Abi Feijó is an animation director, producer, teacher and director of the Casa Museu de Vilar. Founder of Filmógrafo, Casa da Animaçao, Ciclope Filmes and the Casa Museu de Vilar. Director of films: ‘How Calm it is’, ‘Time of Darkness’, ‘The Outlaws’, ‘Fado Lusitano’, ‘Stowaway’ and co-director of ‘Our Lady of Presentation’. Producer of ‘The Night’, ‘Tragic Story with Happy Ending’, ‘Kali the Little Vampire’ and ‘Uncle Thomas Accounding for the Days’, four films by Regina Pessoa, ‘Interstices’ by Marina Graça, ‘Amelia & Duarte’ by Alice Guimarães and Mónica Santos, ‘Ride’ by Paul Bush and ‘Altötting’ by Andreas Hykade. Today he directs the Casa Museu de Vilar and Ciclope Filmes, where he produces: ‘Virgin Fandango’ by Marcy Page and ‘Mother’s Face’ by Regina Pessoa, leads children’s animation workshops and presents Magic Lantern Shows. 

Balázs Turai is a Hungarian animation director, alumnus of MOME, Budapest. He co-wrote and co-directed a series adaptation of Voltaire’s ‘Candide’, created the web series called ‘Oligarchia’ and directed a short sci-fi satire, ‘The Fall of Rome’. His second short film ‘Amok’ won the Annecy Cristal and the France TV Award for a Short Film in Annecy 2022 International Animation Film Festival, and the Heart of Sarajevo for the best short film at the 2022 Sarajevo Film Festival.

Ioana Nicoară always knew she wanted to be a visual creator, so she graduated from the Bucharest University of Arts. But she couldn’t really predict that, starting from 2012 on, fate would lead her to work as an animator, sometimes art director or scriptwriter, for important Romanian animation productions, such as ‘The Magic Mountain’ (2015) or ‘The Blissful Accidental Death’ (2017), also for commercials and other various cultural projects. Her work in animation meets her painting studio practice and also her interest in developing augmented reality (AR) projects. Working alongside Reniform Production, her main aim is to create new ways of using animation and stimulating awareness for cultural values and artistic expression at large.

Florence Miailhe graduated from the National School of Decorative Arts - ENSAD. She began as a layout artist for the press, exhibiting drawings and engravings. In 1991, she directed her first short film Hammam. Since then, she has developed her very personal style in animation cinema, using paintin, pastels or sand. Her work has been noticed and awarded in various festivals in France and abroad. She received a César for best short film in 2002 for ‘Au premier dimanche d'août’, a special mention at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 for ‘Conte de Quartier’ and a Cristal d'honneur in 2015 at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival for her work as a whole. ‘The Crossing’ is her first feature film, the best feature in competition at Animest Romania 2021.

Fernando Galrito has degrees in Animation and Theater. BA in Anthropology, MA in Culture and Information Technologies, DEA in Animation, Specialist Degree in Film and Media Production and now works on his PhD in Communication Culture and Arts. He is the artistic Director of the Lisbon Animation Film Festival | MONSTRA which he founded in 2000. Apart from having directed films and documentaries, he teaches Animation, Cinema and Video and Moving Image Project at ESAD.CR in Caldas da Rainha (Portugal), he is a visiting lecturer at several universities in Europe, Africa, America and Asia, and directs artistic projects crossing several disciplines, from moving images to fine arts, performance, theater, and dance.

Frank Mosvold is a Norwegian animation producer and director. He has created and directed the animated TV-series ‘Hubert’ (26 eps x 10 min) and ‘Ella Bella Bingo’ (104 eps x 10 min). In 2020 he directed his first animated feature film, ‘Ella Bella Bingo’. Mosvold has produced and directed several award-winning shorts, such as ‘Bendik & the Monster’. He has also produced several apps and written 6 books for kids. Frank Mosvold studied Economics at Babson College (Boston) and has an MFA in film production from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Oksana Kurmaz is an animation director from Kyiv, Ukraine. During her individual animation activity, she constantly balances between commercial jobs, self-initiated projects, and personal brand. Originally a graphic designer and illustrator, she found her true calling in the world of storytelling and filmmaking, while being a self-taught animator. Mostly noticed as an animation director and animator of music videos and commercials.

