Guestlist
Ahmad Saleh | Writer & Director | Palestine, Germany
Ahmad Saleh is a Palestinian/Jordanian/German writer and director. His first film, ‘House’ (2012), won second place in the German Short Film Awards and his second film, ‘Ayny’ (2016), won an Academy Award. Most recently, he completed his third short film, ‘Night’ (2021), which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, and he is currently developing his first feature.
Ahmad works closely with his brothers and sisters, establishing their own family studio and collaborating with artists worldwide. Inspired by their mother’s hobby of making ceramic flowers, the children grew up with a love for handicrafts, a passion that made characters making and set construction the natural medium to tell their stories.
Ivana Kvesić | Festival Director | Switzerland
Ivana Kvesić is the festival director of Fantoche – International Animation Film Festival in Baden, Switzerland. With a background in economics, cultural management, and design, she brings a multidisciplinary approach to her work. Formerly Co-Director of the youth film festival Schweizer Jugendfilmtage, she is dedicated to nurturing new talent. Ivana advocates for diversity and inclusion and served for several years as a board member of SWAN (Swiss Women’s Audiovisual Network). She has been part of various selection committees, including Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur and Rote Fabrik Zurich.
Ivana is a board member of the Xenix cinema club, a member of the Swiss Film Academy, and sits on the foundation council of Filmbulletin (Swiss film magazine). Beyond her directorial roles, she works as a curator, artist, and cultural project manager.
Sara Koppel | Animation Artist & Director | Denmark
Sara Koppel is an animation artist & director. She has a small independent animation studio in Copenhagen Denmark, where she creates 2D hand drawn on paper animation for her short films/experimental films/installation and AR exhibitions. All her work is highly personal, artistic, surreal and poetic.
She has been a pioneer in the field of erotic and body positivity animation. Short films such as ‘Naked Love – Ea’s Garden’, ‘Little Vulvah & Her Clitoral Awareness’, ‘Seriously Deadly Silence’ and her new work ‘2nd Day & the End of the World’ is all very confrontative, poetic and punkrush adventures dealing with themes as climate, processes of detachment, body expectations, sexuality and lust.
DOCUMENTARY AND DUTCH JURY
Sean Buckelew | Writer, Director & Animator | USA
Sean Buckelew is a writer, director, animator, and founding partner of Green Street Pictures. He was most recently a writer and co-executive producer on Scavengers Reign for HBO Max and an executive producer, writer and episodic director on ‘Common Side Effects’ for Adult Swim. Both shows were nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.
Buckelew received his MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2019, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his animated short film ‘Drone’, which premiered at the 2022 Annecy International Animation Festival.
Alice Shone| Film Programmer | UK
Alice is on the selection teams for a number prestigious festivals, including Toronto International Film Festival and Cork International Film Festival. She recently began programming for Encounters, and has also worked for Tribeca Film Festival since 2018 where she currently holds the title of Senior Associate Shorts Programmer and represents Tribeca at festivals primarily in Europe but also worldwide.
Alice has a tremendous passion for championing short films, and specializing in both animated and queer shorts. Outside of programming and screening for festivals Alice works in animation production and post production on a variety of projects.
Réka Bucsi | Animation Filmmaker | Hungary
Réka Bucsi is a Hungarian animation filmmaker with a Master’s degree from Moholy-Nagy University. Her ‘Symphony No. 42’ was Oscar-nominated in 2014. Her film premiered at the Berlinale (2014, 2016, 2018), Sundance, Annecy, and SXSW. ‘Love’ was nominated for the European Film Awards in 2017. ‘Solar Walk’ won the Audi Award at the Berlinale in 2018 and the Grand Prix at Ottawa in 2018.
She was part of 17 international juries, including Berlinale, Annecy, Sarajevo and Shanghai. Her clients include Cartoon Network, Netflix, Adult Swim, Vimeo, and FX. Réka has been a European Film Academy member since 2017 and an AMPAS member since 2021.
