Lithuania

In 2017, after completing her studies in archaeology, Ieva began working in the museum sector. After five years working on educational projects and creating events and exhibitions, her passion for technology and informal education led her to the Gluk Media team. She currently assists the public sector in discovering innovations, educates about their benefits and possibilities, creates project concepts, and sells technological dreams to museums and other institutions throughout Lithuania.

Lithuania

Meinardas has been interested in and creating animations since childhood. In 2010, he graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts with a BA in animation. His final work at the Academy, 'The Impossible Moon' has travelled to a number of film festivals globally, and has attracted much attention. In 2012, Meinardas founded the animation studio 'Meinart', whose main vision is to create bright and creative animation in search of new narrative forms. As a director, he has created a series of short animated films including 'RGB', 'Hunt' and 'Look'. His newest film, 'The Perfect Fit', was released in 2022 and is now being shown around the world at various festivals. In 2023 as a director and producer, he created one of the biggest animated feature films in Lithuania 'Kakė Makė: Mano Filmas'.

Lithuania

Simona Krasauskienė is the producer of the film 'Kakė Makė: My Film' and the TV series 'Kakė Makė'. Over the past three years, she has been dedicated to developing the Kakė Makė and Nelly Jelly brands, both in Lithuania and internationally. Alongside her ventures into film and television, she is also a technology enthusiast, boasting more than 10 years of experience in the marketing industry.

Belgium

Marie-Laure Guisset is a Belgian animator, animation director and animation lecturer based in Brussels. Since studying Classical Animation in Bournemouth and Dublin, she has worked on various award-winning projects including 'The Triplets of Belleville', 'The Secret of Kells', 'La mécanique du Coeur', 'Zombillenium', and the series 'The Smurfs'. Most recently, she took care of Animation Direction on the Norwegian and Belgian co-produced movie 'Titina', directed by Kajsa Naess. Whatever format or technique she works with (2D, 3D computer animation), Marie-Laure loves to bring life to the characters, create empathy, and above all to tell stories. With a focus on the essence, she likes to go for “Less is more”, while adding those little details that will push the emotion.

Lithuania

Antanas Skučas has worked in the field of animation since 2005. His debut film 'Childhood Diary' was awarded a Lithuanian Film Academy Award in 2009. In 2015, he founded the film production company 'Tylus kinas'. In addition to his creative activities, he teaches at the Vilnius Academy of Arts.

Lithuania

Edgaras Janušonis is a PhD student at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH): Faculty of Fundamental Sciences, specialising in digital animation technologies. His short animated film, 'The Crow and The Fox' is presented at the BLON 2023 festival.

Lithuania

Rimas Sakalauskas is a video artist and motion graphics designer, working in the fields of VR, AR and video projections.

Lithuania

Rūta Stalmokaitė is an illustrator and animator from Vilnius. A graduate of the Cambridge School of Art, UK, she illustrates and animates playful characters. Her animated film 'And the Rest You Already Know' has already been accepted into numerous international festivals. Rūta wants to continue spreading the good name of Lithuania with her art – more of which you can find at ru-st.com

Lithuania

Greta is a recent graduate in animation from the University for the Creative Arts in the UK. During her studies at university, she directed three films. Her film 'Trash Can' (2022) was shown at various festivals, and her graduation film 'Thoughts About The Universe That Will Keep You Awake' (2023) recently began its festival journey. In her films, Greta mostly focuses on characters, and experiments with the use of the blank space.

Lithuania

Meinardas has been interested in and creating animations since childhood. In 2010, he graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts with a BA in animation. His final work at the Academy, 'The Impossible Moon' has travelled to a number of film festivals globally, and has attracted much attention. In 2012, Meinardas founded the animation studio 'Meinart', whose main vision is to create bright and creative animation in search of new narrative forms. As a director, he has created a series of short animated films including 'RGB', 'Hunt' and 'Look'. His newest film, 'The Perfect Fit', was released in 2022 and is now being shown around the world at various festivals. In 2023 as a director and producer, he created one of the biggest animated feature films in Lithuania 'Kakė Makė: Mano Filmas'.

