Elie Chapuis, Animator, Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Hélium Films

Born in 1980 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Joint Swiss and Italian citizenship. In 2002 he graduated with a degree from EMCA (École des Métiers du Cinéma d'Animation), Angoulême. Since 2002 he works as animator for films and since 2011 as an animation supervisor. A close collaborator of Claude Barras, he worked on MA VIE DE COURGETTE, as well as with Wes Anderson on FANTASTIC MR FOX and ISLE OF DOGS. In 2011 he joined the team at Hélium Films in Lausanne, where he directed IMPOSTEUR, his first film as a director, and where he also works as a producer.

Luce Grosjean, CEO, Miyu Distribution

In 2014 Luce Grosjean founded Sève Films, a distribution company destined to promote student films in animation festivals, but also young talent directors. In 2017, she associated with Miyu Productions to create Miyu Distribution, specialized in distribution in festivals and international sales for animation.

Four of the films that she distributed have been nominated at the Oscars, one to the César and her films are known international successes.  Her company received the award of the best short film distribution company in 2020 by UniFrance and La Fête du Court Métrage. 

In 2021, she signed her first feature films, Archipel by the Canadian Felix Dufour-Laperrière and Dozens of Norths directed by the Japanese Koji Yamamura. She curated a short film program released in the theaters in France, erotico-trash, named “Plan cul la praline”.

Jan Pinkava, Director of the Animationsinstitut/ FMX Conference Chair, Animationsinstitut, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Jan Pinkava has been a leader in animation storytelling for over thirty years.

At Pixar he wrote and directed 1997 Oscar-winning short film Geri's Game and was the creator and co-director of Pixar's Oscar-winning 2007 feature Ratatouille.

At Google, he was co-founder and Creative Director of the renowned Google Spotlight Stories project; working with leading technologists, artists and directors to create new forms of interactive storytelling for film, mobile and VR. The work won many prizes, including the first Emmy for outstanding innovation in interactive storytelling, and an Oscar nomination.

In June of 2023 Jan became Director of the Animationsinstitut Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, one of Europe’s leading schools for Animation, VFX and Interactive Media. He is learning German. Slowly.  

Andreas Hykade, Head of Animation Directing, Animationsinstitut, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Andreas Hykade was born in the summer of love in the pilgrimage place Altötting, Upper Bavaria. Since he has been an adult, he has been making animated films for adults (Ring of Fire, The Runt, Love & Theft). Since becoming a father, he also realizes animation films for children, among others the interactive animation series Tom & the Slice of bread with Strawberry Jam and Honey. Hykade's work has received more than 70 international awards.

From 2015-2022, Prof. Andreas Hykade was director of Animationsinstitut at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Since September 2022, he has been Head of Animation Directing at the institute.