Archives: Biographies

Kristoffer Lislegaard is a Norwegian experimental ambient musician and producer based in Oslo. Kristoffer is no stranger to weird custom-made creative tech setups for his AV performances and at Fredrikstad Animation Festival he will be doing “live animation” visuals (whatever that is =) ) for Center of the Universe.

Anna Warfvinge is a producer at Nordisk Film Production in Sweden. She has been working in film and television since 2010. Her career includes working with Swedish public broadcaster SVT, freelance work and she has worked with Nordisk Film since 2015. Most recent works include co-producing the critically acclaimed Unruly by Malou Reymann and producing the pilot/short film Doris & Bettan Marbella Mayhem. Anna is also an alumnus of the Rotterdam Lab 2021, Young Nordic Producers Club 2021, and Nordic Producers Club+ 2022.

Franck Samuel graduated with a B.A. in business studies from East London University and an M.A. in media management from KEDGE Business School. He began his career in audiovisual by joining MK2 in 2007, then continued his experience at TF1 Studio in 2009 where he learned the workings of SVOD. With these two experiences, he turned to production by integrating two production companies: La Station Animation and Las Niñas Pictures where he developed and produced animated and live-action series and films for several years. In 2015, he invested full-time in La Station Animation and became an associate producer. Since 2016, Franck Samuel has also worked at the ISCPA school where he teaches animation production.

Frank Mosvold is a Norwegian producer and creator of entertainment for kids. He has created and produced the animated TV-series Hubert (26 episodes x 10 min) and Ella Bella Bingo (104 episodes x 7 min). In 2020 he completed his animated feature Ella Bella Bingo. Mosvold has produced and directed several award-winning shorts, such as Bendik & the Monster. He has also produced several apps and written 5 books for kids. Frank Mosvold has an M.F.A in film production from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and a B.A. in economics from Babson College in Boston.

Hisko Hulsing’s(1971) films Seventeen and Junkyard were invited to numerous festivals and won many awards, including the Grand Prize at the OIAF. Besides writing, directing, painting, and animating for his animated films, Hulsing composed the orchestral soundtracks for his own films.

In 2014, Hulsing made large animated sequences for Cobain: Montage of Heck, the acclaimed documentary about Kurt Cobain. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was theatrically released worldwide by Universal Pictures.

Hulsing directed both seasons of Undone, an animated series for adults for Amazon Prime. Undone appeared in Top Ten lists of the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Time Magazine and won the jury award in Annecy.

In 2022, Hulsing directed the bonus episode of The Sandman for DC Comics, Warner Bros, and Netflix called A Dream of a Thousand Cats. It was released in 2022 and was viewed over 30 million times in the first 6 weeks.

Stefan Riekeles, born in Leonberg, Germany in 1976, is an animation historian and exhibition curator. He is the founder of Riekeles Gallery. He completed his M.A. in culture studies and audio communication science from Humboldt University and the Technical University Berlin. He has curated several internationally touring exhibitions featuring original anime background art, including “Proto Anime Cut” (Berlin, Dortmund, Barcelona, Madrid, Tallinn, Basel, 2011~2013), “Anime Architecture” (Berlin, London, Sydney, Delray Beach, 2016~2019), “AKIRA – The Architecture of Neo Tokyo” (Berlin, 2022), and currently “Cityscapes in Anime Background Art” (Kanazawa, 2023). He established Riekeles Gallery in 2021. His most recent publication is “Anime Architecture – Imagined Worlds and Endless Megacities” (Thames & Hudson, 2020).

Charlotte de la Gournerie is a producer and co-owner at Sun Creature Studio. She is currently producing several major animated projects (both feature films and series) and shares her experience in production and crowdfunding in talks and lectures around Europe.

Following the triple nomination in 2022 of Flee in the categories of Best Animated Film, Best Documentary Film, and Best International Film, she became a member of the Academy of Oscars®.

Her recent production is the original Cartoon Network series The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe (40 x 11), which will soon air on HBO Max.

Peter Smith holds a B.A. in character animation from The Animation Workshop in Viborg. In 2011 he founded Tumblehead along with Magnus Møller. Today he functions as both director and producer in the company. He works within all types of animation production and has directed over 30 productions over the past 12 years.

