Koji Yamamura was born in Japan on June 4th 1964. He made his first animated film at the age of 13. Between 1983 and 1987 he studied painting at the Tokyo Zokei University. As a student he worked in art assistance and special effects modelling for films. During this period he was influenced by Canadian, Russian and European short animated films, especially by authors such as Ishu Patel, Yuri Norstein and Priit Pärn. After graduation he started his career as an animation background artist at Mukuo Studio. In 1989 he left the studio to work freelance. In 1993 he and his wife founded Yamamura Animation, Inc. In 2002 he signed a contract with Acme Filmworks as an animation director. Yamamura has created many short animation films using a variety of techniques. Mt. Head (2002) was nominated for an Oscar in 2003, and awarded 6 Grand Prix, including Annecy 03, Zagreb 04 and Hiroshima 04. Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor (2007) received the 2007 Grand Prix at Ottawa. He is the first grand prix winner of all major international animation film festivals.
He has participated as a jury member, has lectured and held workshops at numerous international film festivals for the popularization and advancement of the art of animation. He is also an illustrator and has published several picture books. In Japan, a large exhibition of his work, “Yamamura Animation Museum”, was held at the Aichi Expo 05, while other exhibitions were held at Japanese galleries and public museums. His films have been shown in over 30 countries and awarded various notable prizes. Retrospective screenings of his work have been shown at the Melbourne International Film Festival, the National Film Theatre in UK and overall in more than 20 countries.
He is currently a regular member of the board of directors of the Japan Animation Association and a member of the board of directors of the Japanese branch of the International Animated Film Association, and has been a visiting professor at the Tokyo Zokei University since 2004.
Marco de Blois studied cinema at the Université de Montréal. In 1988 he joined the creators of film magazine 24 images and became a member of its editorial board in 1995. He wrote reviews and articles for magazines such as Elle Québec, Ici Montréal and Le Couac, and contributed to the Dictionnaire du cinéma québécois. He collaborated with Marcel Jean on his essay Quand le cinéma d’animation rencontre le vivant, recently translated into Croatian. Since 1998 he acts as animation curator at Cinémathèque Québécoise, a film and television archive based in Montreal. There, he works to preserve animation-related artefacts and film prints and to popularize the knowledge of animation by organizing retrospectives, theme-oriented screenings and exhibitions. He also teaches the history and aesthetics of animation at Université Laval in Quebec City.
Brigitta Burger-Utzer was born in Vienna in 1960. She studied theatre sciences and art history, passed the Höhere Graphische Lehranstalt (Photography), and received a diploma in cultural management from the Kepler-Universität in Linz. In 1990 she founded Sixpack Film (together with Lisl Ponger, Martin Arnold, Alexander Horwath and Peter Tscherkassky) and has been the head of this organization for the distribution and sale of Austrian art films and videos since 1992. She created concepts for and/or organized several film shows in Vienna and elsewhere. In 1991: “Found Footage – Filme aus gefundenem Material” (films of found material), 1992: “Unknown Territories – The American Avant-Garde Film”, 1993/1994: “As She Likes It”, 1994/1995: “See The Rhythm”, 1996: “Humor in the Avant-Garde, Filmart Takes Position: Alien / Nation”, 1997: “Variations on Poetry”, 2001: “Am Tag, als der Regen kam – Melodramatische Elemente im experimentellen Film” (melodramatic elements in experimental films). Since 1994 she has been in charge of the series In Person: “Internationale KünstlerInnen der Avantgarde stellen ihr Werk zur Diskussion” (In Person: international avant-garde artists bring their works to discussion), with the participation of: Phil Solomon, Su Friedrich, Ernie Gehr, Matthias Müller, David Rimmer, Sadie Benning, Vivian Ostrovsky, David Larcher, James Benning, Irit Batsry and others.
Duscha Kistler, born in Davos, Switzerland, in 1971, is an art historian and a film scientist. During her studies Duscha took part in organizing various exhibitions and multi-media projects. After this she became involved with Videoex, a festival for experimental film in Zürich. Her passion for film, art and film festivals eventually brought her to animation film, and to Fantoche.
Fantoche is an international festival for animation film that takes place every two years in Baden (near Zürich). In the 2003 and 2005 editions Duscha was responsible for the production management of the festival. Since Fantoche 07 she really is the “person who makes Fantoche happen”. As the program director she organized and coordinated the entire program of the festival and decided where the emphasis should be in terms of content. In addition to Fantoche Duscha is involved in assisting with the dramaturgical aspects of small independent dance and theatre projects.
Fernando Galrito was born in Samora Correia (Portugal) in May 1960. He took Cinema, Video and Theatre Director Courses and graduated in Anthropology. He received an MA in Culture, Communication and Information Technologies and is currently working on his PhD on the Expressivity of Space and Time in Animation.
He teaches Animation and at the Caldas da Rainha School of Arts and Design ESAD.CR., presents lectures on the subject of moving images and the pedagogy of animation at international institutes and universities, as well as organizes video and animation workshops for children, teachers and young artists in various countries, such as Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Russia, Ukraine, Austria, Hungry, Canada, Croatia and Brazil.
Galrito has directed animated films, documentaries and videos, shown at national and international festivals. In addition to animated film his interests and project-related work extends into the fields of planetarium, dance, performing arts and theatre.
His latest achievement is the foundation of Monstra, Lisbon’s Animation Film Festival and a show he both programs and directs. He also supervises First, the International Student Meeting for Animation Arts organized by ESAD.
Fernadno Galrito has collaborated with various magazines, radio and TV programmes related to cinema and pedagogy. He is a member of national and international organizations for Art and Animation.