Balázs Turai is a freelance animation writer, designer, director, educator, and political activist based in Budapest, Hungary. His creative focus lies in 2D animation, combining fast-paced action with dark humor, often addressing themes of trauma, chaos, and personal transformation. He earned a BA in Animation and Performance from École Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc in Brussels (2009) and an MA in Animation Design from Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) in Budapest (2012). Turai has worked across a range of roles, from animation and presentation design to co-directing and teaching. He was a writer and co-director at Popfilm, taught animation at Corvin Art School, and since 2018 has been developing animated content for the Hungarian political platform Partizán. His body of work includes the series Candide (2018), the short film The Fall of Rome (2018), the commissioned piece Kaleidoo (2021), the political satire series Oligarchia (2022), and Amok (2022), which won the Annecy Cristal and the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Short Film. His upcoming project, Space Missionary, is currently in production for Adult Swim.

Jakub Spevák is a writer, screenwriter, and programme director at the International Animation Festival Fest Anča in Žilina, Slovakia, where he has also been a curator since 2021. He has curated programs of short animated films for festivals such as Animest, Animateka, or Annecy, the largest and most prestigious animation festival in the world. As a writer he wrote his debut novel Po funuse, which was nominated for the Slovak literary award Anasoft Litera. He has collaborated as a screenwriter and dramaturge on several short films screened at various international festivals. Currently, he is working on a screenplay for a feature film and an upcoming new book.

Anastasiia Falileieva was born in 2000 in Kremenchuk, Ukraine. She studied stop-motion animation and directing at the Kiyv National cinema and television University. Her recent animated documentary "I Died in Irpin" became a festival hit worldwide. Anastasiia is one of a very few stop-motion professionals left in the Ukrainian industry. In her works she explores themes of time passage and memory collecting.

Francesca Colombara is an Italian 2D animator and illustrator. She is the co-founder of CIANG studio, an independent 2D animation studio based in Italy. Born in 1994, she graduated in Decoration from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan in 2017, and later earned a Master’s degree in Comics from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 2021. Her graphic novel Panic! was published by Centrala in English, Czech, and Polish. Over the years, she has collaborated with a wide range of clients and brands, including FX, TED-Ed, GIPHY, Tesco, Vans, A Studio Digital, and Bloomberg Businessweek. Her work has been selected for numerous international animation festivals and art exhibitions. Francesca enjoys painting on wood, crocheting, and taking long walks in nature.

Mary Yanko is a Ukrainian filmmaker based in Kyiv and Paris. A Gobelins Paris alumni, she co-directed Vulvine Reine d’Extase, screened at over 60 festivals and bought by Shadows on Prime despite being banned on major platforms. In 2024, she directed La Princesse de Babylone for France Télévisions. She's currently developing Kateryna, an animated doc about a webcam model turned soldier, produced by Miyu and Moon Man Prod.

Ignas Meilūnas is a Lithuanian animation director and producer. After years of working with different animation techniques Ignas settled on stop motion animation and usually works with short films for young audiences. His short films have traveled and won awards in some of the biggest international film festivals worldwide. Ignas is a co-founder of Vilnius based animation studio "Kadrų Skyrius".

Amos Geva is the Co-founder and Managing Director of T-Port, based in Berlin, where he plays a pivotal role in connecting emerging filmmakers with the global film industry. With a strong background as a film producer, Geva actively participates in multiple selection committees at prominent film festivals, development platforms, and funding institutions. Drawing on his experience in renowned programs such as Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris and Berlinale Talents, Geva has earned recognition and prestigious awards for his work as a producer and director. His professional journey reflects his deep commitment to fostering new talent, bridging the gap between seasoned industry professionals and the next generation of filmmakers. Since 2018, Geva has been a dedicated mentor and educator, offering workshops and industry events at top film schools and festivals. His extensive counselling and mentoring experience has given him a unique perspective on the challenges that film students face when producing short films. As a member of the European Film Academy, Geva contributes to the evolution of European cinema, shaping the future of film production through his expertise and passion for storytelling.

Yuliia Kovalenko is a program director at Docudays UA IHRDFF, a film critic and PhD in cultural Studies. Preselector of the Berlinale Forum. Yuliia has an academic background. She worked as a lecturer at the universities of Odesa, teaching theory and history of culture. In 2019, she joined the program department at Docudays UA, where she has been curating the DOCU/ART non-competitive program and other special programs. In 2023 she became a program director at Docudays UA. As an independent curator, she co-curated the program of Ukrainian cinema "Perspectives of Ukrainian Cinema" for Deutsche Kinemathek in 2022. As a film critic, she has publications in Ukrainian and international journals (Kino Raksti, KINO-KOLO, etc.) and runs her blog about cinema Kinotabs.com. She is a member of Ukrainian Film Critics Union and National Union of Journalists.

Vessela Dantcheva is an animation director and producer. She graduated in Animation at Rotterdam Art Academy in 2002 and gained her animation experience in the Netherlands. Her first professional film was ‘Anna Blume’, then she was part of the creation of ‘Father’, ‘Travelling Country’, the poetry collection ‘Mark & Verse’, ‘Hierarchy Glitch’, ‘Trace’, ‘Balconada’ and many others. In 2008 she co-founds Compote Collective and since then she is managing the production of diverse artistic animation films, which are screened and awarded worldwide. Compote Collective is one of the leading animation production companies in Bulgaria with a record of 45 animated films. Vessela is invited often to participate in workshops, presentations and as a jury member at international festivals and pitching events. She is a lecturer in animation studies at New Bulgarian University and National Academy of Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Alona Penzii is the Head of the Archive Department at the Dovzhenko Centre, film critic and curated. Since 2018, she has been working at the Dovzhenko Centre, where she focuses on the history of Ukrainian non-fiction film, in particular animation. She has organized retrospectives of Ukrainian animation at international and national venues (for example The Cinémathèque Française, StopTrik, LINOLEUM). She was a co-curator of film programs at the Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture (DCCC). In 2023, she co-curated the exhibition The river wailed like a wounded beast at the Kyiv Biennale. As a film critic, she contributed to LB.ua, Ukrainska Pravda and other media.