Igor Prassel

Slovenija

was born in 1971 in the Slovenian coast town Koper-Capodistria. He was a long time co-editor of the only Slovene comics magazine Stripburger. From 1998 he is running a monthly animation film program at the Slovenian Cinematheque. He is working as a freelance journalist, animation film programmer and board member for many different film and contemporary arts festivals in Slovenia and abroad. From 2008 until 2014 he collaborated with the World Festival of Animated Films Animafest Zagreb as programme adviser. In 2012 the Slovenian Cinematheque published his book “The Filmography of Slovene Animated Film 1952 – 2012”. From 2013 until 2016 he was the director of the Festival of Slovenian Film. From February 2017 he was appointed as film curator and head of the program department at the Slovenian Cinematheque. In 2004 he founded the International Animation Film Festival Animateka, where he is the artistic director.

Michael Frei

Switzerland

Michael Frei is co-founder of Playables, a production company for peculiar projects based in Zürich. Frei’s films received numerous awards all over the world. He was invited to Animation Artist in Residence Tokyo in 2014. His interactive project Plug & Play was nominated for the Nuovo Award at the Independent Games Festival and won the Best Arts Award along with the Audience Award at the Tokyo Game Show 2015. He is now working on Kids, a multimedia-project about the psychology of the group.

Anna Budanova

Russia

Born in Yekaterinburg (Russia), Anna Budanova studied animation at the Ural State University of Architecture and Art and has worked as an animator on various films. In 2013, she directed her first short, The Wound, which received more than 20 international awards. In 2015, her project Among the Black Waves was selected by the Japan Image Council for its artists residence. Premiere of the ready film took place at 69 Locarno Film Festival. Anna Budanova is currently living and working in France.

Liu Jian

China

Liu Jian studied Chinese landscape painting and graduated from the Nanjing University of the Arts in 1993. Over the past two decades, his work has drawn on a range of media and aesthetic approaches and has been presented at major exhibitions both in China and abroad. In 1995, he began making works of animation and in 2007 he independently established the Le-joy Animation Studio. His first feature-length animation work, Piercing I, premiered at Holland Animation Film Festival and received numerous prestigious awards at film festivals across Asia and Europe. His second feature-length animation film, Have A Nice Day, was premiered and selected for main competition at 67th Berlin International Film Festival 2017.

Keita Kurosaka

Japan

After debuting with the short film METAMORPHOSE WORKS No.2(1984), Kurosaka develops various creative activities with making animation as the main axis. His films have been awarded at many festivals like in Annecy and Ottawa. His first feature film MIDORI-KO (2010), made with pencil drawings, were shown all over the world. He directed and animated music videos for DIR EN GREY: AGITATED SCREAMS OF MAGGOTS (2006) and RINKAKU (2012). Now Kurosaka is now focusing on making a series of abstract animation films like MATIERICA (2016) and doing a performance of improvised animation with musicians. Professor of the department of imaging arts and sciences at Musashino Art University.