Anibar International Animation Film Festival announces its juries!

We are very proud to introduce to you this edition’s juries

The 12th edition of the Anibar International Animation Film Festival is just around the corner. We are very proud to introduce to you this edition’s juries. The festival’s theme will be isolation, where most of the work presented will revolve around this theme. More than 300 movies will be screened during the course of the festival. The films will be divided into nine categories. Six of these categories are competitions: the International Competition, Student Competition, Balkan Competition, Animated Music Video Competition, Feature Film Competition, and the Human Rights Category. The three other categories are non-competitive: Panorama Out Of Competition, Kids & Teen Program, and Experimental Special Program.

Unlike other editions, this year the festival will consist of three different juries. These three different juries will consist of animation international professionals, local public figures and artists as well as animation students, their main focus will be to pick out the best of the best from all of the aforementioned movie categories.

The first one on the list is the Grand Jury of the festival, consisting entirely of international animation professionals, known for their craft and expertise in the field. This jury will analyze in extensive detail and decide on the winner of these categories: International Competition which contains 35 movies in total, as well as The Feature Film Competition, bringing to the screen a total of 5 full length animated movies waiting to be watched.

The jury members are:

Fabian Driehorst co-founded the film production studio Fabian&Fred and is a producer of animation and hybrid films, often in international co-productions. His films were widely distributed and screened in more than 800 festivals.

Joni Männistö, born in 1981 in Finland, is a filmmaker and animator. After graduating from Turku Arts Academy in 2011 he became an active member of several Finnish animation collectives that work on both commercial and artistic projects. The collective work includes animated films as well as art installations for exhibitions. Männistö has directed films such as The Trap (2008), Swarming (2011) and Electric Soul (2013), which have all been screened at numerous international festivals.

Lori Malépart-Traversy is an animation film director from Montreal, Canada. She studied visual arts and film animation at Concordia University. Lately, the animated documentary has been her favorite medium to communicate her creative ideas and the messages she wants to transmit. Her thesis movie “The Clitoris” (2016) has been an international success in the festivals circuit and online. The movie explores the female sensuality.

Mauro Carraro, born in the North-East of Italy. After finishing his studies in engraving, photography and graphic design at the Polytechnic University of Milan, he took his journey further by continuing his academic path in France. His first professional animated short film “Hasta Santiago” was awarded as the Best Debut Film at Annecy Festival in 2014 and received over two dozens of awards worldwide. Since 2014 his masterclass “Sensible 3d” and his workshop “How to open your 3D eyes” were held at more than 30 different schools and festivals such as Korans Wolf Universityin Berlin, IED Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan and Vilnius Academy of Arts in Vilnius.

Yvonne van Ulden, born in 1978 in the Netherlands, is a specialist in visual storytelling. She works as creative director, producer, lecturer, advisor and curator in the field of animation and VR. Yvonne has a love for hybrid projects and likes to explore all the possibilities of animation. With a background in world of art studies she was a theory lecturer for film and animation students at a Dutch Art Academy, when 2008 she became involved with the newly formed KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival. From that moment on it was the art of animation that determined her life. She is one of the go-to animation experts in the Netherlands and advises multiple subsidiary organizations on the funding of animation and innovative VR/media productions like the Flemish Audiovisual Fund and the Dutch Broadcasting Fund (NPO) and she led the promotional campaign for Dutch animation at Cartoon Movie in 2019.

 

We try to make every edition of the festival as memorable as it can possibly be. And the juries play a huge role in selecting the best animation works that truly portray the complete potential of the animation world. To further reach our intended goal, the festival would not be the same without our Student Jury. This jury consists mainly of animation students which will make the final selections in these categories: Student Competition which has a total of 31 movies, and the Balkan Competition garnering a total of 9 films.

The jury members are:

Sarah Lugthart graduated in 2004 from the University of Utrecht (New Media and Digital
Culture). She started working at the Dutch Institute for Animation Film (NIAF), where she was primarily responsible for festival distribution. After that she worked for the Association for Film Theatres in Brabant (VBF), which merged in 2009 to become the current Kunstloc Brabant. She organized workshops, film screenings and network meetings. Alongside her work at the academy Sarah Lugthart was also a member of the Professional Arts Fund Committee (Subsidieregeling Professionele Kunsten), brabants kenniscentrum voor kunst en cultuur (now Kunstloc), and an advisor on animation for the Dutch Film Fund in 2011 and 2012. She lives in Antwerp. Sarah will be mentoring the Student Jury this year.

Blend Leci is an animator from Pristina who is twenty years old. He has been involved in animation ever since he was twelve years old. He now specializes in character animation.

Lisjan Bajri, born in Peja in 1998, is a self-taught 3D Artist. He first started learning about animation when he was a child. He experimented and started learning at that very young age, when he found out the possibility of customizing the characters. He officially started his career when he landed his first job as a 3D Artist at the age of sixteen, at NGO “Syiov”. After that he continued his journey by working for different companies, NGOs as well as individual projects in the field of sculpting, modeling and animating. He has recently started his own studio called “brainwash3D”.

Lorna Çekixhi, graduated in Set and Costume Design. She has a passion for animation and puppetry, but mostly for characters and set design. During 2021, she has already been a part of two stop motion animation projects, more specifically a stop motion short film and a video clip.

Nora Jusufi is 18 years old. She is a Design student, as well as a part time animator. Nora was part of the third generation of the Animation’s Academy. She has a keen interest in animation and illustration. Being part of the academy opened up a lot of opportunities for her to further perfect her craft.

Driton Goleshi was born in Deggendorf, Germany in 1993. He came back to Kosovo in 2001. He was always known as a kid full of imagination. Even though he studied Computer Sciences he never stopped channeling his inner child in all of his work. He created “2cm humans” an art style that aims to illustrate people and their stories with no limits to the imagination.

 

For the cherry on top to an already jam packed festival agenda, we introduce to you for the first time ever, the Jury for Animated Music Video containing 41 films and Human Rights Competitions containing 22 films. The members of this jury are:

Alban Nimani, a renowned professor of intermedia, graphic designer as well as songwriter and performer. For over a decade he has been working as a professor of New Media at the Faculty of Arts in Pristina where he was also The Head of the Applied Arts Department. He has an acclaimed music career as the leader of the alternative band Asgje Sikur Dielli, who published 4 music albums and many music videos. He also produced a solo intermedia performance which was shown in Galleries and Art Institutions in Kosova, Albania, Italy, Mexico andSouth Africa. Currently he is involved in art management and promotion as the director of Tulla – Culture Center in Tirana, where he leads the visual arts, non-formal educational and music programs of the center.

Ana Nedeljkovic born in Belgrade in 1978. She graduated in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. She was awarded a PhD in art practice at the same faculty. She is a visual artist working in the media of drawing, installation and animated film, and is also active in art education. The first film “Rabbitland” (2013) was awarded the Crystal Bear at the Berlinale. It has also received numerous other awards and has been shown at more than a hundred festivals worldwide. The second film “Untravel” (2018) was premiered at Berlinale, screened at Annecy and Sundance and nominated for the Annie Award.

Paola Orlic is the producer of the World Festival of Animated Film Animafest Zagreb, art historian and independent curator. She graduated with a degree in art history and philosophy from the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and holds an MA from the College of Art, Ohio University, USA, with a focus on art and film.

With the festival being only a few weeks away from us, we are more than certain that our appointed juries for this edition of the festival will do their best to ensure that all of the movies that await to be showcased will be rightfully chosen as winners of the categories. Now that we have officially announced the jury, stay on the lookout for a lot more exciting information coming your way, as we near the start of the festival to celebrate together!