Directror · Lithuania

Saulius studies animation at the Multimedia Department of Vilnius College of Technology and Design. As a generalist animator, he is interested in experimenting with video production, transcendental spaces and situations, and collective memory scenarios. His ambition is to understand animation.

Director, “Animatest" educator, Ukrainian Competition Jury · Lithuania

Agata Tracevič is an animator, artist and director. In 2023, she graduated from the animation programme at Vilnius Academy of Arts with her debut film 'Plica polonica', which is now touring festivals and exhibitions. She has a great deal of experience in animation and art, having participated in exhibitions, given workshops and lectures and had a number of internships with famous Lithuanian animation directors. Currently she is working as an animator for various animation projects and is trying to develop an animated film project as a part of the "Lithuanian Shorts" programme.

Director · Lithuania

Gytis Baranauskas was born 2000 years after Christ. He finished school and after that, he studied animation at Vilnius Art Academy. Gytis mainly works on music videos, animation, visuals. He uses a stream of thoughts as a creative process and somehow those random ideas in the end - becomes one big creation which even looks like it was really thoroughly thought out. No it was not.

Director · Lithuania

Lithuanian born director and animator, Eglė Davidavičė began making short films at Skalvija Film Academy and continued her animation studies at Vilnius Academy of Arts which she graduated in 2019. Both of her student films were nominated for the Best Student Film award by the Lithuanian Film Academy. Her first produced film, THE ONE WHO KNOWS, has just been completed.

Director · Lithuania

Ignas Meilūnas (1985) is Lithuanian animation director and producer. After years of working with different animation techniques Ignas settled on stop motion animation and usually works with short films for young audiences. His films have travelled and won awards in some of the biggest international film festivals worldwide. Ignas is a co-founder of Vilnius based animation studio "Kadrų Skyrius".

Director · Lithuania

Greta Semionovaitė - animator. In 2023 graduated from the animation studies program at the University for the Creative Arts. In total, she directed three short films during her studies. "Thoughts About The Universe That Will Keep You Awake" (2023) is a graduation film which explores the meaning of life. After studies, she came back to Lithuania and currently works on TV series.

Creature Consultant for Games & Animation · Ireland

Molly is an Irish-born 2D artist and animator based in the Netherlands who specializes in all things creatures. In a former life, Molly wanted to be a herpetologist (a reptile scientist) but she eventually pivoted into a career in games and animation. She freelances for clients such as Netflix, Universal Pictures, Night School Studios, BBC, Impact Gameworks, Fifth Tribe Creative Agency and Anikey Studios. In 2013, Molly co-founded Arcane Circus, the game studio behind Crap! I’m Broke and pan media IP Zenibeasts. Molly also gives lectures about creature design at conferences all over the world and teaches creature design at the Utrecht University of the Arts. www.mollyheadycarroll.com

Animation director, animator, Lithuanian Competition Jury · Denmark

Sara Koppel is an animator, creator of artistic installations, and illustrator from Denmark. Her films have been showcased at various international festivals and have garnered over 20 awards. In today's animation landscape, Sara stands out for her organic traditional hand-drawn animation style and bold thematic choices. Her work often addresses environmental issues, gender, and sexuality, and she is also recognized as one of the pioneers of erotic animation. One of Sara Koppel's latest projects is the illustrated graphic novel/comic "Den lille bog om..." ("The Little Book About...") (2020), which she created in collaboration with body and mind therapist, as well as non-fiction writer, Molly Mørch.

Chief Operating Officer at Astrea Immersive · France

After working for several years in advertising and content creation for various brands, Jordan joined Atlas V's production teams before becoming the Head of Production at Astrea. He is now Chief Operating Officer at Astrea, handling the company's distribution strategy. Specializing in distributing immersive online content, he is a true VR enthusiast passionate about the content he distributes.

Managing director. AVAKA | Lithuania audiovisual authors and producers rights association · Lithuania

More than 20 years working in the field of Copyright. Before entering the world of cinema and television, he worked as the head of the Lithuanian branch of the Nordic copyright bureau (NCB). Since 2011, he has been the head of the Association of Authors and Producers of Lithuanian Audiovisual Works AVAKA. Organizer of the National Film Awards "Silver Crane".

CEO & Game Producer, beyondthosehills · Greece

Maria is heading a studio beyondthosehills, which created such games as Placeground, Cat Detective Albert Wilde, reky, The Minims. Eight years ago, Maria decided to shift her career and dive into the game development world after a lifelong dedication to music as a concert pianist, composer, teacher, and curator. Maria's focus is on game production and business development. She is the game & level designer for puzzle game reky, the musician for all above games, and the co-narrative designer for Cat Detective and Placeground. Also the producer for beyondthosehills games.