Ukraine

Vika Ivanova is an aspiring animation director and documentary filmmaker based in Kharkiv, Ukraine. She is a student at Kharkiv Karazin University, studying art history and cultural studies. She began her career in black-and-white film photography, and shot and edited lifestyle videos. At the moment she is part of a production team working on a series of stop-motion animations. These films are dedicated to the legends and local narratives of Kharkiv, and presented as humorous and non-standard stories to unpack and discover.

Ukraine

Viktoriia Grivina is a scriptwriter and production manager. She is a writer and cultural researcher from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Her latest short story, 'My Azov Sea', is set for print publication in 2023. At the moment, she is working on 'Fury Tales', a series of short scripts that make use of the genres of sci-fi, magical realism and absurdist comedy to reflect on the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. 'Fury Tales' are part of the Khastoria stop-motion animation series. Viktoriia’s current PhD studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland are dedicated to the mythological and aesthetic transformations of cities in Ukraine in times of war.

Ukraine

Since 2019, Juliya ha been head of the cultural and educational centre 'SvitLytsia' – a branch of the TepLytsia cultural and innovation platform of Brovary City Council. She enjoys making animations, first using drawings, then later using plasticine. Under her leadership, cartoons have been created based on the poems of Taras Shevchenko, 'Lesya Ukrainka', memorialising significant dates. The animated figures are sculpted by the team or the children of the institution's circle. Juliya's animations have taken part in Ukrainian and national competitions.

Lithuania

Gintarė Valevičiūtė-B. is a creator of interdisciplinary art. She is actively involved in creating, organising and curating various art projects and exhibitions, and teaching masterclasses in creativity. Having completed her postgraduate studies in Art at Vilnius Academy of the Arts, she currently teaches in the Academy's Department of Photography, Animation and Media Arts. She is an active participant in its promotion of the potential uses of animation in expanded fields, and exhibits her work at art shows and film festivals.

Ukraine

Michael Margulls was born in Kyiv, graduated from Kiev National University of Construction and Architecture, then graduated from the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts as a theatre director. He expanded his horizons by earning qualifications at business schools in Germany, Ireland and Switzerland. His films include: 2014: short film 'Halabudka' 2018: TV series 'Myshko and Dzvinka' 2018: 3D feature film 'Trouble Nubble Gum' 2021-2022: short films 'Tiger is Strolling Around', 'Come Outside, Masha', 'Papier-Mache' 2023: 3D feature film 'Dalia and the Red Book'

Lithuania

Akvilė Bliujūtė – Janušė is a Producer in the animation industry orientated to children‘s films. She also writes scripts for short animated films. Akvilė graduated from Middlesex University and gained her first professional experience in Lithuania within the film industry. In 2017, Akvilė joined “Meinart” animation studio. During these years she produced various projects ranging from commercials to music videos and short and feature animated films.

United Kingdom

Iona McEwan is a creative at Alchemy Immersive, a London-based immersive documentary company. Her work employs new technologies to find innovative ways of telling fascinating stories in an accessible manner. Having taken a circuitous route into immersive media, she incorporates her cross-disciplinary interests into her projects, covering diverse topics ranging from plants to moon landings.

Lithuania

Gediminas is an illustrator and art director who works mostly in developing the style of animation backgrounds. Having started his professional illustration career in gaming (doing both concept art and in-game visuals), he now has experience in multiple fields of illustration – animation, games, book and album covers, and prints. His animation projects include 'Snow Shelter' (2020), 'Mora Mora' (2022), 'After Death, Before Hell' (2017), the 'Witch Hunter' movie promo animation (2015), 'Aurora's Sunrise' (2022), and 'Garrano' (2022).

Lithuania

Justė Michailinaitė is a promising and ambitious emerging female producer from Lithuania. Having gained valuable experience in a number of roles across the film industry, Justė is delving deeper to achieve further success in an area that holds so much fascination for her. For Justė, cinema offers a host of opportunities to fully exploit her talents and provides a space for continuous growth and improvement. Justė is currently working on a number of new projects at various stages, both as producer and director.

Germany

Rico grew up in Berlin's Kreuzberg district in the 90s. Fascinated by the German demo and hacker scene, from a young age he wanted to find out how computer graphics were programmed. After teaching himself Turbo Pascal, Assembler and Java he set out to become a game programmer. Following the death of his father, Rico ditched his maths studies and worked as a web designer until he scored a position as a game programmer at a Berlin indie studio. In his spare time, Rico plays table tennis and works on his own game engine. His favourite game series is 'Silent Hill'.

