Alina Manolache is a filmmaker, artist and professor, known for her work at the crossroads of documentary and experimental cinema. After studying fine arts, she transitioned to non-fiction filmmaking, and has since directed a wide spectrum of celebrated films: Lost Kids on the Beach (IDFA 2020), End of Summer (Visions du Reel 2016), I AM HERE (Jihlava 2020), 3 Dialogues About the Future (Kasseler Dokfest 2022) to name just a few. Filmmaker Magazine has acknowledged her as one of the premier female directors of IDFA 2020 and her work has been featured in The Guardian, Calvert Journal, Vice, AEON, among others. She has contributed as a commissioned director of web documentaries for global platforms like VICE and The Guardian, was an artist-in-residence in Paris, and served as a jury member in esteemed festivals, like CPH:DOX, or Mons Film Festival. She has designed and given courses and workshops across the world, and collaborated with high-profile art schools in Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, and Romania. She is currently working on her sophomore feature documentary, ‘A Summer of Nothing’ and teaching MA Film students at HSLU Luzern, Switzerland.
Anja Kofmel, animation and documentary filmmaker, Zurich.
She studied animation at the HSLU and ENSAD Paris from 2005-2009. 2018 she released the cinema anidok Chris the Swiss, which celebrated it's world premiere at the Cannes 2018 Film Festival, Semaine de la Critique. It was invited to numerous international film festivals, including the Annecy Animation Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival and IDFA and won several prizes including the Swiss Film Award 2019 and the Norbert Daldrop Award for Art and Culture at the German Documentary Film Award 2019.
Christina Zimmermann, PhD is author-director, artist, and research associate at Zürich University of the Arts, Institute for the Performing Arts and Film/Immersive Arts Space. She holds a PhD in Fine Arts/Media Arts from Bauhaus-University Weimar (2016), and has recently been working as a lecturer (HGK Basel, 2017) and as a curator for the Kassel Documentary and Videofest (2018-2019). Her focus is on storytelling and development for documentary film and expanded cinema/video. Currently she is working on a VR-Project together with Mirafilm GmbH, Zürich. Website
Christophe Merkle, Filmmaker, Bern. Christophe Merkle is an independent experimental filmmaker creating new forms of content to discover the borders and potential of VR. He is researching and lecturing at the HSLU Art & Design and is a representative of the SwissXR Network Virtual Switzerland. His most recent works include Nachtspiel (2019), @POTUS Mini-Golf Simulator (2019), and diverse 360°-Films for Swiss Television (SRF). Website
Carlos Isabel Garcia, Camera
Born in 1985 in Toledo, Spain. Art studies at the Facultad de Bellas Artes, Universidad Complutense Madrid. From 2009 to 2014 freelancer in the field of camera, graphics, editing and animation in Lucerne with works in video clip and video art installations. 2017 he completed his Master in Cinematography at the Film University "Konrad Wolf" in Babelsberg-Potsdam. During the master studies student assistant at Fraunhoffer HHI, in Immersive Image Technologies / Omnicam 360. Since 2016 collaboration in research (until 2020) and MA Film at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Lecturer for camera.
Jeroen Visser, Sound
The Dutch multi-instrumentalist Jeroen Visser has been part of the local music scene since his move to Switzerland 20 years ago. Restlessly, he moves from one field to another, whether as a pianist or saxophonist – although the accurate term for him would probably be music researcher.
Marine Hugonnier, Artist and filmmaker, London.
Marine Hugonnier's career as an artist started in 2000 with a solo exhibition at Chantal Crousel Gallery in Paris. Her work has been since shown both in film festivals, in public and private foundations and cultural institutions internationally. She holds a PhD from the Center for Experimental and Documentary Film at the Westminster University, London UK.
Her work has been bought by the MoMA in New York, The Reina Sofia Madrid, The Museum of Modern Art Paris among others. In 2022 and 2023 her work was presented in solo-shows at the Jeu de Paume in Paris and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Website
Mischa Hedinger
Mischa Hedinger (*1984) is an independent filmmaker and editor. He studied Video at the Lucerne School of Art and Design and at the ECAL in Lausanne. In 2013, he realised his documentary film Assessment, which won the Carte Blanche young talent award at Duisburg Film Week. In 2019, his first feature-length documentary African Mirror premiered at the Berlinale festival, was nominated for the Swiss Film Award and won the Bern Film Award. He lives and works in Zurich. Webseite
Sonja Kilbertus
Sonja Kilbertus worked in film production in Austria and Germany and has been active in Switzerland since 2016, where she appreciates the financing structure that allows her to carefully develop documentaries. As a producer, she has worked on projects such as Las Hermanas de Rocinante (Alexandra Kaufmann, D/CH 2019), Body of Truth (Evelyn Schels, D/CH 2019), among us women-በኛ በሴቶች መካከል (S.N. Bozenhardt/D.A. Tilahun, D 2019) or Ostrov - Lost Island (Svetlana Rodina, Laurent Stoop, CH 2021). She is interested in serial documentary and new TV formats and in the intersection between film and political activism. She appreciates process-oriented work and the challenges of intercultural collaboration. Sonja Kilbertus has been a producer at Mira Film since early 2020, and a writer on a feature-length film and a series since 2022.
Thaïs Odermatt, Editing
Born and raised in Stans, Switzerland. Graduated with a Bachelor degree from Lucerne School of Arts and Design and with a Master degree in Documentary Film Direction from the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf.
Thaïs Odermatt has been working as a freelance filmmaker, editor and video artist since 2009. Her work as a director (among others „Nid hei cho“ and „Kurt und der Sessellift“) as well as an editor (“En la Boca”) have been shown and awarded at numerous international film festivals. Her graduation Film "Amazonen einer Grossstadt" won her the Swiss Film Prize in the category Best Graduation Film in 2021.