CEO, Untold Tales · Poland

Maciej aka Maciek is the CEO and co-founder of Untold Tales, a game publishing company based in Poland. With a career rooted in the Polish AAA game development scene, Łączny and his team previously worked at Techland, a renowned developer known for titles like Dying Light and Dead Island. The establishment of Untold Tales was driven by Łączny's vision to create a publisher that prioritizes fairness, transparency, agility and a strong partnership with developers. Great fan of cross publisher corporations.

Artist, Animator, Game Designer, International Competition Jury · Ireland

David OReilly (born in Ireland, 1985) is an artist based in Tokyo, Japan. Creator of the influential short films “Please Say Something” and “The External World”, his animation work has won numerous awards and been the subject of several international retrospectives. He has written for TV shows such as “Adventure Time” and “South Park” and created fictional video games in Spike Jonze’s Academy Award winning film “Her”. His first interactive work “Mountain” was released in 2014, followed by “Everything” in 2017. Breaking the boundaries between art, games and philosophy, “Everything” found wide popularity among gamers and non-gamers alike, and was most recently curated by David Lynch for his Festival of Disruption.

Director · Sweden

Thomas Costa Freté (born Rogerstam) b.1972. Education: Master of Fine Art, Malmö Art Academy, Malmö Fine Art & New Media, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg. Has been working as an Art Director, Director and Motion Graphic Designer since 2002 in the commercial sector. Has previous made "Afterlife Crisis" (2016), ”The Power of Love" (2021), "Bonedog" (2021), "Peeping Thomas (2022) Is releasing “Looped” as an interactive fiction game in June 2024.

Director · Poland

Helena Stańczyk is a third-year student of Animation and Special Effects at the Łódź Film School. She is a graduate of the State High School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, specializing in Intermedia Realization. She became interested in animation at the age of 13 during animation workshops in Legnica, which she attends every year—initially as a participant, and now to help children and teenagers create their own films.

Director · Poland

Agnieszka Kruczek is a graduate of Hochschule Hannover in Multimedia Design and the Film Academy in Ludwigsburg, where she produced the award-winning film "War," showcased at international festivals and by UNICEF. She held scholarships at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, the Berlinale Talent Campus, and the European Animation Exchange Forum. She worked on the 3D film "Back to Gaya" and since 2006 has directed animation, advertising, music videos, and video installations for TV stations like ARTE and ZDF. Her work has been featured in exhibitions across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. As a partner at cats'n'dogz, she co-produced the award-winning children’s app Lucy&Pogo, based on Paweł Pawlak's book.

Director · Ukraine

Born and spent a significant part of life in the picturesque city of Kyiv, Ukraine. However, compelled by the large-scale war in 2022, relocated to Cologne, Germany. Studies at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) as a media artist and 2D animator. Primary goal, above all, is to support Ukraine through my creativity, narrate our culture, and present a unique perspective from within.

Head of Digital Project Management, ARTE · France

Adrien Larouzée is a Video Games Production & Publishing Manager @ ARTE France, since 2015. ARTE is a public service European culture channel and digital network which focuses on creation and innovation. In the last decade, ARTE has co-produced a number of major interactive works, including the games Type: Rider, Homo Machina, Vectronom, The Wanderer: Franekenstein's Creature and Bury me, my Love

CEO, Miyu Distribution, Ukrainian Competition Jury · France

In 2014 Luce Grosjean founded Sève Films, a distribution company destined to promote student films in animation festivals, but also young talent directors. In 2017, she associated with Miyu Productions to create Miyu Distribution, specialized in distribution in festivals and international sales for animation. Four of the films that she distributed have been nominated at the Oscars, one to the César and her films are known international successes. Her company received the award of the best short film distribution company in 2020 by UniFrance and La Fête du Court Métrage. In 2021, she signed her first feature films, Archipel by the Canadian Felix Dufour-Laperrière and Dozens of Norths directed by the Japanese Koji Yamamura. She curated a short film program released in the theaters in France, erotico-trash, named “Plan cul la praline”.

Head of Digital Project Management, ARTE · France

Adrien Larouzée is a Video Games Production & Publishing Manager @ ARTE France, since 2015. ARTE is a public service European culture channel and digital network which focuses on creation and innovation. In the last decade, ARTE has co-produced a number of major interactive works, including the games Type: Rider, Homo Machina, Vectronom, The Wanderer: Franekenstein's Creature and Bury me, my Love

CEO, Untold Tales · Poland

Maciej aka Maciek is the CEO and co-founder of Untold Tales, a game publishing company based in Poland. With a career rooted in the Polish AAA game development scene, Łączny and his team previously worked at Techland, a renowned developer known for titles like Dying Light and Dead Island. The establishment of Untold Tales was driven by Łączny's vision to create a publisher that prioritizes fairness, transparency, agility and a strong partnership with developers. Great fan of cross publisher corporations.

