Jury
International Animation
Matisse Gonzales
Matisse Gonzales lives and works in Berlin as an animator, illustrator and director. In her work, she refers to her Bolivian origins and her current place of residence and defines her work as ‘chaotic but structured, tragic but funny, extroverted but intimate’. ‘Gravedad’, her graduation film at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, toured festivals around the world and was nominated for the Quirino and Annie Awards in 2020 and longlisted for the Academy Awards in 2022.
Gonzalez is the creator of ‘Era Solo Una Roca Que Se Parecía a Alguien’ (It was just a stone that looked like someone), the pilot episode of her own series for Cartoon Network Latin America, which has more than 90,000 views on YouTube and awards at several festivals.
The director is currently working on the development of her first feature film ‘Condenaditos’, a personal project combining 2D and stop-motion, produced by the German studio Seufz, the French studio Ikki Films and the Bolivian Celeste Studio.
Nadezhda Svirskaia
Nadezhda Svirskaia was born in Naberezhnye Chelny, USSR. She works as a curator and producer of animation projects. After studying journalism at Kazan State University, she graduated as an art curator from the School of Contemporary Art "Free Workshops" at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.From 2001 to 2022, based in Moscow, Nadya organised exhibitions, screenings and thematic events on artistic animation in collaboration with museums, galleries and festivals in various cities. In 2019, together with friends, she founded the international nomadic microfestival Shcha 7 Seconds Animated Films, which was presented at Big Cartoon Festival, Animafest Zagreb, StopTrik Festival, Zubroffka, Supertoon, Countryside Animafest Cyprus and Festival of Animation Berlin (FAB). In 2022 she participated in the Artist-in-Residency programme at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Nadya is involved in political animation activism and is against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She has lived in Berlin since 2022.
Jan Gadermann
Jan Gadermann, born in Bietigheim-Bissingen, is the author and director of three short films, co-creator of the cardboard picture book series ‘Mats & Frida’ and animates for the ‘Sandmännchen’ programme, among others.
He first studied film studies in Mainz, then animation at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. He graduated in 2022 with a master's degree in animation directing with the short film ‘Laika & Nemo’. The film was screened at over 150 festivals worldwide and won a student Oscar, among other awards.
Pia Djukic
Pia is the artistic director and co-founder of the Festival of Animation Berlin (FAB) and art and German teacher at Primo - Levi - Gymnasium, in Berlin - Weißensee. She is also an animator and completed her studies in animation directing at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF after completing her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart and the University of Stuttgart.With her practical and aesthetic knowledge of film and her didactic experience as a teacher, she played a key role in the concept development of the platform "Kurzfilm im Klassenraum" and its highly flexible compatibility for teaching.
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German Animation
Monica Koshka-Stein
Monica Koshka-Stein is from Australia and moved to Berlin in 1993. With a background in music, film, performance and art she has been working for interfilm Berlin since 1998. Monica became Artistic Director of KUKI Young Short Film Festival in 2011 and leads film curation workshops for youth, gives lectures and curates short film programs with a young audience focus. She joined the short film selection committee of Berlinale-Generation in 2021 and founded KUKI’s digital film & civic education platform “Kurzfilm im Klassenraum”. Monica celebrates the inventiveness and empathetic potential of the short form.
Sébastien Wolf
Sébastien Wolf was born in Essen in 1976. He studied fine arts at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Bernd Becher, Thomas Ruff and Vadim Glowna. Since 2002, he has produced animated films and music videos in collaboration with Tinka Stock and Ian Ritterskamp. His work has been shown at international festivals, including the Sundance Festival, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Outfest and the Festival of Animation Berlin (FAB) and has been honoured with awards at the Palm Springs Int. ShortFest, Hamburg Short Film Festival, exground filmfest, Cortoons Festival Gandía, among others. Sébastien Wolf lives and works in Berlin.
Bin-Han To
Bin-Han To is an award winning creative director for animated content in Film, Game and Mixed Reality with a particular focus on visual development and narrative animation, with more than 10 years of experience across all disciplines of the 3D and 2D animation workflow.