Konrad Hjemli (b. 1998) is an emerging filmmaker and animator from Sarpsborg/Fredrikstad. Having recently completed his studies in Volda, he has co-directed two well-received graduation films, with the most recent one being Havnesjefen (co-dir. Mia L. Henriksen), which won the jury award in Annecy for best student film and was nominated for an Amanda for best short film. As a lifelong attendee and four-time selection at FAF, including Havnesjefen, which took home the Audience Award in 2022, he was invited to create the festival trailer that can be seen at every screening in the 2023 edition of the festival.

Sara Koppel is an Animation Artist working in the field of 2D Hand-drawn Paper Animation. Over the years, she has created numerous independent, hyper-personal, and award-winning animated short films, with themes including sexuality and environmental issues. She also frequently experiments by combining her handcrafted paper animation with augmented reality (AR) and has held several exhibitions featuring AR-paperworks and AR-wallpainting in different places around the world. Currently, she is working on her next animated short film in conjunction with an associated AR exhibition titled 2nd Day & the End of the World, which is set to premiere in the spring of 2024.

Magnus Møller is co-founder of Tumblehead Animation Studio, based in Viborg, Denmark. He loves cartoony design and animation in 3D, with a 2D approach to design, models and rigs. In the past 15 years he has worked on multiple films, games, commercials and TV projects, as director, designer, lookdev artist, modeller and rigger. He has worked with clients such as Disney, Lego, Sony and Google.

Jesper Andkjær (b. 1995) is a danish animator and generalist based in Viborg. Since graduating from The Animation Workshop he has been working at Tumblehead.

Ida Melum is a BAFTA-nominated and Annie Award-winning animation director, based in both England and Sweden. After training as an actor in Norway, she pursued studies in animation at the University of Middlesex in London. She has worked as a stop-motion animator on films such as the BAFTA-winning Poles Apart and Facin It, before deciding to pursue a M.A. in animation direction at the National Film and Television School in London. During her time at NFTS, she created the films Shopped and OvaryActing, and she subsequently completed her graduation film, Night of the Living Dread, in 2021. Recently, she worked on Attenborough’s Wonder of Song, a nature documentary for BBC. Currently, she freelances and is in the process of developing a new short film.

James Martin works under the name Studio Cartoons Deluxe specialising in character driven, frame by frame animation and illustration for TV, SoMe, children’s books, branding and apparel. He has director representation in Norway at Animasjonsdepartementet and also in the US at Totally Reps NYC. Works a lot. Huge nerd.

Vladimir Kokh founded the cinema distribution company KMBO in 2007. A distribution company characterized by tailor-made work adapted to each film release, with a diversified editorial line and a specific focus on animation films for the young and family audience. KMBO did around 2,000,000 admissions in 2022 and is part of the top 15 distributors in France. KMBO won the award of Best distributor of the year at Cartoon Movie 2023.

In July 2021, Kokh took over the audiovisual production company Les Films de l’Arlequin to develop and produce animated programs for young audience on television. In 2022, he founded the production company Fantabulous with Fabrique d’Images company partners, dedicated to feature films animation production for family audiences.

Jérôme Combe studied industrial design and graduated in 1991, he decided to buy a computer and learn 3D by himself. As a fan of the game Another World and Eric Chahi’s work, he asked Chahi to collaborate on his future project, Heart of Darkness (Amazing Studio, 1998).

Thereafter, Combe multiplied his professional experiences as cinematic director and character designer on various video game projects. At the beginning of 2000, he started to develop a 2D/3D mix (cell shading) with the idea of creating an aesthetic, a unique “look development”. His ambition is to make a difference with traditional animation for children and to target a more adult audience. Combe therefore alternated between musical video with his own style that won numerous awards (Respire for Mickey 3D and Thomas Fersen: awarded at the Victoires de la musique 2004). In parallel, he directed commercials and did some advertising campaigns with Nexus London. As he was commissioned to co-direct commercials with Pascal Charrue and Arnaud Delord, the three of them decided to create their own studio, Fortiche Production.

This internationally renowned animation studio, located in Paris, is also known for its collaborations with big names of the video games’ industry such as: Ubisoft, Carbine Studios and Riot Games. They have an eclectic culture that reflects their vision and way of working. They have developed a unique graphic style mixing 2D and 3D media, combined with an ambitious staging inspired by cinema. The combination of this visual style and their narrative ambitions make Fortiche’s signature instantly recognizable in the industry. In 2012, the studio produced and directed a music video for the French band Limousine, called La Gaviota, which was noticed by Riot Games. Then, Riot came to them in 2013 to direct and produce the Get jinxed video. This started a long partnership between the two companies and with Christian Linke, showrunner of Arcane.

