Ich habe keine Angst

Nicolas Bianco-Levrin was born in Paris in 1979. He is a freelance author, illustrator, and graphic designer. He graduated from the Duperré school in visual communications. Since then, he creates animated shorts and runs workshops with children. He has published around twenty children’s books and comic strips. He was awarded the Octogone prize once for Simon Sans nuit, and a second time for the book/film project Le Machino. He regularly works for children’s literature institutions such as CIELJ (Ricochet), the Charles Perrault Institute and the Centre Paris Lecture. For almost ten years now, he has been organising the Prototype Vidéo festival. In 2009, he put together an exhibition in Troyes bringing together animated films and children’s literature..

Marita Mayer grew up in Hamburg, Germany. She has a background in Cultural Management and Education from the University of Hildesheim and specialized in drawn animation at the Animation School Hamburg. Marita has worked for several 2-D and stop-motion productions since and was a program manager for five editions of Fredrikstad Animation Festival (FAF). From 2018 to 2020 she worked as line producer and production manager at Trollfilm AS in Dovre on Anita Killi’s short film Mor visste ingenting / Mother didn’t know . In 2022 her animated short film for children Jeg er ikke redd! / I am not afraid! (produced by Fabian&Fred, Germany, and Trollfilm AS, Norway) premiered at the Berlinale and has so far been shown at more than 40 festivals in over 20 different countries. Together with Fabian&Fred, Marita is currently developing the animated TV Series Vanja’s World. In August she started the production of the animated documentary short Grandpa has a broken eye.

Jan Míka was born on December 4, 1947 in Czech Republic. He is a writer and director, known for Vecne tvá neverná (2018), Town Square (2004) and Capek’s Pockets (2010). He is also well known for his work on the television series Království (Kingdom) and it’s feature film adaptation. He has been a producer and director with his animation studio Filmofon for almost 20 years.

Julia Ocker is an animation director, designer and author from Stuttgart. She studied Visual Communication in Pforzheim and Animation at the Filmakademie in Baden-Württemberg. Her Graduation film Kellerkind won the First Steps Awards 2012, the Tricky Women Prize 2013 and was nominated for the 2014 Annie Awards. Julia discovered her passion for children’s movies as she had the opportunity to produce five short films with Studio FILM BILDER for the SWR series, “I know an Animal”. From these five short films her own series Animanimals was created, it then went on to be shown on KiKa and sold to more than 180 international territories. As every episode works as a short film they have run in many festivals worldwide and won more than 70 awards. Animanimals won the 2019 Grimme-Preis in the children’s film category and was nominated for an International Emmy.

Born in Poland, Eliza Procieniak-Alvarez has lived in 11 countries from Norway, through Portugal to Mexico. She obtained a Master’s degree in Hispanic Literature followed by a Diploma in Animation at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. As an animation director and animator, she then specialized in content for children. Shortly before lockdown, Eliza moved to Leipzig, where she is working on new projects with her animation collective, Blaue Pampelmuse.

Britt Raes was born in Belgium in 1986 and lives in Ghent. She teaches animation at the KASK School of Arts, where she graduated in 2011. Since then, her career has been a combination of illustration and animation, with Britt working on both her own projects and commissioned work. In 2016, she completed her first short film Catherine. The film was selected at over 200 festivals around the world, winning prestigious awards. In 2022, she completed the short film Luce et le Rocher, which she also plans to adapt in the form of an illustrated book.

After graduating in literature, Julie Rembauville went on to direct short films and animated features. In 2003, she published her first children’s book, Je ne me laisserai pas faire !, illustrated by Nicolas Bianco Levrin. Since then, they have worked together on animated films and books. Julie Rembauville and Nicolas Bianco-Levrin are above all film enthusiasts. They set up an association, “Prototypes associés”, which for ten years ran the “Prototype Vidéo” festival in Paris. The hundreds of films they saw there inspired them to make their own.