16th Edition

Špela Čadež has been working as an independent animation director and producer since 2008. Interested mainly in hands-on analogue traditional animation, her films have received more than 100 awards worldwide. Boles (2013), a short puppet animation, received the Grand Prix at DOK Leipzig, Golden Spike at the Valladollid Festival and was a Nominee for the Cartoon d'Or, while the multiplane cut-out animation Nighthawk (2016) was awarded main prizes at HAFF Festival Holland, Animafest Zagreb, and was screened in selections at festivals such as Clermont Ferrand, Annecy and Sundance. Špela Čadež is a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Following animation studies at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, where she directed two painted animated shorts, La Valse du pendu and La Veuve Caillou (official selection in Clermont-Ferrand, Dresden, Stuttgart, Animafest and Annecy), Agnès Patron worked for the animated teaser of Florence Miailhe feature film La Traversée and Nadine Buss’ documentary D’origine allemande. She co-directed multi-awarded Chulyen, histoire de corbeau with Cerise Lopez. Her most recent film is L'Heure de l’ours, screened in 2020 Cannes official competition and won the César for best animated short in 2021. Agnès is currently working on a new short film project, the development of a series, and is also writing a feature painted film.

Aneta Ozorek is an Artistic Director of Kaboom Animation Festival, film curator, and education expert. She has an extensive industry experience in the organization of film events, workshops, exhibitions, and festivals on the European market. She is a Head of Short section of CEE Animation Pitching Forum, leading regional pitching for Central and East Europe, member of the boards: REX Animation Film Festival and Short Film Conference, international organisation seeking to unite global short film community. She is Polish Ambassador of European Animation Award. Member of a jury at Berlinale, Fantoche, Odense, Primanima, Anibar, Kineko etc. She illustrated seven books for children and two vinyl covers. Can't live without ice-creams.

Joanna studied Graphic Design at Middlesex University, where she discovered the magic of animation. Her first film, Girl’s Night Out (1986), won 3 prizes at Annecy in 1987. Joanna's drawing skills and humour have made her a highly acclaimed figure in world animation. She has won many awards, including Emmys, Baftas and Jury prizes at all the major animation festivals. Two of her films, Famous Fred (1996) and The Wife of Bath (1998) have received Oscar© nominations. Joanna is an Honorary Fellow at the Royal College of Art, London and University of Wales Newport, and Honorary Doctor at the University of Wolverhampton and Middlesex University. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Joanna works with writer/producer partner Les Mills.

Born in Poland and currently living in Germany, Izabela Plucińska has some thirty films to her credit. She studied art and film and now brilliantly combines her talents to create animated works. In 2005, her short Jam Session won a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Her politically and philosophically oriented medium-length film Esterhazy was screened around the world in 2009, including in England, France, Finland, Hungary and Mexico, winning several awards. In 2015 she completed Sexy Laundry coproduction with NFB of Canada. At present, Izabela is working with her own production company, Clay Traces. She frequently leads workshops and teaches film animation at universities internationally. Her latest film is Portret Susanne, inspired by a short novel of Roland Topor.

Mélody Boulissière has an MA in animation from ENSAD, Paris and from La Poudrière, Valence. Her graduation film in paint-on-glass, Somewhere, was inspired by her voyages and got over 50 selections including the Cinéfondation of the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. In 2018, she made Étourdis étourneaux, a short animated film adapted from a poem by Claude Roy, for the collection Fresh Out of School, broadcasted by France Télévisions. In 2020 she is developing in co-direction a TV series for children about plants. The first pilot episode Patouille and the Parachute Seeds was broadcasted by France Télévisions and was selected at the OIAF in Ottawa and at the CICFF in Chigaco.

Graduated from Cultural Studies at University of Ljubljana in 2011. From 2014 she works as the festival producer at Animateka International Animated Film Festival and at StopTrik International Film Festival. She worked as a festival producer for the national Festival of Slovenian Film. In 2016, she became president of The Elephant – Association for Film Education, an organisation dedicated to promoting animated film and educating young audiences on the topic. In 2017, she became a board member of the Slovene Animated Film Association. She is involved with CEE Animation since 2018 and was the Project manager of the CEE Animation Forum 2020.

Ana is a Bucharest based cinematographer with a BA and an MA in Cinematography at the National Film School, and is currently enrolled in a philosophy BA program at the University of Bucharest. Over the past few years she shot many shorts and several features along with directors like Paul Negoescu, Ruxandra Ghițescu and Bogdan Theodor Olteanu. She is currently in post-production with her sixth feature. She was also a camera operator at Cristi Puiu's feature film, “Aurora”. Besides cinematography, her interests and efforts go into social responsibility activities and community art projects. Since 2009 she is the president of Graphis 122 NGO, and in 2012 she won a scholarship for the Young Leaders Program at the Aspen Institute and since then she has been an Aspen Fellow. In 2016, she co-founded the FILM+ Program. Ana is also a member of the European Film Academy.

Anastasia is 10 and she is a fourth-grader. She has always been passionate about activities which allow her to express her emotions. She is an artistic soul with a special gift for dancing, music and drawing. She is incredibly enthusiastic about creating online content especially on travelling, and she is self-taught in editing her own video materials. She looks forward to the challenge of being a juror for the films in competition at Minimest.

Producer of 5 feature animated films, 15 co-productions of short films, several documentaries and TV review programs. A member of: the European Film Academy, Association of the Czech Audio-visual producers, the Czech association of Animation film, teacher of Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). Expert of Czech film fund and Slovak audio-visual fund, runner, collector of posters and happy father of 3 Daughters + 1 as a short movie named ‘Daughter’, which won the Oscar for the Best Animated Short Film in 2020.

Matilda is 11 and she is in the fifth grade. She loves drawing, sewing and watching movies, and she prefers listening to jazz when she wants to relax. She sometimes makes animated videos using FlipaClip, and her brother helps her out with ideas and sounds. She has seen almost all the movies from Miyazaki and Pixar, and her favourite this year is ‘Luca’.

Timon is 12, he loves photography, movies, dancing and music, and he is keen on jewellery. He likes wandering around cities riding his bicycle or his skateboard. Timon loves dogs. He likes writing stories. He is a freestyler.