The studio has produced projects such as League of Legends – Rise, League of Legends – K/DA – POP/STARS, League of Legends – Warriors, Coldplay and Gorillaz music videos and the Rocket & Groot series for Marvel Studios. In 2021, the Arcane series was released, marking another milestone for the studio and the team. The show, acclaimed by the critics and the audience, received several Emmys.

John M. Jacobsen started his career in the film industry at the age of 15 as a bouncer and program manager for a local cinema on the outskirts of Oslo. At the age of 17, he left school to work at the warehouse of Universal Pictures’ office in Oslo.

Throughout his extensive career, which involved film distribution and the development of the emerging video industry, Jacobsen is primarily known as a significant producer. Since his debut with Prima Veras saga om Olav den Hellige (“Prima Vera’s Saga about Olav the Holy”) in 1983, followed by Hard Asfalt (“Hard Asphalt”) (1986) and Veiviseren (“Pathfinder”) (1987), Jacobsen has produced over 40 titles spanning over four decades. In 1988, he established the Norwegian subsidiary of Svensk Filmindustri, SF Norge AS, which quickly became the country’s largest distribution company. In 1996, he shifted his focus entirely to film production. In 1997, Jacobsen created Norway’s first full-length animated film, Solan, Ludvig og Gurin med Reverompa (“Gurin with the Foxtail”) and has produced a total of four full-length animated films and over 50 animated TV episodes featuring Elias, den lille redningsskøyta (“Elias, the little rescue boat”), and Blekkulf, the former of which was nominated for an Emmy. He has also been a driving force in implementing CGI technology in Norwegian films, including the legendary Jakten på Nyresteinen (“The Hunt For The Kidney Stone”) (1986), and notably, last year’s Vikingulven (“Viking Wolf”) which made it to Netflix’s international top 10 list of most-watched non-English language films.

Jacobsen’s films have been nominated for both the Oscars and International Emmy Awards, and have won the Amanda, Kanonprisen, and Gullruten awards. He himself has been awarded the Honorary Amanda, the Cinema Directors’ Guild’s Gullstrimmelen, the Film & Kino’s Future Cinema Prize, and the Municipal Cinemas’ Honorary Aamot Statue. His production Max Manus (2008), is the biggest Norwegian box office success in modern times with 1.2 million tickets sold and the TV-series Kampen om Tungtvannet (“The Heavy Water War”) (2015) is the most-watched drama production in Norwegian TV history, averaging 1.8 million viewers per episode.

John M. Jacobsen has been appointed Commander of the Order of St. Olav for his contributions to Norwegian cinema.

Nancy Denney-Phelps is a journalist who writes about European animation and festivals. She is also a producer of music for animation. Alongside her composer/musician husband, Nik Phelps, she co-founded the Sprocket Ensemble, which is dedicated to presenting live performances of original music with screenings of contemporary animation from around the world. Nancy’s writings have appeared in publications such as Cartoon and Animatoon, as well as on her regular blog for AWN (Animation World Network). She is a regular correspondent for ASIFA/San Francisco and a member of the ASIFA International Board of Directors. Nancy is also an Ambassador-at-Large for the Emile Awards. She works as an advisor to several animation festivals and, in 2019, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Animakom FEST Animation Festival in Bilbao, Spain.

Nina Bergström, born 1962 in Karlstad, is a director, screenwriter, actor and animator for film and theatre. Bergström has a background as an actor and director in theater and made her debut as a film director in 1996 with the award-winning feature film Väninnor – berättelser från garderoben. Later studied film, animation and art, and from 2000 worked with animation as an animator, supervisor and director of feature films and TV series; Free Jimmy, Redningsskøyta Elias, Knerten, Trolljegeren, Blekkulf and others who were rewarded with prizes and nominations, among others. Emmy, Amanda and Annecy Crystal.

Since 2018, she has been working as a university lecturer at Høgskolen i Innlandet, BA digital art and animation. Bergström’s personal film, Pappa (2016) received Nordic Doc’s honorable mention and has been purchased by the National Library. Is developing new original projects.

Over 15 years of experience as an Animator and Animation Director has earned Jens a solid reputation within the international stop-motion feature film industry. He has worked on several high-profile productions for names like Wes Anderson, Tim Burton and Laika Studios. He is a co-founder of the animation and theatre company Rainy Day Productions.