VR JURY
Sarah Lugthart | Theory Tutor | The Netherlands
Sarah Lugthart is a theory tutor at the Master Animation program at St. Joost School of Art & Design and a PhD Digital Media candidate at the University of Porto. Alongside her studies and work at the academy Sarah is a committee member of Immerse/Interact (Dutch Film Fund/ Creative Industries Fund NL). She graduated in New Media and Digital Culture in 2004 from the University of Utrecht.
She has been a programme manager at different cultural institutions, like the bkkc (now Kunstloc). Between 2010 and 2023 she worked as a tutor at different bachelor programs St. Joost School of Art & Design, lecturing on topics such as media theory and immersive storytelling.
Manu Weiss | Producer & Curator | Switzerland
Manu Weiss is a creative XR producer and curator from Switzerland. With roots in design and animation, Manu Weiss has worked across the animation industry, academia, and R&D. Guided by curiosity for technology and art, she curates and produces immersive media exhibitions and festivals exploring AR and VR. Passionate about nurturing creative communities, she helps build networks, initiatives, and conferences that strengthen the animation industry. Her work thrives where storytelling, animation, and technology meet.
Manuel Toledo | Producer, Designer & Creative Strategist | The Netherlands
Manuel Toledo is a multidisciplinary producer, designer, and creative strategist specialising in immersive media, architecture, and cultural innovation. With over a decade of international experience, he curates and delivers high-impact programmes at the intersection of film, VR, and emerging technologies. He is Co-Founder and Programme Director of Architecture Film Festival London, and he headed the production of Immersive Tech Week and the immersive programme at De Doelen in Rotterdam until 2026. His work bridges creative vision, critical research, and strategic delivery in international cultural contexts.
INDUSTRY DAYS: KABOOM CAMP
Florian Walraven | Animator & Director | The Netherlands
Florian Walraven, born in 1987 in the Netherlands, graduated from Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam with a degree in Animation & Games in 2010. He graduated from HKU University of the Arts with a Bachelor of Animation in 2014.
In 2013, he co-founded the animation studio Pegbarians with Thijs Koole and Martijn Calkhoven and is currently active as an animator/writer/director at Studio Pikeman. His clients have included Frame Order, Vanoss Gaming, MSD, Submarine, Supercell, Mashed, and Cas van de Pol. His personal projects include ‘Amazing Animation Analysis’, animated shorts and an upcoming game called ‘Rising Wan’.
INDUSTRY DAYS: KABOOM PRO
Richard Claus | Producer | The Netherlands
Richard has produced films like ‘Mute Witness’ (1994), ‘The Little Vampire’ (2000), ‘Black Butterflies’ (2010) and ‘De Heinken Ontvoering’ (2011), and he directed and co-wrote the animated films ‘The Little Vampire’ 3D (2017), ‘Ainbo’ (2020) and ‘Panda Bear in Africa’ (2024). Richard runs the production company Cool Beans and the animation outfit Katuni together with Chantal Nissen in Amsterdam. Richard is a German citizen living in The Netherlands. He has also worked and lived in Germany, the United States of America and in South Africa.
Hidde de Vries | Head of Film & Series | The Netherlands
Hidde de Vries grew up in the north of the Netherlands and began volunteering at a local cinema at the age of eight. He later studied Production at the Netherlands Film Academy. In 2020, he completed a master’s degree in Creative Producing at the DAS Graduate School. After several years of producing, he shifted his focus to distribution and the visibility of films and their talent. He does this at Kapitein Kort, his distribution company for short films, at Cinekid Festival as head of the Films & Series department, and as the president of the board of the Dutch Association of Small Cinemas (VVF), which he founded in 2021.
Emilia Mazik | Head of Industry | The Netherlands
Emilia Mazik is the Head of Industry at Go Short – International Short Film Festival in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. She is also a part of the selection committee at Film Fest Gent (Belgium), curates the Industry Forum at Cinekid (the Netherlands), and sits on the strategic board of Talking Shorts, an online magazine dedicated to the short film medium. Her previous roles include programmer and festival director at Short Waves Festival (Poland), Head of Industry at Kaboom Animation Festival (the Netherlands), and member of the selection committee at Glasgow Short Film Festival (Scotland).
