BLON 2025 talks & panels

France

Benjamin Massoubre fell in love with animation when he discovered its richness and variety at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. He started as an editor and had the chance to work on many animated feature films which earned him membership of both the A.C.E and the AMPAS. He collaborated with Jérémy Clapin on I Lost My Body, with Rémi Chayé on Long way north and Calamity: A childhood of Martha Jane Cannary and with Patrick Imbert on The Summit of the Gods. His first feature film as director : Little Nicholas happy as can be ! was selected at the Cannes Film Festival and also received the Cristal for best feature at the Annecy international animation Festival in 2022.

Netherlands

Zuraida Buter (she/her) is a playful arts curator based in the Netherlands. She curates, consults and documents events, exhibitions and projects focused on playful arts, digital culture and games. Working on different local and international projects has given her the opportunity to highlight and connect a wide range of different (game) projects and artists throughout the years. In 2020 she was awarded the Game Changer award by IndieCade (US). In 2024 she won the Inclusion Award at the Dutch Game Awards. She is co-founder of Playful Arts Festival, is currently program curator for A MAZE. / Berlin and works with Sickhouse (NL) on projects such as the Overkill festival and SickProd, a mentorship for emerging playful creatives.

Lithuania

A founder and producer of the production company ART SHOT, Agnė Adomėnė, has an educational background in culture management (Master of Management, Department of UNESCO Cultural Management and Cultural Policy, Vilnius Academy of Arts) and has worked in the film business since 2009. Founded in 2012, the independent production company ART SHOT focuses on developing, producing and co-producing artistic animated films. In 2016, the ART SHOT production “Nuopuolis” (Eng. "Ragnarok”), a short puppet animation directed by Urtė Oettinger and Johan Oettinger, a Lithuania–Denmark co-production, was awarded Best Lithuanian Animation Film of the year by the Lithuanian Film Academy.

Lithuania

Simonas is a Generative AI specialist and founder of Kopa Films, a studio focused on integrating AI into video production, including film, animation, commercials and documentaries. He recently joined Perfection42 as Creative Director, where he’s helping to develop a platform for AI-powered visual content creation and creative workflow optimization. With deep knowledge of the latest AI tools, Simonas brings a sharp eye for choosing the right solutions for specific filmmaking tasks.

Lithuania

A founder and producer of the production company ART SHOT, Agnė Adomėnė, has an educational background in culture management (Master of Management, Department of UNESCO Cultural Management and Cultural Policy, Vilnius Academy of Arts) and has worked in the film business since 2009. Founded in 2012, the independent production company ART SHOT focuses on developing, producing and co-producing artistic animated films. In 2016, the ART SHOT production “Nuopuolis” (Eng. "Ragnarok”), a short puppet animation directed by Urtė Oettinger and Johan Oettinger, a Lithuania–Denmark co-production, was awarded Best Lithuanian Animation Film of the year by the Lithuanian Film Academy.

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.

Slovakia

Lucia Dubravay Trautenberger is based in Bratislava, Slovakia and studied Cultural Management. She has a background in translation and journalism, and has led several international cultural projects. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the Biennial of Animation Bratislava. Lucia is one of the co-founders and owners of Bear With Me Distribution, where she also serves as Managing Director and Head of Sales and International Distribution. In addition, she manages multiple European projects focused on culture, creative industries, and democracy.

Lithuania

Agneta Tumė is TV Content Manager at Telia Lithuania with over a decade of experience in the TV and film industry. She leads the strategy for Telia Play, collaborates with major and independent studios to acquire high-quality content, oversees original projects for Telia Play+, and actively seeks to showcase work from local creators.

Germany

Simon is a politician for the Peto party in Monheim, serving as a specialist citizen on several committees, including School, Sports & Social, and Climate and Building. In addition to his volunteer work in the political realm, he is a fifth-semester student of Game Programming at the Cologne Games Lab. Simon is passionate about modeling and building complex systems, he excels at integrating gameplay and narrative, making even the most abstract worlds come to life.

Australia

Nathan Jurevicius is an illustrator, director, toy designer, and concept artist known for creating immersive worlds like Scarygirl. His work spans limited-edition figures, games, and animation. He has worked in London and Providence, taught character design at Pictoplasma Academy in Berlin, and was Creative Director at Dark Slope, a VR/AR studio. Nathan is also known for the Australian Academy Award-winning PELEDA universe, inspired by Baltic mythology. Now, he freelances internationally across games, animation, toys, and publishing.

USA

Doug Frankel has been in animation ever since attending CalArts in the early and mid-1980s. His animation appears in such Disney/Pixar films as Lion King, Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Emperor's New Groove, Fantasia 2000, Incredibles 1&2, Ratatouille, Toy Story 4, and Coco. He also worked outside of the Disney umbrella on FernGully The Last Rainforest, Garfield the Cat, Gem (the girl band) and Ren & Stimpy. He loves animation, and is very proud to call himself a Lithuanian-American!

Denmark

Karla Nor Holmbäck studied animation at the National Film School of Denmark in 2018. In this context, she has worked on content for children, in the form of TV series, video games and world-building. She also works as a children’s book illustrator and, since 2020, as an author with leading Danish publishing house Gyldendal.

Lithuania

Vaidas Gecevičius is a creative technologist and digital experience designer. For a decade, he has been collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to produce outstanding interactive products in different media. He enjoys exploring emerging the technologies that will shape the interactive experiences of tomorrow.