Poland

Aleksander Kauch is Senior Technology Lead at 11 bit studios, and has worked on almost every one of the company's games including the Anomaly series, This War of Mine and Frostpunk. He has lectured on programming at Warsaw University of Technology and on game development at Łódź University of Technology, and is experienced in programming, game architecture and overall game development. He is also a retro games collector and a fan of gaming history.

Belgium

Marie-Laure Guisset is a Belgian animator, animation director and animation lecturer based in Brussels. Since studying Classical Animation in Bournemouth and Dublin, she has worked on various award-winning projects including 'The Triplets of Belleville', 'The Secret of Kells', 'La mécanique du Coeur', 'Zombillenium', and the series 'The Smurfs'. Most recently, she took care of Animation Direction on the Norwegian and Belgian co-produced movie 'Titina', directed by Kajsa Naess. Whatever format or technique she works with (2D, 3D computer animation), Marie-Laure loves to bring life to the characters, create empathy, and above all to tell stories. With a focus on the essence, she likes to go for “Less is more”, while adding those little details that will push the emotion.

France

Producer Jean-François Le Corre was born in 1965 in France. In April 1998, he created the production company Vivement Lundi!, which focused on animated contents and documentaries. Vivement Lundi! won more than 500 awards and has been awarded as Best French Animation Producer for TV in 2011 and won the Cartoon Tribute for Best European Animation Producer in 2015 and 2023. The company has produced or coproduced animated films and series for 25 years, including 'L’Homme aux Bras Ballants' by Laurent Gorgiard (Special prize Annecy’s Festival 1998), 'The Little Dragon' by Bruno Collet (2009), the series 'Dimitri' by Agnès Lecreux and 'This Magnificent cake!' by Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels. In 2019, Jean-François produced 'Memorable' by Bruno Collet, an Oscar-nominated animated short, and entered the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Vivement Lundi! coproduced the multi-award-winning animated features 'FLEE' by Jonas Poher Rasmussen and 'No Dogs Or Italians Allowed' by Alain Ughetto.

Germany

A trilingual gaming expert of German-Turkish descent, Ata began his career in gaming in 2012 and has contributed to prominent titles such as 'Hearts of Iron 3', 'Squad', 'Suzerain' and more. Along with co-founding Torpor Games, he provided the concept for the game Suzerain. Ata also established the international NGO Magna Carta and has hosted various events, including TEDx and Creative Coffee. Currently, he lends his expertise to Nowak Advisors.

Lithuania

Vilius is an old and jaded wolf of the industry, having worked in various spheres for 15 years – VR, game development and film creation. As a concept creator, Vilius has collaborated with many interesting directors and game industry professionals, helping them to fulfil their creative ambitions. His assistance contributed to the creation of VR projects such as 'Angels' Path', and films such as 'Vesper', 'Ashes in the Snow', 'Wonka' and 'Jurassic World'. He has also worked on games such as 'God of War Ragnarök' and 'Horizon Forbidden West'. Currently, Vilius is directing a virtual reality experience based on Baltic mythology.

Lithuania

Discussion moderator. Vytautas is a long-time reviewer of games and the games industry. He has written for almost every industry-related magazine in Lithuania (from VA PlayStation to Stuff). In addition, he has worked for more than eight years at communication agencies to find common paths between games and PR. Together with his colleague Kazimieras, Vytautas is currently creating a passion project – the only YouTube game reviews channel in Lithuania – Done Right (www.doneright.lt).

Poland

Aleksander Kauch is Senior Technology Lead at 11 bit studios, and has worked on almost every one of the company's games including the Anomaly series, This War of Mine and Frostpunk. He has lectured on programming at Warsaw University of Technology and on game development at Łódź University of Technology, and is experienced in programming, game architecture and overall game development. He is also a retro games collector and a fan of gaming history.

Poland

Michał began working in the video game industry in 2006 with the CD Projekt group, progressing through various product management and marketing-related positions for 10 years. In 2017, he started to build an independent publishing label that eventually became Klabater in 2018 and entered the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2019. In late 2022, he joined the German-based independent family of video game developers, Remote Control Production GmbH, as the studio partner and a Head of publishing for Lesser Evil. Recently, Michał published a video game, 'Death From Above' – a brave attempt to support Ukraine and fight for the attention of gamers. In his personal life, he is an avid video gamer with a particular soft spot for strategy and historical games. He is also an aficionado of traditional archery, and the geeky father to a nine-year-old son!

