Georges Schwizgebel

The animation director Georges Schwizgebel has created a remarkably original body of work. His films-whose technical execution is always masterful-are marked by a playful approach to narrative, spectacular formalism and the intermingling of visuals and music. His first film, The Flight of Icarus (1974) begins a career that currently numbers 20 films, which have gone to win numerous awards at prestigious international festivals (such as Cannes, Annecy, Zagreb, Hiroshima, Stuttgart, Ottawa and Espinho). The Ride to the Abyss (1992) is regularly cited as one of the finest animated films of all time.  In 2017 Georges Schwizgebel receives the Honorary cristal of Annecy festival, in 2018 the Swiss film award of Honor, in 2019 he was appointed officer of the Order of Arts and Letters (France) and receives the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Zagreb Animafest 2020.

 Koji Yamamura

Born in 1964. Nominated for an Oscar, "Mt. Head" (2002) had 6 grand prizes and selected 100 Films for a Century of Animation. "Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor" (2007) had 6 grand prizes, and his films were awarded more than 140 prizes. He has been selected as the 2nd place at 25 top short animated films directors over the last 25 years in 2021.
A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts.

Nazanin Sobhan Sarbandi

BA in Fine Arts at university of Tehran. Since 1973, she has been a permanet collaborator to Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kannon). She has been involved in dozens of animation projects as director, animator, scriptwriter and art designer. She has produced TVC animations and cooperated with two German educational and commercial film studios. Nazanin has been juror in national film festivals and lecturer in Art University and IRIB University as well. Some of her notable animation titles are: Footprint, Rug, Solidarity, Address, Zero, Gentle Moon, A Shadow Turned into the Light, the Cycling Wind

Bulent Küçükerdoğan

He was born in Braunschweig, Germany. He completed his undergraduate degree at Istanbul University, Department of French Language and Literature. He went on to do his masters degree at the same university’s Department of Radio-Television and Cinema. In 2000, he completed his PHD degree in the same area of study. Küçükerdoğan has written extensively on film editing, on which he has books. He was the first head and the one of the creator of the South Eastern European Cinema Schools (SEECS) and a member of European Film Academy. Furthermore, he was invited as a jury member to several film festivals, nationally as well as internationally. Küçükerdoğan is a professor at the Faculty of Communication of Hasan Kalyoncu University in Gaziantep/Turkey, where he teaches in communication and film. He is also the department head of the Department of Cinema and Television, Faculty of Communication at Hasan Kalyoncu University in Gaziantep/Turkey.

Marco Bellano

Marco Bellano, PhD, is adjunct professor in the History of Animation and in Digital and Interactive Multimedia at the University of Padova (Italy). He is author of articles, book chapters and monographies about animation and film music (Václav Trojan. Music Composition in Czech Animated Films. CRC Press, 2019; Allegro non troppo. Bruno Bozzetto’s Animated Music, Bloomsbury, 2021). In 2014, he received the Norman McLaren-Evelyn Lambart Award for the Best Scholarly Article from the SAS-Society for Animation Studies. He organized and chaired international conferences on animation, such as the 29th SAS annual conference (2017). He is in the scientific board of the Mutual Images Journal and of Cabiria - Studi di Cinema. He participates in international research initiatives, as the Erasmus+ project Co-POEM. He is also a graduate pianist and conductor; he collaborates to the educational programs and concerts of the Palazzetto Bru Zane - Centre de musique romantique française (Venice, Italy).