Industry Talks

Kim Helminen
Animation Director at Rovio Entertainment Ltd, Creator of Angry Birds, Finland

Currently Kim is taking part in developing new game themes and directs animated commercials. Kim was also the series director for Angry Birds Toons, the animated TV series, where his main focus was on script and animatic development. He graduated from the Animation programme at Turku Arts Academy, Finland (2002). Before joining Rovio, Kim was a co-founder, director and animator at the animation studio Animaatiokopla (2011) and served as chairman of the board of the company.

Angry Birds Toons (dir. Thomas Lepeska, Kim Helminen):
February 3rd 10:00 (Q&A w/Kim Helminen)

During the presentation Kim will be talking about how the gaming company took the leap into animation with the Angry Birds Toons series. Also, we’ll hear some thoughts about the intersection between games and story and the difficulty games and animation people sometimes have understanding each other, and how we use different language to say the same things.

Robert Jaszczurowski
Producer and co-owner of animation studio grupa smacznego, poland
Baltic sea-nordic animation and games network member

With his early projects: harry and toto and agronauta, he gained experience in directing animation, creating layouts, backgrounds, characters’ design. From 2009 acts as a creative producer with the most important project, tv series mami fatale (delegate producer). Head of board of polish animation producers association and active member of polish filmmakers association and a participant of the most important coproduction markets, festivals and animation related events in europe (cartoon forum, cartoon movie, mipjunior, cinekid, annecy). Currently working on basia and grand banda tv series and feature film mice on strike.

Presentation is for students and only in Lithuanian

ŽILVINAS LEDAS
CTO / Co-founder of Tad of Joy

Žilvinas Ledas is PhD of informatics and develops video games more than 6 years now. Currently Žilvinas is a co-founder and CTO at Tag of Joy – an indie game development company which creates innovative games merging fun and innovation. With their products the team has gained multiple awards at various international competitions. He also teaches Game Development at Vilnius University and is active in local game development community.

Inesa Ivanova
Producer and founder of kinomind films, baltic view

Inesa is an experienced action film producer who has recently extended her activity to distribution and the development of cross-media projects. Her projects have been selected for renowned development labs (eave b’est, eave marketing, eric pommer institute, dpc ii lab by focal, birds eye view filmonomics and becre8ative lab). Inesa has been supported with bursaries from creative skillset, lithuanian ministry of culture and the nordic council. Within the past 6 years, inesa has produced a diverse body of work from award-winning shorts to feature documentaries. Her short films were supported by arts council of england and presented at la biennale di venezia and geneva museum of contemporary art. Inesa also founded an online and cinema event platform baltic view, which has been partially supported by the ministry of culture of the republic of lithuania and has launched this january.

Gabija Budreckyte
Head of distribution and founder of kinomind films

Gabija worked in broadcasting (with bbc worldwide, nbc universal, bskyb, turner, and disney among others) for a decade, where she built her career in localisation of diverse range of content – animation and live action series, video games, feature films, etc. Together with inesa ivanova they have founded kinomind films (2014) with the aim to distribute art-house fiction and documentary films from the baltics. In the past two years gabija has attended workshops and labs organised by eave, erich pommer institut, cartoon business, and focal. Most recently, gabija has co-founded an online and cinema event platform baltic view, which has been partially supported by the ministry of culture of the republic of lithuania and has launched this january.

Metsämarja Aittokoski
Director, screenwriter and producer at sun in eye productions & aittokoski experience ltd., finland

Metsämarja is a children’s book author, director, screenwriter and producer. She has directed several popular children’s tv – series like pikkuli, respect!, fire fairy and leffatuutti zurbaani and has translated many children’s books to finnish. Metsämarja has a background as an artisan designing costumes for theater and dance performances. She is a talented storyteller and director, well known for her strong visual abilities and the creator of several media concepts. Her films were selected to such festivals as helsinki short film festival kettupäivät (2010), oulu international children’s film festival, tampere international short film festival. At the short film festival in italy metsämarja received the jury’s special mention for her film elisa’s house of cards (2002).