Czechia

Lucie Tvarohová is the artist behind Charles Games, and is responsible for the visual identity of its latest games. An experienced 3D and 2D artist, she has previously worked with other Czech game studios.

Sweden

Arthur Izakowicz kickstarted his filmmaking career at the age of 11 with his debut picture, 'The Murder Mystery'. Some years later, he was accepted into the prestigious Polish National Film School in Łódź, where he obtained his Master's in cinematography. During the early stages of his career, Arthur had the privilege of working closely with industry veterans Mattias Montero and Adam Ber as a new talent at Indio Film. Their mentorship and guidance played a crucial role in shaping his artistic vision and honing his skills as a director. Today, Arthur is represented by the esteemed agency Social Club Film in Stockholm.

Germany

Petra Stipetić is a qualified sculptor and educator who turned her love of storytelling into a profession with her animation studies in Kassel. Since then, she has produced award-winning short films that have been screened at festivals worldwide. Petra discovered her love and talent for creating a wide variety of characters and their worlds during her liberal arts studies in Mainz, which focused on sculpture. Since 2014, when she began her studies in visual communication, with a focus on animation, she has been breathing life into her characters and letting them tell their own stories. Her short films have gone on to win various awards at national and international film festivals. Since 2022, she has been a lecturer in Animation and Visual Storytelling at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld.

Norway

Adel Khan Farooq is a filmmaker from Norway working in animation, fiction and documentary, as well as an author and journalist. His feature documentary 'Recruiting for Jihad' (2017) was screened at several major festivals, including Hot Docs, AFI DOCS, DOC NYC, IDFA, One World-International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, and CPH:DOX. His most recent film, the short animation Cockroaches (2022), was produced by the Oscar-winning animation studio Mikrofilm, and premiered at Animafest Zagreb. Cockroaches has also been screened at other major animation festivals, winning the audience award at Monstra this year.

Finland

Finnish filmmakers Maurinen and Laasanen are both multi-talents in the fields of art, culture and media. Besides their independent careers, they have also worked on multiple projects together including short films, animations and even musical theatre. Passion for comedy, storytelling, DIY culture and kind values has brought them together and made them an unstoppable creative team, ready to put extra effort into silly things.

Germany

Daniel Maaß was born in 1990 in Bogota, Colombia. He studied Visual Communication at Kunsthochschule Kassel, Germany, and graduated with a Master's degree, majoring in animation. IN/FINITE is his graduation film. During his studies, he also worked as an artistic assistant at the Didactics of Biology Department at University of Kassel, where he discovered his enthusiasm for motion graphics. He now works as senior art director at AirProfile, Kassel.

Poland

Joanna Szlembarska is a director, animator and graduate of the Łódź Film School. Her films are mostly made using stop-motion animation, her favourite technique being puppet animation, due to the 'corporeality' of the medium. The theme of her works is the anxiety that accompanies human sexuality. The aesthetics of her animation are minimalist and monochromatic, but give the impression of being monumental.

Germany

Mona Keil works with experimental visual art, focusing on animated movies. Her main interest lies in an analogue approach to visual material, so her work includes stop-motion, cut-out animation and drawn animation. After completing a Bachelor's degree in Visual Communication at the Bauhaus-University in Weimar and a diploma in Animation at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, she is now a freelance director and artist based in Leipzig.

Germany

Gwenola Heck is a half-French, half-German animator, born in 1995 in Karlsruhe, Germany. She studied audiovisual media at Stuttgart Media University, and graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering. Later, she worked as a 3D Artist in Stuttgart and Hamburg. Since 2019, she has been studying animation at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, and works on 2D and stop-motion animation films.

Germany

Born in Berlin in 1991, Ilya Barrett studied at the Berlin-Weißensee Art School, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in visual Communication. He later worked as a freelance animator and illustrator in Berlin and New York. Since 2019, he has been studying animation at Filmakademie BadenWürttemberg.

Lithuania

Žilvinas Ledas has a PhD in informatics, and has been developing video games for more than 12 years now. He is co-founder and CTO at Tag of Joy – an indie game development company creating games that merge fun and innovation, whose team's products have won multiple awards at various international competitions. Žilvinas also teaches Game Development at Vilnius University, and is active in the local game development community.