Journalist, animation and video game enthusiast · 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.

Chief Operating Officer at Astrea Immersive · France

After working for several years in advertising and content creation for various brands, Jordan joined Atlas V's production teams before becoming the Head of Production at Astrea. He is now Chief Operating Officer at Astrea, handling the company's distribution strategy. Specializing in distributing immersive online content, he is a true VR enthusiast passionate about the content he distributes.

Artistic Director of Kaboom Animation Festival, International Competition Jury · Poland

Aneta Ozorek (PL | NL) is an Artistic Director of Kaboom Animation Festival, bold and innovative festival in the Netherlands. She has extensive industry experience as the curator and organizer of film events, educational workshops, exhibitions and festivals in the European market. She is a Head of Short section of CEE Animation Pitching Forum (Czech Republic), a member of the board of REX Animation Festival (Sweden), Animela (India) and lecturer in the Fachhochschule Salzburg (Austria).

CEO, Miyu Distribution, Ukrainian Competition Jury · France

In 2014 Luce Grosjean founded Sève Films, a distribution company destined to promote student films in animation festivals, but also young talent directors. In 2017, she associated with Miyu Productions to create Miyu Distribution, specialized in distribution in festivals and international sales for animation. Four of the films that she distributed have been nominated at the Oscars, one to the César and her films are known international successes. Her company received the award of the best short film distribution company in 2020 by UniFrance and La Fête du Court Métrage. In 2021, she signed her first feature films, Archipel by the Canadian Felix Dufour-Laperrière and Dozens of Norths directed by the Japanese Koji Yamamura. She curated a short film program released in the theaters in France, erotico-trash, named “Plan cul la praline”.

Head of the Vilnius Short Film Festival · Lithuania

Rimantė Daugėlaitė has been the head of the Vilnius Short Film Festival since 2009, and co-founder and the managing director of the Lithuanian Short Film Agency, "Lithuanian Shorts," since 2012. Rimantė has been working in the audiovisual industry for more than ten years and has coordinated multiple audiovisual and film promotion projects, also produced several Lithuanian short films. R. Daugelaite works as an expert in European and national audiovisual and cultural funds. She is a member of the "EWA Network” and the European Film Academy.

Moderator · Lithuania

Justė Michailinaitė is a producer from Lithuania. During BLON, she will moderate a few discussions.

Tech Journalist · Lithuania

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

Game Developer · Lithuania

Ernestas is an independent game developer who has spent several years working in Czechia with indie hit Factorio. He later returned to Klaipėda to create his game Sweet Transit, a city builder where the only means of transportation are trains.

Game Developer · Lithuania

Vilius is a game programmer, working in No Brakes Games studio. He also creates games independently, earlier worked with a game Sipho, and this year released a solo project Antipaint.

Co-Founder & CTO, Tag of Joy · 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.

Head of the Vilnius Short Film Festival · Lithuania

Rimantė Daugėlaitė has been the head of the Vilnius Short Film Festival since 2009, and co-founder and the managing director of the Lithuanian Short Film Agency, "Lithuanian Shorts," since 2012. Rimantė has been working in the audiovisual industry for more than ten years and has coordinated multiple audiovisual and film promotion projects, also produced several Lithuanian short films. R. Daugelaite works as an expert in European and national audiovisual and cultural funds. She is a member of the "EWA Network” and the European Film Academy.

Artistic Director of Kaboom Animation Festival, International Competition Jury · Poland

Aneta Ozorek (PL | NL) is an Artistic Director of Kaboom Animation Festival, bold and innovative festival in the Netherlands. She has extensive industry experience as the curator and organizer of film events, educational workshops, exhibitions and festivals in the European market. She is a Head of Short section of CEE Animation Pitching Forum (Czech Republic), a member of the board of REX Animation Festival (Sweden), Animela (India) and lecturer in the Fachhochschule Salzburg (Austria).

Director of LINOLEUM Festival, Lithuanian Competition Jury · Ukraine

Anastasiya Verlinska has worked as a project manager for one of the biggest Eastern European film companies, FILM.UA Group, implementing projects to promote both film and animation in Ukraine. In 2014, she joined the team of the LINOLEUM animation festival as a program coordinator, and in 2016, she became its director. Apart from the festival, Anastasiya organises screenings of both international and Ukrainian animation, as well as numerous educational projects that help develop the local animation industry. She also works as an expert at the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the Ukrainian State Film Agency.

Moderator · Lithuania

Justė Michailinaitė is a producer from Lithuania. During BLON, she will moderate a few discussions.

Animation, Preselection Jury of animation competition programmes · Lithuania

Tomas Mitkus is a lecturer at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and an art director in co-founded animation studio MB “Studio Mitkus”. Tomas has worked in various live action and animated TV, feature, advertising, comic book and video games projects in Lithuania and abroad. Tomas is also a member of Lithuanian film board and an author of few academic books.

