Jury of Anifilm 2016

 

International Competition of Feature Films

 

pistecky   Jabub Pistecký | Canada

Jakub Pistecky, who originally comes from the Czech Republic, studied Film and Animation at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. He has earned several prizes including two Visual Effects Society awards for his work on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and a Golden Nica for Best Animation for his tongue-in-cheek short Little Milosh (Malý Miloš) at Prix Ars Electronica (Austria).
Jakub Pistecky joined Industrial Light + Magic as an animator in 2000 to work on Star Wars episode II Attack of the Clones. Since then, he has worked on many films, his latest being Marvel's Captain America: Civil War where he was brought on as an associate supervisor.

 

mariscal   Javier Mariscal | Spain

Designer, graphic and versatile artist Javier Mariscal studied graphic design at Escuela Elisava in Barcelona. He is one of today’s most innovative and original artists who uses all available means for his work ranging across various genres and disciplines: from graphic novels through illustrations, graphics, industrial and textile design, painting, sculpture, multimedia and animation to interior design. He claims he is driven by curiosity and a desire to make everyday life more interesting, simple and happy. His work includes for example the graphic identity of Barcelona, and its mascot for the 1992 Olympic Games, Cobi the dog. Mariscal is the graphic designer and the co-director of the acclaimed feature film Chico and Rita (2010) which earned him an Academy Award nomination, Goya award and victory in the European Film Awards competition. 

 

zarrinkelk   Noureddin Zarrinkelk | Iran

An acclaimed illustrator, painter and graphic designer, Noureddin Zarrinkelk is known internationally as “the father of Iranian animation.” From a familial lineage of painters and calligraphers, Zarrinkelk forged an artistic path of his own. After earning a Ph.D. in pharmacology at Tehran University, he worked as an illustrator and then at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults where he noticed animation’s potential to capture and transform its audiences. He went to study animation in Belgium and in 1975 underwent a traineeship at the Jiri Trnka Studios in Prague. He became the director of the Iranian centre for experimental animation and founded and led the animation programme at Farabi University in Tehran. In 2003, he was elected president of ASIFA. Zarrinkelk has written and directed 13 films and now he lives in USA.

 

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION OF SHORT FILMS AND STUDENT FILMS

 

rosto   Rosto | Netherlands

Independent artist, musician, graphic artist, illustrator, animator and director Rosto, whose studio Rosto A.D. is located in Amsterdam, won international acclaim as a director of short films, TV animations and music videos and a creator of original web projects emphasising music as a main component and driving force. In 2015, Rosto finished his short film Splintertime, the third part of his continuous musical project “Thee Wreckers”. His films Beheaded, (the Rise and Fall of the Legendary) Anglobilly Feverson (2001), Jona/Tomberry (2005), Monster of Nix (2011) and Lonely Bones (2013, Gran Prix at the Ottawa International Animation Festival) have screened at many prestigious festivals and have won a number of awards. They also belong to the constantly growing project “Mind My Gap” which began as an internet graphic novel and developed into a printed form, music videos and short films. Apart from his art work, Rosto works as a lecturer and regularly sits on various festival juries.

 

chintis   Chintis Lundgren | Estonia

Independent animation director from Estonia. Chintis Lundren started her career by making silly amateur films about birds and gay men. After years of animating all kinds of nonsense, she quit her day job and moved to the Adriatic coast. Currently, she’s developing her plans to start making films about animals, namely drunk rabbits, foxes and rats. Her films, most recently My Life with Herman H. Rott or #merrychristmas, have been screened at major animation festivals and earned several awards and acclaim both from juries and audiences. Since 2011, she’s run her own animation studio, Chintis Lundgreni Animatsioonistuudio; she is also a co-founder of Adriatic Animation, a production company.

 

pinkava   Jan Pinkava | Czech Republic, USA

Prague-born artist and director of animated films, Jan Pinkava learned CG production at Digital Pictures, London, animating and directing TV ads and graphics. In 1993 he joined Pixar in California. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning short film Geri’s Game, A Bug’s Life, as well as Ratatouille for which he shared an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 2008. More recently, Jan was asked to creatively lead a pioneering group of animation and technical artists in Google’s Advanced Technologies and Projects group (ATAP), devising a new form of interactive storytelling for mobile devices. Beginning with the first show, Windy Day, which Jan directed, a growing list of Google Spotlight Stories has been released to smartphone audiences worldwide. Jan lives in Portland, Oregon.

 

International competition of abstract and non-narrative animation 

 

neubauer   Vera Neubauer | Great Britain

Experimental animator, artist and filmmaker. Born in Prague, Vera Neubauer is one of the most prolific animators in the UK. She studied art in Prague, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart, and began studying film at London’s Royal College of Art in 1969. Vera Neubauer’s works, distinctive for their application and combination of the most diverse materials and techniques, have been shown internationally in cinemas, galleries and on television. Her work poses questions on patterns and boundaries in modern culture, while her images are poetic and playful. She has been awarded 2 BAFTAs, as well as major prizes at international film festivals. Neubauer taught art and filmmaking at Central St. Martin’s School of Art, Royal College of Art, and Goldsmiths University. She works in London and occasionally holds workshops throughout the world.

 

lopez   Carolina López Caballero | Spain

Carolina López studied fine arts in Barcelona and film animation in West Surrey (England). She has curated film cycles for museums like the MACBA and the Bilbao Guggenheim and festivals such as Artfutura and Resfest, and has been a jury member and speaker at international animated film festivals. She is a writer and book editor, and contributes to specialized animation media. She was co-founder of 8 deagosto, the animation department of the production company Agosto, and has created and directed the animation section of the Sitges IFF for 10 years. Carolina curated the exhibition “Metamorphosis. The Fantastic Visions of Starewitch, Švankmajer and the Brothers Quay”. She is the director of Xcèntric, the cinema of the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona and Animac Lleida, the Catalan International Animated Film Festival.

 

svadlena   Ondřej Švadlena | Canada, Czech Republic

Illustrator, comic book artist, 3D animator and animated film director Ondřej Švadlena studied illustration and comic art at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. In 1997 he joined Jiří Barta’s Film and Television Graphics studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague. Self-taught, he was one of the first students to explore and adopt the technology of CGI animation. In 2005, he got an offer to work as a 3D animator for Avion Postproduction where he made his first three short films: the music video Trik (2005), the unique and expressive Sanitkasan (2007), a great success at many festivals throughout the world, and his rough and rather absurd MRDRCHAIN (2010, which also won an award at AniFest). Since 2011, Ondřej Švadlena has been living in Germany where he recently finished his French-Czech co-production Time Rodent (2016) and a video-game inspired by the film.