Lithuania

Šarūnas has been involved in game development for more than 15 years, and is the co-founder and current CEO of the award-winning indie game development studio 'Tag of Joy'. The company constantly looks for new ways to innovate experiences in games, and has already won multiple awards and nominations. Šarūnas is also a member of the Lithuanian Game Developers Association, which helps local game developers to meet, share their knowledge and learn.

Estonia

Märten Rattasepp is a former academic, researcher, essayist and narrative designer from Estonia. He has written for games such as 'Pentiment', 'Disco Elysium', 'Death and Taxes' and the upcoming 'Broken Alliance'. In 2016, he graduated from the University of Tartu with an MA degree in the field of literary and cultural theory, focusing mostly on postmodern/amodern writing, metafiction, and historiography. When not suffering at writing, he enjoys very long hikes and lifting heavy objects from one place to another (aka volunteering for various festivals).

Lithuania

Jurgita Rakauskaitė is Lithuanian producer who holds a BA in journalism, and has more than 10 years’ experience working in the TV and film industry. Based on her educational and professional experience, she believes that content is the key. In 2015, Jurgita founded the production company MAKE IT HAPPEN, which she runs to this day. During these years she has produced more than 10 original and franchise formats for national TV channels in Lithuania, as well as a number of documentaries, as well as the first Lithuanian animated series, 'Babookums'.

Lithuania

Tadas Vidmantas is a screenwriter and director. Since 2001, he has made dozens of adverts, viral videos, music videos and short films in Lithuania and the UK. In 2015, he began making feature films, and has made one each year since. One of these, 'Three Million Euros', became the most profitable film ever made in Lithuania. In 2022, he received the Silver Crane award for most spectacular film at the Lithuanian national film industry awards for 'Night Fishing'. As Tadas says, ‘I believe that a great story, interesting, relatable characters and realistic dialogue are the most important components to any film. If everything is done right, the film converts to emotions. And this is what I sell. I sell emotions’.

Lithuania

Jurgita Rakauskaitė is Lithuanian producer who holds a BA in journalism, and has more than 10 years’ experience working in the TV and film industry. Based on her educational and professional experience, she believes that content is the key. In 2015, Jurgita founded the production company MAKE IT HAPPEN, which she runs to this day. During these years she has produced more than 10 original and franchise formats for national TV channels in Lithuania, as well as a number of documentaries, as well as the first Lithuanian animated series, 'Babookums'.

Lithuania

Simona Krasauskienė is the producer of the film 'Kakė Makė: My Film' and the TV series 'Kakė Makė'. Over the past three years, she has been dedicated to developing the Kakė Makė and Nelly Jelly brands, both in Lithuania and internationally. Alongside her ventures into film and television, she is also a technology enthusiast, boasting more than 10 years of experience in the marketing industry.

Lithuania

Justė Michailinaitė is a promising and ambitious emerging female producer from Lithuania. Having gained valuable experience in a number of roles across the film industry, Justė is delving deeper to achieve further success in an area that holds so much fascination for her. For Justė, cinema offers a host of opportunities to fully exploit her talents and provides a space for continuous growth and improvement. Justė is currently working on a number of new projects at various stages, both as producer and director.

Lithuania

Discussion moderator. An enthusiast of animation and video games, as a teenager Bernardas created amateur games and animated films, and wanted to be Gordon Freeman (a character from the game Half-Life) when he grew up. Several years ago, some of his short films appeared at the Pravda One Minute festival. Bernardas believes his film directing course has been his most fun learning experience to date. Even though he never ended up becoming a director or programmer (or Gordon Freeman – he still doesn't need glasses), Bernardas uses this experience successfully in his work on radio and television, and still feels a respectful nostalgia when playing games and watching animations.

Poland

Ewa has worked in the audiovisual industry since 2000, joining Warsaw Film School in various roles from 2015. She is currently responsible for development at the academy in the field of video games and new media, which includes creating the educational programme of the Video Games Development Department. Ewa is the originator of the Warsaw Game Jam PRO festival, a juror at the Grand Video Awards and many game jams, and the producer of the game 'Best Month Ever'. She is also the winner of a special award as part of PIXEL AWARDS EUROPE for her contribution to the development of the Polish gaming industry.

