Jury of Anifilm 2012

 

International Competition of Feature Films

 

Emily Hubley

Emily Hubley – USA

Filmmaker and animator. She has made short animated films for over thirty years and provided animation to television and films, including John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Blue Vinyl (2002) and The Boy in the Bubble (2006). Her feature film The Toe Tactic (2008) screened at numerous film festivals and premiered theatrically at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Emily is a daughter of animation pioneers John and Faith Hubley and worked at The Hubley Studio, Inc. on Faith's films from 1977 to 2001.


Edgar Dutka

Edgar Dutka – Czech Republic

Writer, screenwriter and educator. After studying film screenwriting at Film and TV school of Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague, he worked at the screenwriting department at Barrandov Film Studios for a year, but due to his "wrong" social profile he was made to change jobs and started working as script editor and screenwriter of animated films at Krátký film Praha, where he realized 43 screenplays. At about that time, he also began to collaborate with the director Jiří Barta (author of The Club of the Laid Off, puppet feature film In the Attic, and Golem, which was never actually made). His filmography includes the puppet film for children O Maryšce a vlčím hrádku, for which he obtained the Jiří Trnka Award, and the world-renowned Konec krychle (Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 1980). He teaches screenwriting and history of animated films at FAMU and after the fall of the communist regime he also got back to his literary career.

 

Theodore Ushev

Theodore Ushev – Canada

Animator, graphic designer, illustrator and multimedia artist. He first made a name for himself as a poster artist in Bulgaria, his native country, before settling in Montreal, in 1999. Since then he quickly acquired a reputation as a prolific animator through films such as Tzaritza (2006) and The Man Who Waited (2006). In 2005, he began work on a trilogy that explores drifts in ideologies and artistic sensibilities in the 20th century (Tower Bawher, 2006 and Drux Flux, 2008). In 2010 he made the critically acclaimed film, Lipsett Diaries, an imagined biography of the celebrated Canadian experimental filmmaker. Ushev's most recent films are the animated documentary, Yannick-Nézet-Séguin: No Intermission (2010), Nightingales in December (2011), and Demoni (2012), produced by Asphalt Tango, Berlin.



International Competition of Short Films & Czech-Slovak Student Films Competition


Sarita Christensen

Sarita Christensen – Denmark

Film producer and the head of the production company Copenhagen Bombay. She started her career in the film business at Zentropa Corporation in 1997, where she produced several workshops, no budget projects and art films. In 2004 she established the independent company Zentropa GRRRR under the Zentropa Corporation, producing for example the Cannes 2006 Directors’ Fortnight entry Princess. In 2006, she and a filmmaker Anders Morgenthaler founded their own production company Copenhagen Bombay. After five years of close collaboration Sarita took over and currently she is running the company alone, still fully committed to creating universes of different media platforms for children and youth.

 

Olga Parn

Olga Pärn – Estonia

Animator, art director and illustrator of children’s books and magazines. She graduated in graphic design with special focus on etching from Belorussian Art Academy. In the following years she participated in different art events, such as exhibitions and workshops in Europe. She worked at Belarusfilm studio and focused on sand animation for the films directed by Elena and Vladimir Petkevich. In 2003. she enrolled „La Poudrière” – school for animation directors (France, Valence), later she worked in Paris as storyboard artist. Now she lives and works in Estonia. At studio Eesti Joonisfilm Olga made 3 award-winning films in collaboration with her husband, Priit Pärn. From 2004 – performes demonstrations and workshops of sand animation and painting on glass all over Europe.


Katarina Kerekešová

Katarína Kerekešová – Slovakia

Director, visual artist and producer of animated films, Katarína was born in 1974 in Žilina. After studying animation at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, she started working in the field of animation and illustration. Her production activities are roofed by her company Fool Moon. As a director and designer she made two combined-technique films Milenci bez šiat (1997), Pôvod sveta (2002), and puppet musical Kamene (2010). She is currently working on the animated series for children Mimi and Líza.

 

Martin Vandas

Martin Vandas – Czech Republic

Film producer. Studied film production at the Film and TV school of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague and film sciences at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. Works for the company MAUR film, which focuses primarily on animated production. He currently has four completed animated feature films in his portfolio and is intensively working on yet more films. His favourite animated film is Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas and his favourite short film is The house of small cubes (Kunio Kato). Among his other professions he lists the following: father, runner, reader, film posters buff and film buff in general.

 

Ant Blades

Ant Blades - UK

Cartoonist, director and animator. Ant Blades was recently chosen by Variety magazine as one of the future talents of 2011. For years he worked as a freelance animator for various studios producing adverts and TV series. He also worked on the Oscar nominated Badgered (2005). However, a little disheartened by the monotony of animation, Ant moved towards design and online content and worked for 5 years at Google and YouTube. Here he regained appreciation for the power of short, funny films that can be seen by anyone and set up his own London’s Bird Box Studio.