Karin Vandenrydt, Belgium
In 2000 Karin joined ANIMA, the Brussels Animation Film Festival, one of the most prominent European animation film festivals. She developed the Flemish branch and has been running the festival since the summer of 2020, together with Dominique Seutin.
Until 2020 she was a member of the Flemish Film Commission and teached Animation History and Contemporary Animation at the LUCA – School of Arts in Genk, Belgium.
Georges Schwizgebel, Switzerland
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 the 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 won 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 received the Honorary crystal 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 received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Zagreb Animafest 2020.
Dhvani Desai, India
Dhvani Desai is a Mumbai based International award winning animation filmmaker, Curator & Poet. An active member in the independent animation movement in India she has been in the animation field for more than three decades. She learnt 3D Animation from the Xavier’s Institute of Communication Mumbai, and worked with two digital 2D & 3D animation studios before she joined a pioneering Animation Studio in Mumbai where she worked on TV commercials. She established her animation studio “Metamorphosis” where she does numerous 2D, 3D animations and VFX for the corporate and commercials.
Known for her artistic and stylized films on varied subjects like The Mahatma (1999), Manpasand (The Perfect Match) (2007), Chakravyuh (The Vicious Circle) (2013). Her films have won world wide acclaim in various international film festivals including 47th International Film Festival for Children and Youth, Zlin Czech Republic, Carrousel International du film de Rimouski, Canada , Olympia International Film Festival for Children and young people, Greece, Tricky Women Film Festival, Austria, Holland International Film Festival HAFF to name some. She has served as Jury & Grand Jury in many International film festivals in India and abroad.
Pedro Serrazina, Portugal
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 ‘96 and is still regularly screened in
retrospectives and festivals. His work ranges from film, site-specific installations, to music videos and academic projects.
Serrazina is interested in the interconnections between architecture, public space, documentary and animation: his practice-based PhD was dedicated to the use of animated space as a tool to reflect on social space. He is co-editor of the “Animation Practice, Process and Production” journal, was co-editor of the IJFMA journal special editions “Animated Space: engaged animation for the space(s) we live in” and “Truth of Matter: process аnd 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.
Angel Zaberski, Bulgaria
Angel Zaberski-son was born in 1969 in Sofia in the family of the musicians Angel Yankov Zaberski and Margarita Radinska. He graduated from the National Music School “Lyubomir Pipkov”. He continued his education at the National Academy of Music “Pancho Vladigerov” majoring in “composition and conducting”.
From 1996 to 2000, he worked as an arranger for the Big Band of the Bulgarian National Radio. In 1998, he founded his own jazz trio, and in 2000 – a jazz octet, in which he performs as a conductor and composer. In the same year, he started teaching improvisation at the New Bulgarian University.
Zaberski-sin is the author of over 15 pieces for string orchestra and works for symphony orchestra. He performs as a pianist in Germany, Greece, Spain, USA, Great Britain, France, Sweden, Slovenia and Bulgaria.