Estonia

Mikhail Fiadotau is an educator, researcher and game designer based in Estonia. At various times he has been an IT journalist, technical writer, interpreter, Japanese instructor and stand-in sound designer, before completing a PhD in cultural anthropology and embarking on a career in higher education that mostly revolves around game studies and game design. In his free time, he enjoys making short story-driven games that are best played in the dark, such as the recent remaster of 'The Missing Parts of Maria Gwozdek', now available on Steam.

Poland

Michał began working in the video game industry in 2006 with the CD Projekt group, progressing through various product management and marketing-related positions for 10 years. In 2017, he started to build an independent publishing label that eventually became Klabater in 2018 and entered the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2019. In late 2022, he joined the German-based independent family of video game developers, Remote Control Production GmbH, as the studio partner and a Head of publishing for Lesser Evil. Recently, Michał published a video game, 'Death From Above' – a brave attempt to support Ukraine and fight for the attention of gamers. In his personal life, he is an avid video gamer with a particular soft spot for strategy and historical games. He is also an aficionado of traditional archery, and the geeky father to a nine-year-old son!

Lithuania

Rokas has been practising law since 2007. After gaining valuable experience at a leading Baltic law firm, working on behalf of one of the world's leading scientific technology companies, Rokas now has his own legal firm. He mostly advises clients on issues of commercial and business law, intellectual property, contracts and public procurement. A significant portion of his clients are film and TV producers, creative businesses and smart individuals. He usually assists film and TV producers in preparing the necessary contracts, advising on applications for state funding and disputes with funding authorities, assisting them in taking advantage of tax incentives, and securing the intellectual property rights to their work.

Estonia

Märten Rattasepp is a former academic, researcher, essayist and narrative designer from Estonia. He has written for games such as 'Pentiment', 'Disco Elysium', 'Death and Taxes' and the upcoming 'Broken Alliance'. In 2016, he graduated from the University of Tartu with an MA degree in the field of literary and cultural theory, focusing mostly on postmodern/amodern writing, metafiction, and historiography. When not suffering at writing, he enjoys very long hikes and lifting heavy objects from one place to another (aka volunteering for various festivals).

Switzerland

Natasha ('natsha') is a game and narrative designer, currently involved in developing 'Psychotic Bathtub – the Story of an Escalating Mind. And ducks', a multilinear story game about a psychotic disorder. And some ducks. In additional, Natasha supports studios in creating their stories.

Latvia

Vladimir has been developing games professionally since 2016. As well as running his own company, in his spare time Vladimir looks into individual projects with stronger narrative elements. His goal is to create interactive experiences that focus primarily on telling stories.

Lithuania

Panel moderator. Ieva has been working in the Lithuanian gamedev industry for nearly a decade. She has been a game designer, a producer, and a team lead at various local studios (Nordcurrent, SneakyBox, Estoty). She’s also a former board member of LGDA, as well as a co-creator of the games podcast Dievo Režimas/Godmode. Ieva is passionate about narrative games with a strong creative vision or message, and dreams of making one some day. Until then, she’s mixing game-inspired cocktails and sharing them on her blog (pikubytes.com).

Austria

Leander studied film at the Filmakademie Vienna and painting at the Kunsthochschule Munich. His multidisciplinary work includes performances, interactive installations as well as digital collages and paintings. Exploring themes such as consciousness, narcissism and human interaction, he often uses humour to indulge or irritate his audience. He is the producer and host of the late night show 'The Weekend Show'.

Switzerland

Natasha ('natsha') is a game and narrative designer, currently involved in developing 'Psychotic Bathtub – the Story of an Escalating Mind. And ducks', a multilinear story game about a psychotic disorder. And some ducks. In additional, Natasha supports studios in creating their stories.

United Kingdom

Harry Tuffs is a London-based writer and narrative designer who co-founded Tributary Games, the company behind the new social narrative party game, King of the Castle. Before Tributary, he developed the indie RPG A House of Many Doors, described by Rock Paper Shotgun as a 'formidable writing achievement'. He has been a consulting writer on Sunless Skies and Fallen London, and lead writer on Over the Alps.