Mixed Reality and video game projects like the DCP-winning indie game “Tilt Pack” and various Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality projects have been part of his exploration and expansion into other fields, and been fuelled by his passion for video games and real time content. Bin-Han is a recurring lecturer on Visual- and Story-Development for Animation at the HSLU Lucerne, Switzerland.
His best known work is the critically and commercially acclaimed Roald Dahl adaptation “Revolting Rhymes” which he co-directed with long time collaborators Jan Lachauer and Jakob Schuh. The adaptationwon an Emmy, Annie, BAFTA, Annecy Crystal and was nominated for an Academy Award.
Bin-Han works and lives in Berlin.
Rosangela de Araujo
Rosangela de Araujo is a Brazilian multimedia artist and writer based in Berlin. She studied Visual Communication at Escola de Belas Artes, UFRJ, in Rio de Janeiro. Her experience as animator and assistant director in the award-winning short film Cristo Procurado by Rui de Oliveira led her to pursue a MFA degree in Experimental Animation at California Institute of the Arts, under legendary artist Jules Engel, on a full scholarship.
In 1996, she moved to Berlin, where she built up an all-round experience in the animation film industry. Between 1998 and 2020 she taught Experimental Animation focusing on authentic artistic expression and visual story-telling at the Filmuni Babelsberg "Konrad Wolf". In 2022, she substituted Isabel Herguera as Professor for Animation/Experimental Animation at Academy of Media Arts Cologne.
As creative producer in animation, Rosangela helps directors to overcome storytelling blockages and to structure their production, whilst, most importantly, staying in touch with their authenticity.
Mario Trigo Teixeira
Maria Trigo Teixeira is an animation film director and artist based in Porto and Berlin. She studied Animation at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf and Communication Design at the University of Porto.
Her graduation film “Inside me” (2019) received the German Short Film Award and was screened and awarded at festivals worldwide, qualifying for the Academy Awards. "It shouldn't rain tomorrow" (2024), her next short film, premiered at Annecy and won the Portuguese National Animation Award, among other awards at international film festivals.
From 2016 to 2021, Maria curated and organised the monthly screenings of the Shortcutz Berlin festival. She has participated in NEF International Residency for Animated Films in France, attended the Krakow Animated Film Workshop and was selected to take part in the Berlinale Talents programme.
Maria is currently working on MAN & DOG, a short film that humorously delves into the power dynamics of human relationships.
New Talents
Sabine Huber
Sabine Huber was born in 1963, studied communication design at the state academy of fine arts Stuttgart and animation at the Film Academy Baden- Württemberg. She has been working as a freelance director for various television stations since 1992.
Her works include the film "Das Flederschwein in der Unterwelt" and the music video "Zehn kleine Jägermeister" for "Die Toten Hosen".
As a lecturer for animated film she taught among others at the Rocky Mountain College in Denver Colorado.
Petra Stipetić
Petra Stipetić studied Fine Arts and Visual Communication. She works as a freelance animated filmmaker and lecturer. Her short films have been shown internationally at festivals and have been honoured with awards such as the Golden Rider and the Hessian Film Award. She has been teaching animation and visual storytelling at Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences since 2022. In 2023, she became an artistic assistant in the animation class at the Kunsthochschule Kassel and a member of the viewing committee for the national competition at the Dresden Film Festival. In 2024, she took part in the Berlinale Talents and further developed her current animated film ‘Strangers with Hats’ at the Short Form Station. The film is currently in production. Petra lives and works in Germany.
Carole Lunt
With a background in philosophy and a passion for cinema, Carole Lunt was co-founder of the Festival, Les relations internationales, before committing over 15 years to the French Film Week at the French Institute in Germany. Co-founder of Women making Games, she also worked for several years on OFAJ-supported Franco-German workshops for young schoolchildren from France and Germany and took part in numerous projects involving video games and virtual reality. Carole Lunt teaches and participates in the dissemination of artistic and creative projects, listening to the individual stories told through film, audiovisual and literary creations.
Michelle Brand
Michelle Brand is an animation director, producer and illustrator based in Berlin, who enjoys visualising abstract ideas in abstract ways across a wide range of aesthetics. With a special focus on discussing philosophical concepts around temporality and spatiality, she keeps blurring the lines between theory and practice in both her moving and static image work. Heavily influenced by avant-garde, modern abstract art movements she is especially drawn to expressing ideas, moods and atmospheres only through colour, movement and shapes. She is also the co-founder of KINEMUS, a 2D and 3D animation studio in Berlin, exploring hybrid and expanded animation, installations and mixed media projects.
