Djamila Grandits
Djamila Grandits is a Vienna-based curator. As part of CineCollective she is responsible for the artistic direction of Kaleidoskop Film und Freiluft. Member of the pre-selection committees of Berlinale Panorama and Diagonale and the non-fiction commission of Zürcher Filmstiftung. Curator of Frame[o]ut open air cinema. Interested in entanglements and the exploration of collective spaces.
Isabel Herguera
Isabel Herguera studied art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the class of Professor Nam June Paik. Later, she earned an MFA in animation from CalArts. She enjoys traveling around the world, taking notes, recording sounds, and drawing in sketchbooks. Since 2017, she has been a professor of animation at KHM Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne, Germany. Sultana’s Dream (2023) is her first feature film.
© Photo by Gianmarco Serra
Noémie Marsily
Noémie Marsily was born in Belgium in 1983. Since then, she has spent most of her time painting and drawing images that move. Her artistic practice has been evolving for several years through projects and encounters between comics, illustration, animated films and teaching. Her last short film Whatever Moves Is Alive is an intimate and poetic self-portrait.
Vivien Hárshegyi
Vivien Hárshegyi was born and raised in Budapest, where she still lives. She graduated from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest where she got her degree in animation. Her graduation film Above The Clouds was screened at many amazing festivals – such as Tricky Women. As a director and storyteller she is always trying to find a balance between too serious and not too serious.
Katrin Rothe
Katrin Rothe is a film director, animation producer and screenwriter. She works at the intersection between animated and live-action film and explores the boundaries of documentary and animation. As early as 2004, she included animated sequences in her television debut. After 1917 – The Real October (2017), Johnny & Me (2023) is her second feature film.
© Photo by Andreas Domma
Bojana Bregar
Bojana Bregar is a freelance film critic, writer and program selector. She started working at the Slovenian Cinematheque as a student. In 2014 she co-founded FeKK, the Ljubljana Short Film Festival. After moving to Austria she joined Vienna Shorts as a selector and is now also head of industry events at the festival. Since 2018 she has been a part of Cinema Next.
Isabel de Peuter-Rutten
Isabel De Peuter-Rutten is a dedicated virtual explorer and entrepreneur in emerging technologies. As President of Euromersive and GatherVerse EU Director, she advocates for a human-centric approach and accessibility within the emerging tech industry. She is Community Manager at WIIT Europe, XR4Heritage representative in Flanders and co-founder of the Community of Change.
Kris Hofmann
Currently based in Vienna, Kris has been working as an animator and animation director since graduating from the Royal College of Art in London in 2010. Since 2018 her focus has been on the design of immersive experiences. Kris has designed a number of interactive education tools on a broad range of topics, from the female menstrual cycle to economic literacy and light pollution.
Flavia Mazzanti
Flavia Mazzanti is an Italian-Brazilian Vienna-based media artist and entrepreneur in the field of virtual reality and digital media, with a background in architecture. Her work explores artistic-philosophical concepts on post-anthropocentrism, new materialism, body and identity. She is the co-founder of Immerea, an interactive media company focusing on the development of VR games and virtual installations.
© Photo by Manuel Bonell
Valentina Berthelon
Valentina Berthelon is a Chilean media artist currently based in Berlin. She studied at La Esmeralda, National Art Center of Mexico, and UDK, the University of the Arts Berlin. In her artistic practice, Valentina blends various techniques, including video, sound, and virtual reality, to craft immersive and multisensory experiences that delve into the intricate relationships between art, technology, and society.
© Photo by Stefan Freund
Anna Sophie Dohnalek
Anna Sophie Dohnalek studied Theater, Film and Media Studies in Vienna as well as Culture and Media Management in Hamburg. After various experiences in the film and cultural sector in Germany and Austria she has been working as a film educator at the Austrian Film Museum since 2021.
© Photo by Eszter Kondor
Sophia Hochedlinger
Sophia Hochedlinger was born in Upper Austria and lives in Vienna. She studied Timebased and Interactive Media Arts at the University of Arts Linz and has since been working with video and film, with a focus on fiction film in screenwriting, directing and editing. Since 2023 she is co-director of the YOUKI International Youth Media Festival.
© Photo by Leah Hochedlinger