Born in 1960. Specially appointed professor at Nihon University College of Art. Katabuchi participated in Hayao Miyazaki’s “Sherlock Hound” as a writer while he was still in university. He directed a number of animated works such as TV series “Famous Dog Lassie”(1996), feature animated films “Princess Arete”(2001) and “Mai Mai Miracle”(2009). His recent work, “In This Corner of the World”(2016) has won numerous awards and marked an exceptional long-running hit and in 2019, its new version “In This Corner (and Other Corners) of the World” with new episodes was released.

Born in 1952 in Tochigi prefecture. Minamisawa established 81Produce with 6 voice actors and 3 employees in February, 1981 then also established 81Music Publishing which was predecessor of HALF H・P STUDIO. He has been involved with dubbed versions of numerous animation works produced in both Japan and overseas and foreign films and dramas while educating young voice actors/actresses who would be major players in the next generation at 81ACTOR’S STUDIO.

Her feature as Director, screenwriter and producer, “Crulic – The Path to Beyond” which received the Crystal in Annecy and other 35 international prizes in 2012 achieved international success. Her second animated feature “The Magic Mountain” was world premired in Annecy and selected in more than 60 festivals and won 11 international prizes in 2015. She was also the first to receive Audentia Award offered by Eurimages the next year. In 2019, “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” was also premiered in Annecy, followed by long festival selection in festivals like Rotterdam IFF, Tokyo IFF and received numerous awards then won Grand Prize for feature animation competition at TAAF 2020.

After an academic drawing school, Rémi Chayé worked several years as an illustrator, before discovering animation by chance. Rémi enjoyed working among teams and trained with elders on storyboard and layout work. In 2003, he joined the animated film directing school La Poudrière where he directed three short films. He worked on several feature films as both assistant director and story artist for “Brendan and the Secret of Kells” and “The Painting”, as well as a story artist for “Kérity” and “Evolution Man”. “Long Way North” – for which Rémi received the Best European Director Prize at the 2016 Cartoon Movie – marked his debut as a feature film director and graphic author. “Calamity”, his second feature has just been released in France and already received four Best Animated Feature Awards at International Festivals, among them the 2020 Cristal of the Annecy Film Festival.

Born in 1961, Inoue began his career as an animator at Studio Junio after graduating from Osaka Designers’ College. Later, he became freelance and has worked mainly on feature films as key animator and animation director. His filmography includes “Akira”(1988), “Ghost in the Shell”(1995), “Jin-Roh”(1999), “Tokyo Godfathers”(2003), “Dennō Coil”(2007), “Wolf Children”(2012) and “Miss Hokusai”(2015). The Director of Japan Animation Creators Association.

Born in 1951 in Tokyo. After graduated from the university, Takiyama worked at several companies such as Japan America Press (from 1973), FUJI CREATIVE CORPORATION (from 1975), and Sony Pictures Television Japan Inc. (Currently Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc.) (from 1998) then appointed as Representative Director in 2015. He has also held following positions. President and Representative Director at Animax Broadcast Japan Inc. (from 1999), President and Representative Director at AXN Japan Inc. (from 2007), President and Representative Director at Mystery Channel Inc. (from 2008), President and Representative Director at Kids Station Inc. (from 2017), and Representative Director at AK Holdings Inc. (form 2017). In addition, he has been involved in the video production division since 2001 and produced animated feature films including “Tokyo Godfathers” (2003, TOHO Co., Ltd.), “Paprika” (2006, TOHO Co., Ltd.), and a number of TV animated series. Furthermore, he is a vice-chairman at Japan Satellite Broadcasting Association and a chairman at CS/BS PAY TELEVISION ADVERTISING BUREAU JAPAN (CAB-J).

Erick Oh is a Korean filmmaker / artist based in California, USA. His films have been introduced and awarded at numerous film festivals including Academy Awards, Annie Awards, Annecy Animation Festival, Zagreb Film Festival, SIGGRAPH, Anima Mundi and more. With his background in fine art in Seoul National University, Korea and film at UCLA, USA, Erick became an animator at Pixar Animation Studios from 2010 to 2016. Then Erick joined Tonko House with his fellow former Pixar artists and directed “PIG : The Dam Keeper Poems” which won the Crystal Award at Annecy Animation Festival 2018. Erick is currently working on a variety of projects with his partners in film/animation, VR/AR industry and contemporary art scene in US and South Korea.

Daria Kashcheeva studies animated film at FAMU in Prague. Her student films featured at many international festivals. Daria’s original “To Accept” won the Nespresso Talents 2017 film competition in Cannes. In “Daughter”, her Bachelor’s puppet animation, Daria experiments with camera motion and explores the topic of father-daughter relationship. The project was pitched within the CEE Animation Forum 2018. The film has a premiere at Annecy Animation Film Festival and got Cristal for the best Student film and Young Jury award in Student film section. “Daughter” has won the Student Academy Award in the category Animation(International Film Schools) and was nominated to the 92nd Oscar. Now she is preparing her master degree film “ELECTRA. A POEM” in stop motion pixilation technique.