Andrijana Ružić
Andrijana Ružić graduated in History and Criticism of Art at the Università degli Studi in Milan, Italy. She specialized in History of Animated Film under Giannalberto Bendazzi’s mentorship: the subject of her master thesis was the opus of two unpredictable spirits of American independent animation scene, John and Faith Hubley, and their Storyboard Studio in New York City.
As an independent scholar she has participated to numerous international conferences for animation studies presenting works of diverse independent authors of animation and has served as a juror on international animation festivals. In the period from 2012 to 2019 she has been a program curator of the animated film section at the International Comics Festival in Belgrade, Serbia. She is member of the Selection board of Animafest Scanner, the international symposium for contemporary animation studies held annually at the International Festival of Animated Film (Animafest) in Zagreb, Croatia.
She writes about animation and other arts for Belgrade weekly magazine Vreme, Croatian film magazine Hrvatski filmski ljetopis and French animation magazine Blinkblank and is the author of the book Michael Dudok de Wit – A Life in Animation (CRC Focus).
Nikica Gilić
Nikica Gilić (Split, 1973), professor and founder of the Department of Filmology at the Department of Comparative Literature (at Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb). He also teaches at the Academy of Dramatic Arts.
He graduated in comparative literature and English studies, and has been working at the Department of Comparative Literature since 1998. He obtained his master’s degree in 2003 on the subject “Filmski aspekti naratologije”, and his doctorate in 2005 on the subject “Filmska genealogija i tipologija filmske prezentacije”. He wrote texts for Vijenac, Zarez (he was also the editor of the film editorial), Hrvatski radio, Hrvatski filmski ljetopis, Kolo and other media. He is a frequent contributor to film and other shows at the Croatian National Television. He participated in several international symposia (in Split, Zagreb, Zadar, Szeged, Berlin, Timisoara, Paris, Washington, Boston, Chicago, London, Belgrade, Graz, Vienna, etc.), gave lectures and participated in round tables about film in several countries (Germany, Sweden, Czech Republic, Serbia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Austria…).
He is the editor-in-chief of Hrvatski filmski ljetopis, a member of the editorial board of the international online magazine Apparatus. He is a member of the Council of Animafest, for eight years he was a member of the Council of the Croatian Society of Film Critics. He was an artistic advisor for the documentary film at HAVC and a member of the jury of several film festivals and reviews (eg Pula, Days of Croatian Film, ZagrebDox, Mediterranean Film Festival in Široki Brijeg, Balkan in Belgrade).
Vlatko Galevski
Vlatko Galevskiis a prominent film critic and journalist in the field of culture. In his 40-year career, he has written more than 1000 film reviews for domestic and foreign magazines, including the magazines Forum, Life, Focus, Kinopis, Sloboden Pechat, Sarajevske Sveske and others.
He worked as a long-term editor for special projects in the field of culture in the weekly/monthly Forum, later for several years he was the founder and chief co-editor of Film+ magazine and editor of Filmski Pechat. He produced the shows “Cinema” and “Cinemania” for A1 television. He actively cooperates with the important Macedonian film festivals, and was the president of the jury committees of the Cinedays, Makedox, Asterfest (selector), Echo and Winter apricot festivals.
He is regularly accredited at the Cannes and Berlin festivals. He is the founder and host of the Lale Debate Film Club, which has been active for 10 years as part of the program of the Youth Cultural Center (MKC). He is also a mentor at the Film School in MKC. He is the author and presenter of the radio show in the field of film and film music “Listen to the film”, which has been broadcasted for 23 years (Ravel, Macedonian Radio, Metropolis Radio), with more than 1200 shows. As an artistic associate of the Macedonian Philharmonic, he is the music selector for 4 concerts with the performance of film music. He is the author of the books “Faceria” and “Ispovedni finesi”, as well as producer and co-author of music for the feature film “Maklabas”.
Gala Frecon
“Gala has collaborated with several structures and festivals as events programmer and coordinator. At the Annecy Festival, she has been selector of both the VR Works alongside Yves Nougarède and the WTF programme with Sébastien Sperer for the last several years.
She joined the Festivals Connexion team in 2023 as Head of Distribution of the VR works in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. She is also a lecturer at GOBELINS campus Annecy and gives lessons on the history of animation film”
Ana Opačić
She graduated from the Academy of Arts in Split majoring in Film and Video. She has a master’s degree from the University of Audiovisual Arts EFTA in Skopje (Prima Europa) in the department of film and TV directing. She received her PhD at the Institute of Macedonian Literature at UKIM, on the topic “Author’s policies in film adaptations: Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti), Woyzech (Werner Herzog) and Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky)”.
Since 2014 she has been working at the International University for Audiovisual Arts Europa Prima in Skopje, on the subjects “Scriptwriting” and “Dramaturgy on stage”. From 2015-2019, she was an associate of the daily newspaper “Nova Makedonija” as a professional correspondent for Film. Ana Opačić has made 8 professional short films, about 20 short films during her studies, as well as several exhibitions and performances of new media art.
Since the beginning of her stay in Macedonia in 2011, she has been collaborating on domestic film projects – workshops, festivals, films.
She was also a selector and jury member at foreign international festivals and camps, Split Film Festival, ISFC Interaction Serbia, DUFF – Dubrovnik, Winter apricots, Philosophical film festival…
She is a member of MFPA (Macedonian Film Professionals Association).
Since 2018, she is the Founder and Director of the Festival for New European Film BEACH FILM FESTIVAL Ohrid. At the moment she is in pre-production of her debut feature film Third Shift.
Nikola Radulovikj
Multimedia artist from Kumanovo, Macedonia based in Sofia and an art-director at robo.bg animation studio. Working in the advertising and entertainment industries professionally for 10+ years. His professional and personal projects include traditional and CGI animation, comics, illustrations and illustrated books and multimedia web projects.
Awards/Honours
“Lazar Lichenoski” award for innovation in painting department at Faculty of Fine Arts, UKIM, Skopje 2010
‘Achoo’ – “L’Indice” award – The Gifer, International GIF art project 2017
‘Book of Sclavin’ – “Biennial of young artists” – First prize award, Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje 2018
‘Book of Sclavin’ – “Biennial of young artists” – Competitors voting award, Museum of Contemporary Art, Podgorica 2018.
‘Mickey and Mr.Peanut’ – Official Selection & Guest – Program 3/ Psychedelic Midnight Mix, Pictoplasma conference. Berlin 2019
‘Bambino’ – First prize for “Best Graphic Edition” for the illustrated book “Bambino” by Macedonian Publishers Association (MAI), Skopje 2022
‘Stare – Impérieux’ – First prize for ‘Best animated video’ – Flipbook Film Festival
‘Bambino’ – Listed on White Ravens 2023. International Youth Library in Munich, Germany.
‘Stare – Impérieux’ – Special award for art-direction – Cortoons Gandia Festival Gandia, Spain. 2023
‘Stare – Impérieux’ – 1st Place – Sonic Category – 8th annual Digerati Emergent Media Festival: Welcome to the Here and Now, Denver, Colorado 2023