions.
She also took managerial positions in several film and culture organizations (as Vilnius European Capital of Culture, Vilnius Documentary Film Festival and other). In 2014 Laura founded BLON Animation and Games Festival, remaining the festival's director to date. She is a graduate from Sorbonne University and holds a Master’s degree in Culture Economics.
Marko Tadić
Marko Tadić studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, and his artistic practice spans drawing, installation, and animation. Over the years, he has received numerous awards, including the Vladimir Nazor Award for Best Exhibition (2015), the Best Design Award at the Festival of Croatian Animation FHAF (2012), Third Prize at the T-HT@MSU exhibition in Zagreb (2010), and the prestigious Radoslav Putar Award for Best Young Contemporary Artist (2008).He has participated in several international artist residencies in cities such as Helsinki, New York, Los Angeles, Frankfurt am Main, and Vienna. As an educator, he has collaborated with the Art Academy in Zagreb, leading workshops in artist books, field recordings, and radio dramas. He currently teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb as an assistant professor in the painting department, and at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA) in Milan, where he lectures on exhibition design and visual arts.
His animated and experimental films have been featured at numerous international festivals, and his visual art has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions around the world. In 2017, together with Tina Gverović, he represented Croatia at the 57th Venice Biennale.
Tal Kantor
Tal Kantor is an award-winning animation filmmaker, visual artist, lecturer, and mentor. She is the director and writer of the 2024 Oscar®-nominated short film "Letter to a Pig" (2022) and the acclaimed "In Other Words" (2016), both of which have garnered numerous awards, including Ottawa, Animafest and Anibar International Grand Prix (2022), and have been showcased at over 250 festivals worldwide.In addition, Tal develops concept art and serves as animation director mainly on documentary films, including the Emmy Award-winning feature "Advocate" (2021), which was also shortlisted for an Oscar® in 2020. She graduated with honors from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, where she currently lectures in the Screen-Based Arts Department and mentors independent filmmakers through various workshops around the world.
Tomek Popakul
Animation director ("Ziegenort", "Acid Rain" "Zima"). Likes sweets, long walks and making photos. Draws his own tarot deck now. Makes horrible music under alias ASTMA.
Bastien Dubois
Bastien Dubois is a French animation director whose work blends personal storytelling with global themes. He gained international recognition with his first independent short film, Madagascar, a Journey Diary, inspired by a year-long trip to the island, which was nominated for an Oscar in 2011 and screened at over 200 festivals worldwide. A graduate of Supinfocom, Dubois is passionate about travel, a theme that continues throughout his work, including Faces From Places—a 20-episode animated travel series—and Cargo Cult, set in Papua New Guinea during World War II.In 2021, Dubois released Souvenir Souvenir, a deeply personal and stylistically rich short film exploring intergenerational silence, memory, and trauma linked to the Algerian War. The film won Best Animated Short at Sundance, an Annie Award, and was shortlisted for the Oscars. Beyond filmmaking, he is the founder of the NGO Art Brutal, which promotes animation through workshops and an annual grant for emerging artists. A multidisciplinary artist, he also practices music, sculpture, tattooing, linocut, and silk printing.
Rianne Stremmelaar
Rianne Stremmelaar is an animation filmmaker and illustrator from Zwolle, the Netherlands. She makes commercial work as well as short 2D animation films. In her own work, she likes to create personal stories using human-animal relationships. She has directed and animated several short films, such as Moonday, Hireath and Ultrakort Penumbra. Besides this work, she also teaches animation at the Artez Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Zwolle.
Vasco Sá
Vasco Sá graduated in Sound and Image by School of Arts, UCP. In this context he meets David Doutel, with whom he has shared several projects: “The Shoemaker”, “Fuligem-Soot”, “Augur” and “Garrano”. He has been collaborating with Bando à Parte since 2011, where he has integrated the team of multiple films of different authors, both in the artistic and production departments.He is one of the founders of BAP-Animation Studios, where he works as a director and producer, together with Doutel. Both are currently working on “UNA”, their first animated feature film. He likes to see the mountains in front of him.
Leka Gjonbalaj
Leka Gjonbalaj grew up in Belgium and discovered a passion for drawing during his science studies. As a self-taught artist, he specializes in oil paintings, mural art, and character design. When he’s not immersed in his creative work, Leka enjoys practicing sports.
Rina Lasku
Rina Lasku is a visual artist and animator born in Gjakova, Kosovo, currently living and working in Prishtina. She holds a degree in Art and Digital Media from UBT University and was part of the seventh generation of the Anibar Animation Academy. After completing her studies, Rina held her first solo exhibition in 2024 in Peja, titled “Clown and Juggler”, where she presented a series of paintings exploring the duality between chaos and play through an expressive visual language.Her experience at the Animation Academy deepened her knowledge of 2D animation and allowed her to collaborate on her first animated short film, “Harthwarm”, a collective project presented at the Anibar Festival as part of the academy’s student program. Inspired by her first steps in animation, Rina is currently developing a new animated film that aims to merge painting, visual storytelling, and her personal artistic experience into a fresh creative expression.
