Bill Plympton, USA
Born in Portland, 1946. Bill Plympton is considered the King of Indie Animation and is the first person to hand draw an entire animated feature film. Bill moved to New York City in 1968 and began his career creating cartoons for publications such as the New York Times. In 1987, he was nominated for an Oscar® for his short ‘Your Face‘. In 2005, Bill received another Oscar® nomination, for his short ‘Guard Dog‘. ‘Push Comes to Shove‘ won the 1991 Palme d’Or in Cannes. He’s made seven all animated feature films and a great number of animated shorts.
Aleksey Kotenochkin, Russia
Born in Moscow in 1958. He studied in the Moscow State Academy of Industrial and Applied Arts (Industrial design) from 1975 to 1980. In 1982 he started working as an art director and in 1990 as a director in Soyuzmultfilm. He mainly works in the field of traditional animation. He has been collaborating with many different film studios since the year 2000. As an art director, he has worked on the live-action feature film “A million adventures”. He has also taken part in the creation of the satirical film magazine „Fitil“ (Wick).
Raimund Krumme, Germany
Raimund Krumme is an independent animation filmmaker who also directs commercials for the American and Japanese markets. His animated shorts Ropedancers, Spectators, Crossroads, Passage, and The Message have won many international awards including the Prix du Jury in Annecy, the BundesfilmpreisFilmband in Gold, Silver Dragon, and Grand Prix for animation in Montreal. His films and drawings were exhibited in galleries and institutions worldwide. Amongst many others: an exhibition of drawings and films at the Institut Francais de Meknes, Morocco, Taipei Museum for Animation F15, Musée du flm d’animation, Annecy. He also worked at the research department of the Institut National d’Audiovisuel in Paris. He taught at the University of Minas Gerais, Brasil, was Full-TimeFaculty at the California Institute of Art and from 2006 till 2017 he was a professor at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. Currently, he holds a guest professorship at the Taipei National University of the Arts.
Jinny HyeJin Choo, Korea
Majored in Animation & Illustration, and received an MFA in Art and Film from the Graduate School of Advanced Imaging Science, Multimedia, and Film, Chung-Ang University, Seoul in Korea, and a Doctorate in Animation Theory and Contents Producing from the same university in 2015. She has served in the rank of guest professor at Korea National University of Arts and taught the theories & artistic practices of animation and interactive digital art through a combination of traditional media and digital tools since 2009. She has also performed various research projects which explore integrated art and technology as well as animation therapy. She has been engaged in organizing festivals and conferences for almost 20 years alongside education and research. Beginning with Pucheon International Student Animation Festival in 2000, she successfully organized or chaired several international events including SICAF (Seoul International Cartoon Animation Festival), Gwacheon SF Film Festival, and many others. She is currently working for SIGGRAPH ASIA 2020 as the conference chair and IndieAniFest as a programmer.
Chavdar Ghiuselev, Bulgaria
Born in Sofia in 1961. He graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia with “Illustration and book design” in 1987. The same year he moved to Italy and until 1993 worked as a graphic designer and illustrator for a number of magazines in Milano, among which were VOGUE, VANITY, MAX. During this period he made covers for various Italian publishers. He also worked as an assistant Scenic Designer in the Reggio Parma Opera House. In 1993 he returned to Bulgaria and until 2003 he worked as a television and theatre Scenic Designer and as a graphic designer in the advertising industry. From 2005 to 2006 he was a TV host for the cultural program “Dolce Vita”. He has been working as a professor in the “Visual Arts” department of New Bulgarian University since 2007. Form 1984 to 2017 he has made numerous solo exhibitions around the world.