Chris Stenger | Producer | The Netherlands
After graduating, Chris Stenger joined Family Affair Films as a Production Manager and Executive Producer. She became a partner at the company in 2026 and specializes in both live-action and animation. Her portfolio includes acclaimed animated shorts such as ‘See Me’ (Annecy 2020), ‘Human Nature’ (TIFF 2020), ‘Balcony Cacophony’ (Clermont Ferrand 2022) and ‘Down in the Dumps’ (Berlinale 2025), as well as the animated series ‘Hideous Henk’ (Annecy 2023).
Wiep Teeuwisse | Director & Animator | The Netherlands
Wiep Teeuwisse is a Rotterdam-based director and animator who works with drawn-on-paper animation and stop motion. She graduated with a BA in Animation from HKU in 2015 and completed an MA in Directing Animation in 2021 at the NFTS in London. Wiep is part of Tinsel studio together with directors Nienke Deutz and Alice Saey. Created through Tinsel, her latest ultra short ‘The Refusers’, a stop-motion musical about trash, is currently on festival tour. Other work includes ‘Intermission Expedition’ and ‘Depart at 22’, which won the Cristal for Best Graduation film in Annecy.
Sarah D’hanens | Producer | Belgium
Sarah D’hanens is a producer whose work spans across feature documentaries, animation and immersive VR experiences. Her credits as an Associate Producer for the Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award winning production company Louverture Films (NY) include ‘Hale County This Morning’, ‘This Evening’; ‘Strong Island’; ‘Self-portrait as a Coffee Pot’ and ‘Bardi’, oa. At Cinnamon Entertainment (BE), she produces animated shorts and games. Sarah is a Berlinale Talents alumni and a member of WIA, WIG and ASIFA-Hollywood.
Jade Wiseman | Distributor | The Netherlands
Jade Wiseman is a film distributor, curator and festival producer. Originally from Montréal, Canada, she is now based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She previously worked at artists’ centre Vidéographe, and is now coordinating Distribution for Video Power (NL). She has hosted workshops on independent distribution and worked closely with filmmakers to bring their films to wider audiences nationally and internationally. She curated film programs and crafted distribution policies that champion the fair remuneration of filmmakers. Her main goals are sharing industry knowledge, creating a community around unconventional, experimental moving image practices and supporting filmmakers.
Gregory Zalcman | Producer | Belgium
Gregory Zalcman is a Belgian producer dedicated to animated films and series. At ‘Take Five’, he has co-produced acclaimed projects such as ‘Flow’ by Gints Zilbalodis, selected at major festivals including Cannes, Annecy, and Toronto, and winner of the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2025; ‘Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds’ by Benoît Chieux, which won the Audience Award at the Annecy Festival in 2023; and the series ‘Boys Boys Boys’ (Arte). He is currently producing several projects, including the series ‘Nino Dino’ (co-produced with Folivari) and ‘Mare the Mermaid’ (co-produced with Silex Films).
Alex Dowding | Producer | The Netherlands
Alex Dowding is an animation producer with nearly 20 years of international experience. He began his career in London before joining Illumination in Paris, working on ‘Despicable Me’ and ‘Minions’. Now based in Amsterdam at Submarine, he develops original projects from inception to delivery and oversees animated features and series for global platforms, including Richard Linklater’s ‘Apollo 10 1/2′ and Amazon’s ‘Undone’.
Marco van der Vlag | Animation Leader & Motion Designer | The Netherlands
Marco van der Vlag is a 2D animation lead at BUCK and brings 13 + years in motion design. After 11 years freelancing for brands, agencies, and studios, he joined BUCK in 2023 to lead animation teams and projects across a wide variety of styles—while still staying hands-on in the work himself. His portfolio includes work for global clients including Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Google, Spotify, Samsung, Headspace, Klarna, and WeTransfer.