Rrezarta Sadriu
Rrezarta Sadriu is a passionate visual storyteller and 2D animator, currently pursuing her Bachelor's degree in Animation at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. She graduated as a graphic designer in 2024 from the Basel School of Design, building a strong foundation in visual communication and design.Born and raised in Switzerland, with roots from Preshevë, Rrezarta brings a unique sense of stylization to her creative work. From a young age, she expressed her imagination through drawing, filling every surface she could find with characters, ideas, and stories. Her love for storytelling has remained constant, now evolving into dynamic animated worlds.
During her graphic design apprenticeship, she collaborated on a variety of creative client projects, gaining hands-on experience in bringing ideas to life. Her approach is never just about making things “look pretty” it's about making them work.
Gent Ademaj
Gent Ademaj is a motion designer and animator from Kosovo with over five years of experience in the field of animation and motion design.He has completed numerous projects for television and digital platforms, contributing to the creation of visual identities, 3D animations, and impactful media campaigns.
With an academic background in Art and Digital Media, his work is characterized by a contemporary visual style and a futuristic approach to storytelling through moving images.
Vessela Dantcheva
Vessela Dantcheva is animation director and producer. She graduates in Animation at Rotterdam Art Academy in 2002 and gains her animation experience in the Netherlands. Her first professional film is ‘Anna Blume’, then she is part of the creation of ‘Father’, ‘Travelling Country’, the poetry collection ‘Mark & Verse’, ‘Hierarchy Glitch’, ‘Trace’, ‘Balconada’ and many others.In 2008 she co-founds Compote Collective and since then she is managing the production of diverse artistic animation films, which are screened and awarded worldwide. Compote Collective is one of the leading animation production companies in Bulgaria with a record of 45 animated films. Vessela is invited often to participate in workshops, presentations and as a jury member at international festivals and pitching events. She is a lecturer in animation studies at New Bulgarian University and National Academy of Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Alisa Fejza
Alisa Fejza is an 18-year-old animator and multimedia artist from Pristina who began her creative journey in Belgium through music, art, and acting. She created the stop-motion films Team Mortis and Ik mis je mam’s, both featuring original music composed by herself. After returning to Kosovo, she joined the club Artistët e Rinj and helped build models of cultural symbols like Lidhja e Prizrenit and Xhubleta. As president of the Interact Club M3, she co-organized the exhibition Living by the Dim Light, which recreated improvised home-schools used during the war in Kosovo.She also contributed to the documentary The Green Witch with RYCO and a project focused on painter Sali Shijaku. Through the Anibar Animation Academy, she collaborated with a team to create her first animated short film, Fighting Your Mosquitoes. Alisa is currently developing Fading Echoes, an animated documentary exploring life with dementia and challenging perceptions of memory and aging.
Manon Messiant
Manon Messiant is a French producer based in Paris at the independent company Iliade et Films. After studying political science, she began her career as a production assistant on film sets before joining Kazak Productions (Genius Loci by adi Merigeau, The Night of the plastic bags by Gabriel Harel). In 2017, she decided to focus on independent animation and joined Sacrebleu Productions, where she oversaw the production of all short animated projects (Here comes the bear by Agnès Patron).Since 2018, she has been an associate producer at Iliade et Films, where she develops and produces films by emerging auteurs in both animation (Vergine Keaton, Loïc Espuche, Florent Grattery, Vaiana Gauthier) and live action (Félix de Givry, Valentin Noujaïm).
In 2025, Yuck!, directed by Loïc Espuche (produced by Iliade et Films and Ikki Films), won the César Award for Best Animated Short and was nominated for the Academy Award in the same category
Corinne Destombes
Corinne Destombes is Head of development at Folimage, France. After working ten years in the Cinema industry, Corinne Destombes began Animation at renowned French studio Folimage in 2005, on series and short films. In 2011 she produced short formats and supervised the Artist-in-Residence program, while developing TV series projects.Always looking for talented writers and unreleased films, she defends especially quality projects for young audiences. Today she is the Head of Development of Folimage and collaborates regularly in juries, debates and workshops in France and abroad.
Olivier Catherin
Olivier Catherin is an ethnologist by training. He was a board member and employee of the French Animation Film Association (AFCA), where he was responsible for the Resource Centre and created the International Animation Film Day Celebration. In 2008 he created the production company “Les Trois Ours”. He produced, among more than 40 projects, including Kiki of Montparnasse which won a César for best short animation film. From 2015 to 2018 he was in charge of the animation sector for the Hauts-de-France region (Nord) at Pictanovo. He is one of the co-founders and administrators of the European Animation Awards (Emile Awards).Today he is a freelance producer on international co-production projects, producing for instance Steakhouse (Jury Prize at Annecy), Granny’s Sexual Life (Best short European Films Awards, César for best short animation film) or Electra (best short film at Toronto International Film Festival), consultant for various entities as CITIA, CEE Animation, he was in charge of Annecy 2020’s African focus or a study of the animation eco-system in Nigeria for the French Development Agency. He’s also teaching animation production and film history (National Audiovisual Institute - INA sup, Sciences Po). He has conducted project development and pitching workshops in Georgia for the past 10 years, and also in Ecuador, Venezuela, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Austria.
/