Global Animation Theory: International Perspectives at Animafest Zagreb

A collection of original essays on the newest findings of international animation studies, exploring trends in production, aesthetics, theory and cultural significance in worldwide animation.

Franziska Bruckner is a senior researcher at the Research Group Media Creation at St. Poelten University of Applied Sciences, Austria. Her research focuses on animation history and analysis, animation in AR/VR environments, and climate change communication. Currently, she is the head of the projects VRinMotion (FWF), AniVision (FWF), and Climate Media Frames (GFF NÖ). She has co-edited several books, including Global Animation Theory: International Perspectives at Animafest Zagreb (Bloomsbury 2019) and Filmfestivals, in Theory (2019).

Holger Lang is an Austrian researcher, artist and filmmaker, living and working in Vienna, Austria. For over 20 years he has been teaching animation, media arts and aesthetics for an American university at one of their satellite locations in Austria and also their main campus in St. Louis, USA. His artistic focus reaches from abstract and conceptual work to experimental and interdisciplinary projects. Traveling extensively he has been invited to numerous lectures, presentations, conferences and festivals in Europe, the United States and Japan. Holger Lang is organising academic symposia in Vienna and Zagreb and he is curating programs of European and Austrian animation and experimental films for various venues. In addition he is managing and curating an independent gallery in Vienna and for several years he is one of the board members of ASIFA AUSTRIA where he is supporting, promoting and distributing contemporary Austrian animation. His own artistic output in film, experimental animation and fine arts has been shown in solo and group screenings and exhibitions for more than 25 years.

Nikica Gilic is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, Croatia, where he teaches history and theory of cinema. He also teaches film theory at Academy of Drama Art in Zagreb and often gives guest lectures in post-yugoslav contemporary cinema and history of cinema, most recently in Regensburg, Germany and Brno, Czech republic. He is editor in chief of Hrvatski filmski ljetopis journal and a member of the editorial boards of online journals Images (Croatia) and Apparatus (Germany). He wrote books Uvod u povijest hrvatskog igranog filma (Introduction to the History of Croatian Film, Zagreb 2010 and 2011), Uvod u teoriju filmske price (Introduction to Theory of Narration in Cinema, Zagreb, 2007) and Filmske vrste i rodovi (Film Genres and Types, Zagreb, 2007, second, online edition 2013). He is the coordinator of Doctoral program in literature, performance arts, film and culture in Zagreb since 2013 and in 2015 he became an Associate Research Fellow at the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, University of Regensburg). He worked on juries and sellection comittees of several festivals, such as Pula Film Festival, Dani hrvatskog filma, ZagrebDox and Animafest Zagreb. He also studied comparative literature and English in Zagreb, Croatia, where he got his PhD in film studies in 2005.

Daniel Suljic is an animation film director and a musician in Zagreb, Croatia and Vienna, Austria. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and from 1992 to 1998 painting and animation at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Masterclass C.L.Attersee. From 2005 to 2008 he was a lecturer of classical animation at the Institute for Media Design at the University of Art and Design in Linz, and in 2006 he was given the title of honorary professor at Jilin College of the Arts Animation School in Changchun, China. In the years 2009-2012 he was a lecturer of animation at the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb, and 2010-2012 he served as an artistic consultant for animated film at the Croatian Audiovisual Cente. Since 2011 he has been the artistic director of the World Festival of Animated Film Animafest Zagreb. Since 2013 he is a member of the Film Council at the Zagreb's City Office for Education, Culture and Sports. His films Evening Star (1993), Waltz (1994), Leckdonalds (1995), Highway 59 (1996), The Cake (1997), Sun, Salt and Sea (1997), Film With a Girl (2000), Ich kann es mir sehr gut vorstellen (I Can Imagine It Very Well,2004), Kurzes Leben (Short Life, 2007, co-dir. Johanna Freise), In Chains (2011) were shown at numerous international and national (animation) film festivals, different TV stations across Europe and earned 20 awards so far.

Hrvoje Turkovic is a Croatian film theorist, film critic and university professor. He received a B.A. degree in philosophy and sociology from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb in 1972, and an M.A. in film studies from the New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science in 1976, on a Fulbright Program grant. Turkovic obtained his Ph.D. in film theory from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb in 1991. Since 1977, Turkovic taught at the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, retiring in 2009 as full professor. From 2006, Turkovic teaches Ph.D. courses at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. Since 1998, Turkovic is the president of the Croatian Film Association. He was the founding president of the Croatian Society of Film Critics (1992-1994). Turkovic served as an editor in a number of journals and magazines, published 12 books about film and television, and a book about visual arts theory (Understanding Perspective, 2002). He wrote more than 700 articles about film, and contributed entries for Film Encyclopedia and Film Lexicon, published by the Miroslav Krleza Institute of Lexicography.