Based in Utrecht, Marco fuses storytelling, character-driven craft, and technical experimentation, always testing new tools and workflows. Spotlighted on GoodMoves, the School of Motion newsletter, and BUCK’s #buckuback, he also mentors motion designers—helping them sharpen skills, communicate clearly, and keep the curiosity and fun that make the work worth doing
Barbara Vougnon | Producer | France
Motivated by a desire to produce and support authors, Barbara Vougnon joined Tchack’s production team in 2018 and contributed to the development of film projects. In 2021, she became associate producer for short and feature films alongside Matthieu Liégeois.
Karin Vandenrydt | Festival Director | Belgium
After working for several years at various film production companies, Karin Vandenrydt joined Folioscope, as organiser of the Brussels Anima Festival, in 2000. She developed the Dutch-language section, was a member of the selection committee and contributed to the programming. From 2020 to 2025, she was co-director of the festival, together with Dominique Seutin. Until 2020, she taught History of Animated Film and Current Events in Animated Film at LUCA School of Arts, Genk campus. Karin has served on numerous juries at various international festivals. She is also a member of the animation assessment committee of the Flemish Audiovisual Film Fund.
Geert Van Goethem | Producer & Artistic Director| Belgium
Geert Van Goethem is a producer and director, specialised in animation films. He taught film analysis, production, production management and project development at the Brussels-based Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound (RITCS) and LUCA School of Arts Campus C-mine in Genk. He co-initiated the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Re:Anima – a collaboration between LUCA, Lusofona University and Aalto – in which he was member of the Academic Board. In 1987 he was co-founder of the Brussels-based multidisciplinary production centre for the arts S.O.I.L. (Sight Of an Ignored Landscape), where he still is the artistic director.
Chris Oosterom | Festival Director – Imagine Fantastic Film Festival| Netherlands
After programming film and events in various music venues in the 80’s and 90’s, Chris joined the Filmmuseum (now Eye Filmmuseum ) in 1997, where he worked in programming and later headed the distribution department. In 2003, he started his own distribution company, first in Amsterdam, later in London, where his company Yume Pictures is still active. In November 2012, Chris became the Artistic Director of the Imagine Fantastic Film Festival in Amsterdam, and the General Director in 2020.
Eric Goosens | Producer | Belgium
Eric Goossens is an animation film producer and co-founder of one of Belgium’s renowned animation studios, Walking The Dog, which he set up with Anton Roebben in 1999. Studios achievements include Oscar-nominated classics such as ‘The Triplets of Belleville’ (2003) by Sylvain Chomet and the enchanting ‘The Secret of Kells’ (2010) by Tomm Moore. The appeal of Walking The Dog extends to projects such as ‘A Monster In Paris’ (César 2012), ‘The Congress’ (Cannes 2012), ‘Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart’ (Berlinale 2014), ‘Another Day of Life’ (EFA 2018), ‘Where is Anne Frank’ (Cannes 2021), ‘Richard The Stork 2’ (Annecy 2023), ‘Fox and Hare Save The Forest’ (Berlinale 2024), ‘The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol’ by Sylvain Chomet (Cannes 2025). Currently the studio gears up for the upcoming release of ‘Outfoxed!’ by Paul Bolger.
GUESTS
Arvid Tappert | Animation Director | Sweden
Arvid Tappert is an animation director exploring how hybrid workflows can combine AI and traditional animation in ethical and creative ways. With over 20 years of experience, his work sits at the intersection of artistic vision and technology, focusing on craft, tone, and storytelling. He has worked across children’s content, adult animation, and experimental formats, and is particularly interested in how emerging tools can support, rather than replace, creative authorship.