Animation director, animator, Lithuanian Competition Jury · Denmark

Sara Koppel is an animator, creator of artistic installations, and illustrator from Denmark. Her films have been showcased at various international festivals and have garnered over 20 awards. In today's animation landscape, Sara stands out for her organic traditional hand-drawn animation style and bold thematic choices. Her work often addresses environmental issues, gender, and sexuality, and she is also recognized as one of the pioneers of erotic animation. One of Sara Koppel's latest projects is the illustrated graphic novel/comic "Den lille bog om..." ("The Little Book About...") (2020), which she created in collaboration with body and mind therapist, as well as non-fiction writer, Molly Mørch.

Critic, Writer, Comms Executive · UK

Marijam is a Lithuanian-Tatar games industry critic dissecting the intersection between videogames and IRL politics. Her work has been published by the Guardian, VICE, GamesIndustry.biz, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung and others. Marijam was a Lecturer at the University of London, co-founded trade union movements for the industry, and is currently a Senior Marketing Executive at a Bafta-winning videogames studio. She is an author of Everything To Play For: How Videogames Are Changing The World published by Verso Books in 2024.

Animation director, animator, Lithuanian Competition Jury · Denmark

Sara Koppel is an animator, creator of artistic installations, and illustrator from Denmark. Her films have been showcased at various international festivals and have garnered over 20 awards. In today's animation landscape, Sara stands out for her organic traditional hand-drawn animation style and bold thematic choices. Her work often addresses environmental issues, gender, and sexuality, and she is also recognized as one of the pioneers of erotic animation. One of Sara Koppel's latest projects is the illustrated graphic novel/comic "Den lille bog om..." ("The Little Book About...") (2020), which she created in collaboration with body and mind therapist, as well as non-fiction writer, Molly Mørch.

Animation, Preselection Jury of animation competition programmes · Lithuania

Tomas Mitkus is a lecturer at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and an art director in co-founded animation studio MB “Studio Mitkus”. Tomas has worked in various live action and animated TV, feature, advertising, comic book and video games projects in Lithuania and abroad. Tomas is also a member of Lithuanian film board and an author of few academic books.

Moderator · Lithuania

Justė Michailinaitė is a producer from Lithuania. During BLON, she will moderate a few discussions.

Co-Founder, Creative Director, Pepi Play · Lithuania

Discussion moderator. Indrė is a co-founder, creative director, and character artist at Pepi Play. Also a lecturer and founder of the "Fundamentals of Interactive Storytelling", a digital game development program at Vilnius Academy of Arts.

Head of MEDIA Office, Creative Europe Desk Lithuania · Lithuania

Austėja Milvydaitė – Europos Sąjungos programos „Kūrybiška Europa“ paprogramės MEDIA atstovė Lietuvoje, nuo 2018 m. dirbanti Lietuvos kino centre, konsultuojanti Lietuvos audiovizualinę industriją ES finansavimo klausimais bei organizuojanti veiklas, skatinančias tarptautinį sektoriaus bendradarbiavimą ir ugdančias industrijos profesionalų įgūdžius.

Co-Founder & CTO, Tag of Joy · 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.

Director, Founder of "Muona Studio" · Lithuania

Vilius Petrauskas is a seasoned veteran of the industry, having worked on such film and game projects as Angelų takais, Vesper, Tarp pilkų debesų, Wonka, Jurassic World, God of War Ragnarök, and Horizon Forbidden West. As the founder of Muona Studio, based in Klaipėda, he led the production of one of the most successful virtual reality projects, Žaisti gyvenimą / Play Life, which was selected for the Venice International Film Festival. Currently, Vilius is directing a VR experience focused on Baltic mythology.

An artist and animator. She is a Co-founder of "Emilemilija" animation studio · Lithuania

In 2017 she graduated London College of Communication studies in BA hons Animation. Her practice includes the creation of Digital 2D animations and the production of experimental and commercial projects within the animation film industry. Over the years Emile has created a big network of collaborators spamming from musicians, illustrations to music & film festivals. She has led traditional animation workshops, for children of different ages, in Lithuania and Ireland.

An audiovisual artist working in the field of animation. She is a Co-founder of "Emilemilija" animation studio · Lithuania

Graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2019 with a degree in animation. During her studies she created two short films and two interdisciplinary installations. Her 2017 animated short film "Mono No Aware" won the Best Student Film Award at the 2018 Cinema Spring Film Festival in Vilnius. In 2018 she studied illustration as part of a study exchange with Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Currently, she is working on her debut animated short film "Family Album" in collaboration with "Akis Bado" producer Giedre Burokaite.