Festival 6 - 10 March, 2024

Olga Bobrowska is a PhD candidate in Film Studies at Jagiellonian University, Kraków, specialized in classic Chinese animated film, and an author of academic articles on Polish and Chinese animation. She is the co-founder and director of the StopTrik International Film Festival (Maribor & Lodz) and frequently collaborates with other festivals and presents curated programs. Her reviews and critiques were published in many film magazines; in 2016 she co-edited the monograph ‘Obsession Perversion Rebellion. Twisted Dreams of Central European Animation’.

Amina Handke is an artist, curator and author living and working in Vienna. Her work examines topics of originality, subjectivity, authorship/audienceship and reception. It is informed by her extensive expertise and experience in working at the intersections of art, social practice, participative media and a multitude of disciplines and addresses disciplinary borders with mainly time-based (audiovisual, performing and conceptual) artistic methods. 

Yantong Zhu is an animation director and author of children’s books. She got her master’s degree in Film from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 2014. Her graduation film ‘My Milk Cup Cow’ has won 24 prizes around the world, such as the Grand Prix of KROK, the Young Animation Award of the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film, the New Face Award of the Japan Media Arts Festival and the Synchro Film Award at Tricky Women 2018. She also worked as a curator for the 7th China Independent Animation Film Forum. 

Rachel Gutgarts was born and raised in Jerusalem. She graduated from the animation department at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, with a focus on experimental techniques, mainly animated silk screen prints. Her 2017 graduation film ‘A Love Letter to the One I Made Up’ was screened at many festivals around the world and was awarded the Q21 residency program at Tricky Women 2018, amongst others.

Sandra Nigischer chairs the women’s network Sorority. She graduated from the University of Vienna in German language and literature and in theatre, film and media studies and worked as a film journalist for Celluloid magazine and others. Since 2017, she has been production editor at DER STANDARD newspaper.

Jin Yu is an independent animation director and an associate professor at the China Academy of Art. She took a master’s degree from the School of Media and Animation of the China Academy of Art in 2008 and is now studying for a PhD in film and animation. She has directed several animated shorts such as ‘Love Is A Dream’, ‘Flying Kites’, ‘Nostalgia’, ‘Chinese Fantasia’, ‘The Plum Blossom’ and ‘A Women’s Life’ and has won numerous awards.