Pikkuli tv series compilation (dir. Metsämarja aittokoski, 60 min):
February 2nd 10:00
February 4th 10:30 (q&a w/ metsämarja aittokoski)
February 5th 9:45

Mariano melman
Producer at nexus studios, london, uk
Baltic sea-nordic animation and games network member

After graduating from the london college of communication (2009) with a first class honours in animation, mariano worked as a director of short films, music videos and tv commercials before joining passion pictures in london as an animation producer (2010). During that time he worked with clients such as vodafone, toyota, unilever, diageo, renault, hsbc, visa and award winning artists damon albarn (everyday robots) and spike jonze (her) and the recently released film by stevan riley (listen to me marlon). At nexus studios mariano produces animation projects as varied as 360°/vr interactive film (google spotlight stories), web (facebook groups), and interactive arts (1600 / white house one dollar, qualcomm invisible museum).

Presentation by mariano melman and michal firkowsk: vr animation – rain or shine.
February 4th 11:00 – 12:00

Michal firkowski
Cg lead at nexus studios, london, uk
Baltic sea-nordic animation and games network member

After studying 3d animation at supinfocom, he had the chance to work for the last decade with great studios like platige image (poland), aardman (uk) or digital magic (thailand). As a cg lead he works on animated tv shows, vr stories and commercials. Great believer of vr as a storytelling medium and a creation tool, he is committed to explore this uncharted territory and push the envelop further.

Presentation by mariano melman and michal firkowsk: vr animation – rain or shine.
February 4th 11:00 – 12:00

Sebastian Stamm
CEO, Artist and Illustrator at Black Pants Studio

Sebastian Stamm is a Comic Artist and Illustrator. At Black Pants, he draws, creates the characters, is responsible for everything 2D, contributes his visual style to the game and is one of the company’s CEOs.

Johan Oettinger
Director, Denmark

Johan is a filmmaker with a specialisation in stop-motion puppet animation. His professional debute Seven Minutes in the Warsaw Ghetto (2012) was screened and received awards at more than 120 film festivals. Oettinger works for the Danish Film Institute and the Art Council and makes music videos for Copenhagen Records and films for Lego. In partnership with Peter Tukei Muhumuza, he created Walk with Me. In 2014, the film has received a nomination for a Tiger Award for Short Films in IFFR. Currently, Johan runs his animation studio in Aarhus, Denmark.

Andreea Vaduva
Community Manager at Sand Sailor Studio

Andreea Vaduva is the Community Manager / Curious Marketer / Enthusiast Organizer at Sand Sailor Studio. In the past ten years she kept on playing the communicator key role, unafraid of the rigid corporate land or of the unpredictable entrepreneurial sea. A year ago she joined Sand Sailor Studio and took a deep dive into the amazing world of indie games, specifically into the bleak atmospheric world of Black The Fall, sharing it with the world.

Veronika Mudėnaitė-Savickienė
Clinical psychologist using bibliotherapy methods.

Psychologist started to apply bibliotherapy methodology in the day-care centre for children and young people "our houses". Veronika is now applying these therapeutic methods in the project "we in the book isl@nd" and its continuation "isl@nd of openness in the library" organised by the Vilnius City Municipality Central Library. Previously, she worked with Roma children and young people at the Novy Vilnia Library. Veronika also uses bibliotherapy and writing therapy methods in various experiential workshops in collaboration with her colleague, clinical psychologist Monika Linartiene. In addition to these activities, veronika actively organises seminars and conference presentations, writes articles to promote science, and provides counselling to adolescents and adults.

Eva Brazdžionytė
Eva Brazdžionytė Head of the MEDIA sub-programme of the Creative Europe Desk Lithuania

Eva is a Lithuanian representative of Creative Europe MEDIA subprogram which financially contributes to European audiovisual sector. She started project management carrier in O. Koršunovas theatre, had been working at various International film festivals in Lithuania, contributed to the Lithuanian Shorts Agency, Cinema Boutique Kino Pasaka, Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, advertising agency Not Perfect activities to mention a few. Eva holds a Master of Arts (MA) in Culture Management and Cultural Policy by UNESCO department of Vilnius Academy of Arts.