Alla Gadassik | Curator | Canada
Dr. Alla Gadassik is a scholar and curator of animated media. She is the founder of the Animate Materials Workshop — a research hub dedicated to animation as a method of material exploration that bridges the arts and sciences. Recent projects include the book Graphite: ‘Animated Traces’ (2024) and the survey exhibition ‘Interlaced: Animation & Textile’ (2024-2025) at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre.
Daniel Kordik | Musician | Slovakia
Kordik’s music making spans across three domains: electronic music, free improvisations and field recordings. Over the years, he’s been involved in several projects, including the hardware noise duo Jamka and his solo and collaborations span free improv and field recordings.
He co-runs London based Earshots Recordings which focuses on free improvised music: earshots.bandcamp.com and is one of the curators for Bratislava NEXT: Advance Music Festival: nextfestival.sk . He released music on labels like Weltschmerzen, Superpang, Takuroku, Confront Recordings, LOM, Sub Rosa, Urbsounds, and others.
Beatriz Lema | Comic Book Author | Spain
Bea Lema is an comic book author. She explores drawing and embroidery as a medium for her illustrations and comics. In 2022, she was awarded a grant to undertake a graphic novel residency at the Maison des auteurs in Angoulême (France). The book she worked on, based on that first comic and published in France by Sarbacane under the title ‘Des maux à dire’ and in Spain by Astiberri under the title ‘El Cuerpo de Cristo’, has been awarded the Audience Award at the 2024 Angoulême Festival, National Comic Book Award in Spain, among others. In 2025, she released a short film adaptation of this book. Written and directed by herself, ‘El Cuerpo de Cristo’ is a story embroidered in animation, an approach to psychological suffering from a gentle perspective.
Joanna Quinn | Masterclass | United Kingdom
British animator Joanna Quinn discovered animation while studying Graphic Design at Middlesex University in London. Her graduation film ‘Girls Night Out’, introduced audiences to the character of Beryl and kick-started Joanna’s animation career by winning 3 awards at the Annecy Animation Festival in1887. She is renowned internationally for her drawing skills, wonderful characterisations and her humour.
Joanna’s has won many awards including 4 BAFTA’s, 3 EMMY’s and 2 OSCAR® nominations. Joanna is also a committed educator and teaches internationally. She has received an Honorary Doctorate from 3 UK universities and is an Honorary Fellow at the Royal College of Art, London.
Britt Raes | Festival Angel | Belgium
Britt is a Belgian director, illustrator and screenwriter, making independent and commissioned work. She creates cute characters and quirky stories, for kids and adults. Her short films ‘Catherine’ (2016) and ‘Luce and the Rock’ (2022) were shown on television, in theaters and worldwide at over 200 festivals each. A series based on ‘Luce and the Rock’ is currently in production. Britt likes (dark) chocolate, hugs, going to flea markets, and NVC. If she’s reincarnated, she hopes to come back as a cat named Fluffy.
Sébastien Onomo | Producer | France
Sébastien Onomo is a French producer who has been working in the film and audiovisual industry for over ten years. He has produced numerous television films, including ‘Bois d’Ébène’ by Moussa Touré, ‘Léon Blum haï et adoré’ by Julia Bracher and Hugo Hayat, ‘Rudy Gobert’ by Jonathan Bensimhon, and ‘African Empires’, a documentary series directed by Chris Macari, Françoise Ellong-Gomez, Askia Traoré, and Josza Anjembe. Additionally, he has produced ‘Gang of the Caribbean’ by Jean-Claude Barny, ‘Funan’ by Denis Do, which earned the Crystal Award at the 2018 Annecy Festival, ‘Lost Souls of Syria’ by Garance Le Caisne and Stéphane Malterre in 2022, ‘The Forest of Miss Tang’ by Denis Do, which was selected at the 2023 Annecy Festival for a screening event and nominated at the César 2024 for best short film, ‘The Siren’ by Sepideh Farsi, the opening film in the Panorama selection at the 2023 Berlinale, winner of the Best Music award at its official selection at Annecy 2023, and winner of the Best Directing award at the 2023 Champs-Elysées Festival.