Website
Ed Atkins
Ed Atkins lives and works in Copenhagen. Recent institutional solo exhibitions include ‘Refuse’ at Tank, Shanghai (2022); ‘Get Life / Love’s Work’ at the New Museum, New York (2021); Kunsthaus Bregenz and K21 Düsseldorf (both 2019); Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; MMK Frankfurt; The Kitchen, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2015), The Serpentine Gallery, London (2014); Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf (2013); and MoMA PS1 (2012). Atkins was included in the 56th and 58th Venice Biennales, the 13th Lyon Biennial, and Performa 13 and 19.
Theodore Ushev
Born in Bulgaria in 1968, Theodore Ushev graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia and was a sought-after poster artist before seeking new opportunities in Canada. He moved to Montreal in 1999. Over the course of two decades, Ushev has directed 15 animation films at the NFB, winning more than 200 awards, and earning an Oscar® nomination for Blind Vaysha (2016). The Physics of Sorrow (2019) won the prestigious Cristal Award for Best Short Film at the 2020 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
In addition to his films, Ushev has created a range of innovative installations, VR and mixed-media projects. In 2021, Ushev was named the world’s most influential animator of the past 25 years by a group of leading animation critics, journalists, curators, and festival directors. His first live-action feature Phi 1.618 was released in the autumn of 2022.
Barbara Pichler
Barbara Pichler holds a degree in Theatre and Film Studies from the University of Vienna and an MA in Film and TV Studies from the University of London/British Film Institute. Since 1995, Pichler has been working in the film and media sector as a curator, publicist, film mediator, and teacher. She has developed concepts for numerous film series and educational programmes and has worked on various festivals and events. She is the co-editor of the film studies essay collection Moving Landscapes, Landscape and Film (Vienna, 2006) and the monograph James Benning (Vienna, 2007). From 2008 to 2015 she was the artistic director and managing director of the Diagonale Festival of Austrian Film. Since 2016, she has been the producer and co-managing director of Vienna-based KGP Filmproduktion.
André Eckardt
More information coming soon.
Julian Rosefeldt The Berlin-based artist Julian Rosefeldt (born in Munich in 1965) is internationally renowned for his visually opulent and meticulously choreographed moving image artworks, mostly presented as complex multi-screen installations. Inspired equally by the histories of film, art and popular culture, Rosefeldt uses familiar cinematic tropes to carry viewers into surreal, theatrical realms, where the inhabitants are absorbed by the rituals of everyday life, employing humour and satire to seduce audiences into familiar worlds made strange. Rosefeldt is holding a professorship of Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich since 2011.
Website
Johan Grimonprez, Filmmaker and artist
Johan Grimonprez’s curatorial projects have been exhibited at museums worldwide, including the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; and MoMA, New York. His filmic works are in the collections of Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; and Tate Modern, London. His feature films include dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997), Double Take (2009) and Shadow World (2016). Traveling the main festival circuit from the Berlinale, Tribeca to Sundance, they garnered several Best Director awards, the 2005 ZKM International Media Award, a Spirit Award and the 2009 Black Pearl Award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, and were also acquired by NBC Universal, ARTE, and BBC/FILM 4.
Website
Johan Jensen, Filmmaker, Makropol, Copenhagen
Johan Knattrup Jensen graduated from filmschool in 2012, and his work have since been shown in most of the major film festivals, incl. Cannes, Locarno, IDFA, and New York Film Festival, as well at biennales, art galleries and museums all over the world. His work traverses both cinema, installation, and performance, and he is considered to be among the pioneers of cinematic virtual reality. Website
Bin-Han To, Concept Artist and Filmmaker, Berlin
Bin-Han To (* 1984) studied at the Filmakademie Ludwigsburg and is an Animation Filmmaker and Concept Artist. He lives and works in Berlin. His Film "Revolting Rhymes“, after a Book by Roald Dahl (Dir: Jakob Schuh, Jan Lachauer, Bin-Han To) was included in the shortlist for the Oscars 2017. Website
Lukas Frei, Gamedesigner, Zurich
Lukas Frei is the co-owner of „Gebrüder Frei – Die Spielemacher“ in Berne, who develop classical board games, among which „Icon Poet“ an internationally successful game, which tempts its players to invent short stories of all sorts. Website
Duscha Kistler, studied Art History, Film Studies and Modern German Literature in Zurich and until 2011 was director of the animated film festival Fantoche. She is a member of the Swiss Federal Ministry of Culture’s Animated Film Commission, as well as a freelance curator, consultant and cultural manager, active in the past, inter alia, for Martin Heller Enterprises on the project Sound Development City and for the Sitterwerk (arts centre) in St. Gallen.
Uri Kranot, Animation-Filmmaker and main tutor at the ANIDOX:LAB, Viborg
Uri Kranot is an award winning filmmaker and animation director. Originally from Israel, he has been living, working and making films in different countries. Together with partner and co-director Michelle Kranot, their films won more than thirty international prizes and participated in numerous film festivals. He has given master classes all around the world. Recently Animated film “Hollow Land” has been shortlisted for an Academy Award. Website 1 / Website 2
Jonathan Hodgson, Animation-Filmmaker and Associate Professor at the Middlesex University, London
Jonathan Hodgson is an internationally renowned, BAFTA winning animation director based in London. He studied animation at Liverpool Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. He was the animation director of Wonderland: The Trouble with Love and Sex, the first full length animated documentary on British TV. Website 1 / Website 2
