Jury of FILMINI 2.0 ISFF
Rossitsa Valkanova
Graduated as film director from the National Academy of Theatre and Film in the famous class of professor Hristov, Georgi Dulgerov and Mladen Kisselov (together with I. Triffonova, M. Andonova, I. Cherkelov, L. Todorov, S. Ovcharov, M. Krastev). Directed several documentaries before founding a production company, KLAS in 1995. Attended several film production courses in London and Berlin. Since 2002 member of the European Film Academy. Producer of some of the most important contemporary Bulgarian films: The Patience of the Stone (1998), Letter to America (2001), Christmas Tree Upside Down (2006), Investigation (2006).
Adrian Sitaru
In 2007 Adrian made the short film Waves which won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival as well as the prize for Best Short at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Namur, Dresden, Aspen and another 16 awards. Waves was also selected in the Official Competition of Sundance 2008.
After directing more than 10 shorts and some medium TV films, Adrian Sitaru finished his first feature film in 2008, Hooked, selected in Venice Days at the International Film Festival of Venice 2008, Toronto International Fim Festival 2008 and BFI London Film Festival.
He is now working on his next feature For Love with Best Intentions.
Francis Gavelle
Producer, since 1998, of a show dedicated to literature, music and cinema for an independent radio (Radio Libertaire), Francis Gavelle was, from september 2000 to february 2008, programmer of a short films’ exhibition in Paris (Le Goût du Court).
Since 2001, he is member of the Short Film Commission of the Cannes Film Festival’s International Critics’ Week and revealed to the Croisette audiences some animation and live action major short films, as Chris Landreth’s Ryan, Duane Hopkins’ Field, Denis Villeneuve’s Next Floor, Rosto’s Jona/Tomberry and, of course, the Mitovski & Kalev’s Get the Rabbit Back and Rabbit Troubles.
He is also member of the short films’ committee for the Cesars (the French Academy Awards).
Sevda Shishmanova
Sevda Shishmanova graduated from Bulgarian philology at Sofia University. Later she specialized Film directing at NATFA "Krustio Sarafov" and International journalism at BBC — Great Britain.
She is a member of the National union for Cinema and a member of the Board of Managers of the Bulgarian National Television.
Sevda is the author of ten documentary films. The film "Unfinished war" received the SAIS award for international journalism of the American University "John Hopkins" and Mrs. Shishmanova was placed in the top ten list of the best international journalists for 2001. Her film "Pakistan in the shadow of war" entered the special selection of the biggest festival for television production FIPA in Biaritz, France. She is a winner of many Bulgarian awards for journalism.
Tomás Conde
Tomás Conde is a specialist of stop-motion animation and represents the production animation company Algarabía Animación based in Galicia, Spain. Tomás is a collaborator of Consorcio Gallego Audiovusial in their educational programme Audiovisual nas Aulas.
Festival Special Guests
Phil Mulloy
The world-famous UK animator Phil Mulloy is among the special guests of the International Short Film Festival FILMINI 2.0 that will take place 22 to 26 October in Sofia. In the framework of the festival and with the support of the British Council, Phil will carry out a four-day Animation workshop.
Phil Mulloy is one of the most intriguing UK authors. His career started in feature films but he left this field at the beginning of the 80s and started working in animation. His first films combined in the Cowboys series demonstrate the peculiar style of Phil Mulloy and his ruthless and biting sense of humour that remains unchanged in his later works and collections, the most famous of which are The Ten Commandments and Intolerance I, Intolerance II and Intolerance III.
Phil Mulloy is the author of more than 30 short animation films and winner of a number of prestigious international awards among which the Granada festival award for an overall contribution to the cinema art.
The English press calls Phil Mulloy’s work "extreme animation". The provocative short films by Phil Mulloy are an example of satirical grotesque which has no analogue in UK animation. An antidote to kitch and sentimentality, his direct, witty and bitter-sweet films are about human nature and put contemporary values to the test. Phil Mulloy’s stories are uncompromisingly caustic, and the plots are almost always related to topics like sex, violence, the human body, politics, religion and the basic wounds of our society: conformity and spineless timidity. In his style of drawing Phil Mulloy combines elements of expressionism and art brut with the scandal nature of punk culture, and in this way he achieves an intelligent, universal message characterised also by sinister scepticism. Phil Mulloy uses simplified figures and minimalist background that focus viewers’ attention on the idea of the film instead of bringing primary pleasure. The characters in his films are grotesque — drawn only with a brush and with black ink, they resemble a silhouette with a body like a skeleton, long bony arms and a wide mouth full of protruding teeth.
You can find out more about Phil Mulloy here: www.philmulloy.com
Information on the workshop and other British Council projects: www.britishcouncil.org/bulgaria
