Amy Kravitz (USA)

Amy Kravitz (b. 1956 Wilmington, Delaware) explores animation as a distinct language that uses unusual materials, unique spatial expressions, and visual metaphors as its grammar. She believes an intimate collaboration between viewer and maker takes place between each drawing.   Her films – including River Lethe, The Trap, Roost, and The Hour Coat, transform the vicarious phenomena of cinema into genuine emotional experience using timing, abstraction, and movement to communicate on a visceral level.  Her films have been lauded as powerful experiences that defy verbal explanation. The Trap was considered by Jules Engel to be one of the ten essential films through which to teach the principles, techniques, and concepts of the art of animation.

Kravitz’s singular teaching methods, refined over five decades of experience, encourage students to develop individual approaches to the medium and enable their unique voices. She is one of the principal architects of the animation program at Rhode Island School of Design.  Her approach to animation and teaching techniques are the origin of Rhode Island School of Design’s Movement Lab. In 2011 she received the Frazier Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Kravitz studied Anthropology at Harvard University (BA 1980), and Experimental Animation at California Institute of the Arts (MFA1986). Kravitz started making animated films at age eleven and was teaching by age fourteen.

Her films have been screened at many festivals including the Ottawa International Animation Festival, Annecy International Animation Festival, Cork International Film Festival, Animafest Zagreb, Clermont Ferrand Festival of Short Films, Hiroshima International Animation Festival, Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, Melbourne International Animation Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Holland International Animation Festival, and Anima Mundi among others. They have won numerous awards. Kravitz was honored with a retrospective and the Honorary Presidency of the Ottawa International Animation Festival in 2022.

Thomas Stellmach (Germany)

Thomas Stellmach (*1965 in Straubing, Germany) is a director, producer and author of short animated films. He lives and works in Kassel, Germany.

Amongst 100 international awards for his independent productions, he received the Academy Award (Oscar®) for the stop-motion film QUEST in 1997. He was awarded the Goethe Plaque of the State of Hesse “for special services to the cultural life of the state” and the Honorary Award of the Federal Association of Film and AV Producers “for one of the most promising young German animated film makers”.

He studied animation with the animated film artist and professor Paul Driessen at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. After graduating from the art academy in 1999, he founded the animation studio Lichthof Film & Animation in Kassel with two partners and produced for television and advertising until 2008.

Since 2009 Stellmach concentrates again on free artistic projects. So far, he has realised his short film and advertising productions in stop-motion, 3D computer animation, cartoon, pixilation and experimental ink animation in stereoscopy.

Stellmach moderates his ‘Trickfilm-Show’, holds animation workshops and does audiovisual performances with animation, presented by Zoetropes and other optical devices.

He gave workshops for the following institutions, among others:

Film Academy Baden-Württemberg
University of Television and Film Munich
Academy of Media Arts Cologne
Royal Film Commission Amman/Jordan
State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe
Kassel University of the Arts
International Youth Competition “jugend creativ” of the Federal Association of German Volks- u. Raiffeisenbanken
City of Hanau/Youth Education Centre
Gymnasium an der Stenner, Iserlohn
Ludwigsgymnasium, Straubing
Neues Gymnasium, Rüsselsheim

He presented his films and animation show for the following institutions, among others:

Theaterstübchen Kassel
Gymnasium an der Stenner, Iserlohn
Ludwigsgymnasium, Straubing
Cinedom, Straubing
Neues Gymnasium, Rüsselsheim
MonumentArt ArtMonument Festival Hann.Münden
24th International Animated Film Festival, Wiesbaden

Filmography:

THE SAUSAGE RUN (10 min, cartoon film 2021)
VIRTUOS VIRTUELL (8 min, animated experimental film 2013)
CHICKEN KIEV (9 min, cartoon film 2000)
QUEST (11 min, stop motion film 1996)
OLD SUPER LADY (30 sec, cartoon film 1994)
SMALL TALK (5 min, pixilation 1994)
UNKRAUT (5 min, cartoon film 1992)
TEE-HEE (2 min, cartoon film 1989)

Hossein Moradizadeh (Iran)

Born in 1970.
Graduated with a bachelor’s degree in animation directing from the Radio and Television University in 1992.
Making twelve animated short films, making three feature animations and two animated series, and directing and producing short documentaries.

Mora Studio started its activity in 1989, concentrating on producing and researching experimental films, especially abstract animations. Collaborate with universities and research centers.
Making animated films – Documentary films and unconventional films.
This studio is small and independent and produces low-budget films , and it’s just an art studio that has a constructive relationship with other centers around the world.

Isabel Loyer (France)

Isabel Loyer was born in Italy in 1989. After studying cinema at the University of Paris, she obtained a master’s degree in stop-motion animation at the BAU design school of Barcelona in 2020.

In 2021 she directed “Tamgu” with Luis Paris. “Tamgu” has been selected in numerous festivals as Festival d’Animation d’Annecy (France), Zagreb Animafest (Groatie), Big Cartoon (Russie)… “Tamgu” wins the award of best experimental movie at the festival Cine Latinaméricano de Rosario, the reward of the best first movie ar the T-Short festival and has been considered by the webinar Animacion para Adultos as one of the best 10 short animated movies of 2021.

Her next short-movie, co-directed with Meriç Atalar and produced by Camera etc (Belgium) is in production.

Luis Paris (Argentina)

Artist and digital animator, graduated from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and in Visual Arts at the National University of Arts (UNA), professor of the degree in Multimedia Arts (UNA). His animated short films “Tamgu”, “Pasajes” and his documentary “Srta. Hisas” were selected and exhibited in numerous spaces and festivals such as Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Animafest Zagreb 2021, Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival (Korea), T-Short Animated Film Festival (Germany), Angelika Short Film Competition (USA) , Carton Festival (Argentina), Cortoons Festival di corti di animazione di Roma (Italy), Salamanca Video Short Film Festival, Badalona (Spain), among others. As a graphic designer and animator, I have developed identity for TV channels in different studios and independently with participation in 9 projects recognized by the Promax BDA Awards.