Marina Belikova
Marina Belikova is a Berlin-based media artist specializing in visual storytelling through hand-drawn and 2D animation, photography, illustration, and mixed media. She holds an M.F.A. in Media Art and Design from Bauhaus University Weimar. Her thesis film, the oil-on-glass animation “The Astronaut's Journal”, has been screened in over ten countries, including Animafest Zagreb, Fantastopia and Capital City Film Festival, and has received multiple international awards.
Her photographic and mixed media work delves into themes of memory, human presence in urban spaces, and the invisible traces and stories that linger in the everyday. Her photo series have been nominated for Sunny Art Prize (2021), received the Bauhaus Essentials Prize (2016) and have been shown in various international exhibitions (“ART From ELSEWHERE”, “Hero Mother”, Fringe Arts Bath, “oh my data” and others).
For several years she has been a team member of FAFF (Factual Animation Film Festival), serving on the jury panel and producing the Berlin edition. She also gives lectures and workshops on the history of documentary animation and various analogue techniques. Marina maintains an independent art practice alongside her work as an art director at TTS.
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Daniel Sterlin-Altman
Daniel Sterlin-Altman is Canadian animation filmmaker based in Berlin, Germany. An MFA holder in Animation Direction from the Filmuniversity Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF in Potsdam. Daniel has directed several independent short films as well as commissioned works that have displayed and won awards in festivals worldwide, including the 2024 Cristal for Best Graduation Short at Annecy International Animation, Golden Horsemen Award at Filmfest Dresden, and Best Student Film at Animafest Zagreb. He is also an active collaborator with the intersectional queer collective, Critical Queer Solidarity, and facilitates politically-minded animation workshops throughout Germany.
Veronika Samartseva
Veronika Samartseva is an animation film director and artist working preferably in analogue cut-out animation.
After studying animation at the Film University Babelsberg she was a founding member of the Talking Animals Collective and taught at the European University of Applied Sciences Berlin.Her work has been shown at international festivals and received various prizes. Currently she is working on her next short film, funded by the minister of state for culture and media as well as by Hessenfilm at studio TORP.
Franka Sachse
Franka Sachse is an independent filmmaker. To create her animated films, she assumes the role of a scriptwriter, storyboard artist, art director, animator and director. Often she realises her visions through digital drawn animation, but also uses analog techniques to approach topics like interpersonal relationships and ambivalent feeling. Furthermore, Franka is animating young talents to animate through her sessions at international workshops and her lecturing activities at different universities.
Carolina Cruz
Carolina Cruz is a director and animator based in Berlin. Using various analogue techniques, she prefers to explore how to develop cinematic characters and worlds out of paper. She tells stories whose ambivalence combines sweetness and coarseness, innocence and hideousness.
‘Recordari’ was her graduation film in the MA programme at the Film University Konrad Wolf and was shown and awarded prizes at various international festivals; at the ITFS Stuttgart she received an honourable mention for the ‘Lotte Reiniger Prize’.
In 2024, she founded the Studio-Galerie-Ministerium für Animation (MoA), an interdisciplinary exhibition, work and production space for artistic experimentation in the field of animated film.
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Mladen Đukić
Mladen Đukić is an animator, director and producer. He graduated in Film Editing from the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka in 2004. In 2010, he graduated in character animation from Animation Mentor and in 2014 he earned an MA in Film and TV Production from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. In 2008, he started Aeon Production Ltd. In 22 years, he has produced and directed 11 shorts, 6 animated. He has also directed over 200 episodes of TV shows (children, daily drama, sitcoms) and made over 500 ads, mostly animation. He co-founded the International Short Film Festival Kratkofil in 2008 and was a jury member at eight international festivals. As of 2010, he teaches animation at the Academy of Arts, University of Banja Luka. He’s a full professor, and with his colleagues, he started the Animation Department in 2014, the first and only in Bosnia. With his students, he started the project Animacikl.com.