France

Producer Jean-François Le Corre was born in 1965 in France. In April 1998, he created the production company Vivement Lundi!, which focused on animated contents and documentaries. Vivement Lundi! won more than 500 awards and has been awarded as Best French Animation Producer for TV in 2011 and won the Cartoon Tribute for Best European Animation Producer in 2015 and 2023. The company has produced or coproduced animated films and series for 25 years, including 'L’Homme aux Bras Ballants' by Laurent Gorgiard (Special prize Annecy’s Festival 1998), 'The Little Dragon' by Bruno Collet (2009), the series 'Dimitri' by Agnès Lecreux and 'This Magnificent cake!' by Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels. In 2019, Jean-François produced 'Memorable' by Bruno Collet, an Oscar-nominated animated short, and entered the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Vivement Lundi! coproduced the multi-award-winning animated features 'FLEE' by Jonas Poher Rasmussen and 'No Dogs Or Italians Allowed' by Alain Ughetto.

Germany

Thorsten S. Wiedemann is founder and artistic director of A MAZE. Under this label, he produces and curates international festivals, exhibitions and workshops at the intersection of games, games culture, digital arts and playful media. With A MAZE. / Berlin, he created international festivals to present arthouse games, playful media and alternative games culture. He generates new and controversial formats (e.g. A MAZE. Magazine, A MAZE. Pop-ups, A MAZE. / SPACE, A MAZE. Train Jam) and provides room for experimentation and exchange. In 2012, Thorsten established the A MAZE. Awards, which are given to artistic games in six categories. His focus is on the diverse and interdisciplinary discourse about the media in the 21st century, and in filling the gaps between playful media, art and technology. During his Disconnected performance, he also spent 48 hours immersed in virtual reality! Thorsten currently lives and works in Berlin.

Lithuania

Rytis Jadzevičius is a familiar face in the Lithuanian games industry, as CEO of the company Fluxo Games – an independent game development studio that specialises in creating unique game experiences for PC and mobile platforms. Rytis is also chairman of the board of the Lithuanian Game Developers Association. As a representative of the association, he actively promotes cooperation and connections between game creators in Lithuania and abroad, thus contributing to the growth of the industry.

Germany

Florian jumped on the wild ride that is the games industry through a student job with a small German indie studio, and hasn't found the brakes yet! He has 9+ years of industry experience in multiple roles in marketing, business development and project management.

Lithuania

Gediminas has worked in the games industry in various roles for many years. He is currently head of the studio No Brakes Games Vilnius, and the Director of Lithuanian Game Developers Association.

Germany

A trilingual gaming expert of German-Turkish descent, Ata began his career in gaming in 2012 and has contributed to prominent titles such as 'Hearts of Iron 3', 'Squad', 'Suzerain' and more. Along with co-founding Torpor Games, he provided the concept for the game Suzerain. Ata also established the international NGO Magna Carta and has hosted various events, including TEDx and Creative Coffee. Currently, he lends his expertise to Nowak Advisors.

Lithuania

Antanas Skučas has worked in the field of animation since 2005. His debut film 'Childhood Diary' was awarded a Lithuanian Film Academy Award in 2009. In 2015, he founded the film production company 'Tylus kinas'. In addition to his creative activities, he teaches at the Vilnius Academy of Arts.

Lithuania

Antanas Skučas has worked in the field of animation since 2005. His debut film 'Childhood Diary' was awarded a Lithuanian Film Academy Award in 2009. In 2015, he founded the film production company 'Tylus kinas'. In addition to his creative activities, he teaches at the Vilnius Academy of Arts.

Lithuania

Rokas has been practising law since 2007. After gaining valuable experience at a leading Baltic law firm, working on behalf of one of the world's leading scientific technology companies, Rokas now has his own legal firm. He mostly advises clients on issues of commercial and business law, intellectual property, contracts and public procurement. A significant portion of his clients are film and TV producers, creative businesses and smart individuals. He usually assists film and TV producers in preparing the necessary contracts, advising on applications for state funding and disputes with funding authorities, assisting them in taking advantage of tax incentives, and securing the intellectual property rights to their work.

Lithuania

Discussion moderator. A veteran technology journalist and avid games fan, creator of podcasts and radio shows.

Lithuania

Simona is co-founder and CEO of Perfection42, a company developing AI-powered tools for visual creators. Together with her team, she is building custom AI tools that enable creatives to better tell their stories, with world-class visual quality.