Răzvan Exarhu is a Romanian radio and TV producer and presenter, journalist, chef and author of the book ‘Fericirea e un ac de siguranță’ (Happiness is a safety pin). Renown thanks to his shows ‘Rondul de dimineață’ (Morning Watch) and ‘Rondul de noapte’ (Night Watch) at Pro FM, Răzvan Exarhu currently hosts the ‘Morning Glory’ show at Rock FM.

He is an artist and a collector of folklore. He investigates the activity and histories of the last kobza players in Romania. With his band Balkan Taksim, he plays old and new music on instruments such as Turkish saz, Bosnian šargija, theremin, bagpipes. He has performed and participated in visual art exhibitions in Germany, Spain, Holland, UK, Denmark, Portugal, Italy, and Romania.

A Romanian-born pioneering transmedia artist (screenwriter/director), and transmedia futurist, multi-awarded for film, VR and innovative concepts. Fulbright Grantee Alumna of USC School of Cinematic Arts and Alumna of UNATC, advanced the transmedia storytelling field as part of her doctoral study thesis completed with Summa Cum Laude. Her cinematic projects as writer/director have traveled to more than 250 festivals worldwide (Palm Springs ISFF, Hamptons IFF, Thessaloniki IFF) and were developed in advanced international programs (Berlinale Talents - Script Station, Sundance Workshop - Capalbio, Cannes International Screenwriters Pavilion, Locarno Academy Meetings, MIDPOINT). Her interactive works were awarded by international playgrounds such as The Webby Awards, Golden Drum, South by Southwest Hackathon, The Steamer Salon, Stereopsia, GoEast.

Răzvan Vasilache has worked in the field of animation and digital arts since 2003. He started out as a freelance animator on a variety of commercial and commissioned works, including the beloved children’s series ‘Tractor Tom’. He collaborated with established studios and production companies such as Dacodac (RO), Bug As (NO), Optic Flavor (RO) and Family Film (RO) as Lighting and Compositing Artist. He then shifted to a more technical path, specializing in Python development at 3DEXCITE (DE) and TurboSquid, or software engineering at Shutterstock. In 2014 he started his collaboration with Romanian artist Saint Machine on her digital artwork Hybrid Sensorium, followed by Incremental God - both successfully presented at Ars Electronica and RADAR, among others.

Sabin Șerban is a developer and designer working in the field of Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality, together with his colleagues at Augmented Space Agency. He uses digital media to create innovative experiences that make these new forms of expression more accessible to everyone. He is very interested in the internet of things and has begun researching machine learning and deep neural networks in the context of gamified simulations and training scenarios.

In love with life, music, events and immersive technology, Andreea is the co-owner of Loop Virtual Reality Solutions and has been exploring virtual universes since 2016. You may have seen her at various music festivals or tech events, each time more eager to teleport you to new and magical worlds and share the limitless possibilities that virtual reality has to offer. Event organizer, PR and always connecting people, her dream is to merge the wonderful worlds of technology with art, science, education and all that life has to offer in order to deliver new and exciting projects.

Matea Milić has worked for the production company Hulahop since 2021, where she has collaborated in production and distribution of documentary and animated films. From 2015 serves as the festival producer of the World Festival of Animated Film - Animafest Zagreb. She has participated in the work of juries and selection committees of festivals in the country and abroad, is a part of the Rise & Shine Pitching Lab team and coordinates the Animation Festival Network.

Mirela Vlad teaches courses that are at the convergence between art and technology, at the National University of Theatrical and Cinematic Arts "I. L. Caragiale", the ANIMATION and INTERACTIVITY Department. She coordinates projects that use 2D and 3D animation, motion capture, photography, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR). She worked in animation studios, having experience in making 3D feature films, and TV 2D and 3D animated series. She coordinates animation and design workshops for children and students.

Pedro Serrazina is an award-winning director, senior lecturer and animation researcher. His first short, ‘Tale about the cat and the moon’, premiered internationally at the Cannes Film Festival 1996, and is still regularly screened in retrospectives and festivals. He is co-editor of the ‘Animation Practice, Process and Production’ journal, and of the IJFMA journal special editions ‘Animated Space: engaged animation for the space(s) we live in’ and ‘Truth of Matter: process and perception in expanded animation practice’. A member of the Society for Animation Studies and Ecstatic Truth, Serrazina was the artistic director of the 45th edition of Cinanima Festival, and is currently preparing his next film, ‘What remains of us’. In his spare time, he is an eager collector of records and graphic novels.