Rike Rothe
Rike Rothe is one of the co-founders of the animation studio monströös in Berlin, where she works as a director, animator and producer. She has a degree in animation directing from the Film University Konrad Wolf in Babelsberg and successfully attended the Hamburg Animation School.
As an animation professional, Rike specializes in character design, animatics and directing. In her spare time, she enjoys drawing comics, practicing Kung Fu and hiking in nature. Rike currently lives in Vancouver, Canada, and sometimes in Germany.
Stanko Stupar
Stanko Stupar is a Berlin-based motion designer and creative director. He began his career in the film and gaming industries, contributing to major titles such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption.
In 2020, Stupar founded Crumb, a motion design studio specializing in high-quality animation and design for technology brands.
As creative director, he has led projects for major clients, including Google and Miro Beyond his studio work, Stupar serves as a guest professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, where he teaches motion design.
Frederic Liebert
Frederic Liebert is an accomplished executive producer in high-end visual storytelling and creative production. With a career spanning some of the industry's most respected studios—including The Mill, Psyop, Imaginary Forces, Logan, and Fellow—he has played a pivotal role in bringing visionary campaigns to life for global brands such as Apple, Amazon, Callaway, ING, Reebok, Netflix, and many more. His expertise lies in seamlessly blending cutting-edge VFX, CGI, and AI-driven techniques to enhance creative workflows and push the boundaries of modern content production.
As the co-founder of Sweetess, a Berlin-based creative production studio with global reach, Frederic brings his deep industry knowledge and hands-on approach to every project. Sweetess contributions have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including Cannes Lions, Clio Awards, and Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards.
Marta Carbonell Amela
Marta Carbonell Amela is a Creative Director at Zauberberg Productions, with over 13 years of experience in design and as VFX supervisor. Having led award-winning projects at renowned studios like The Mill and Psyop, she has shaped the visual identity of many compelling narratives.
Her current focus at Zauberberg is on developing the look of films, blending creativity, storytelling, and cinematography. Marta’s expertise extends to art direction and co-direction, where she plays a key role in crafting immersive worlds and pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling.
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Christine Janjira Meyer
Christine Janjira Meyer (She/They) works in the fields of graphic design, illustration and motion design. Her multidisciplinary fields of work are the result of an equally distributed passion, so that she does not have to limit herself in her creative work. She has worked for Studio Yukiko and Anomaly Berlin on advertising campaigns and commercials for Nike, Rimowa and L'Occitane, among others.
Emile Cerf
Emile Cerf is a Berlin-based artist, whose work in illustration, animation and graphic design are shaped by an approach focused on story-telling . After graduating from their studies in 2024 with their first animation short, they have provided 3D graphics and animations for various projects and started giving animation workshops, while continuing to develop their next personal project.
Maximilian Breckwoldt
Maximilian Breckwoldt is a Berlin-based cultural worker and independent scholar. Since 2023 they have been working with the Festival of Animation Berlin, organising the Berlin Animation HUB, an industry event focussing on connecting animators and producers. Both in 2023 and 2024, they held workshops on Film and Genre Theory at the Jewish Film Festival Berlin Brandenburg. As a scholar, their works on the body politics of the Hellraiser films, as well as the works of Jane Schoenbrun has led them to become involved with the Horror Film conference Cine-Excess in Birmingham, UK. Furthermore they work with the queer film distributor Salzgeber and help organise the Queerfilmfestival which simultaneously happens in 11 cities in Germany and Austria and have released articles in the queer film magazine sissy.
Adrian Colmenares
Adrian Colmenares (They/Es) ist ein:e peruanische:r Animator:in, Game Artist und Entwickler:in und lebt in Berlin. Adrians Arbeiten spielen mit Themen wie Gender Expression, kultureller Identität und Fantasie. Adrian erschafft Charaktere, Träume und Erzählungen, die abzielen, die Grenzen um sich herum zu verschieben und zu hinterfragen. Adrian arbeitet an verschiedenen Projekten wie „Memoria Colectiva“, einer animierten Dokumentation über den bewaffneten Konflikt in Peru, und „Phasmopass“, einem absurden Rouguelite-Spiel mit Geistern und Volleyball. Adrian hoffz, dass du einen schönen Tag hast.
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