Previous Guests

Photo: Allan Amato

Dave McKean

Dave McKean (born 1963) is an English illustrator, artist and film director who has an incredible body of work.

Dave worked with Neil Gaiman for many years and his covers for the Sandman series received considerable acclaim. He has also illustrated numerous books and comics, some of the most famous of which are "Arkham Asylum" (written by Grant Morrison) and “Cages” and “Black Dog” which he both wrote and illustrated. His work has won many awards.

Dave McKean exhibited a selection of his work at the festival and also held an inspirational master-class about his career and how he creates his impressive and distinctive art.

Photo: CC

Lorenzo Mattotti

Lorenzo Mattotti (born 1954) is a prize-winning Italian comic artist and creator, artist and film director with a considerable back catalogue.

He gained considerable attention with his groundbreaking “Fires” comic book where he received acclaim for his understanding of how to use colour. Lorenzo Mattotti has created several comic books in his own characteristic style but is fanatical about constantly challenging himself as an artist. He therefore also works in black and white, including in his illustrations for Neil Gaiman’s retelling of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale. In addition to his paintings, Lorenzo Mattotti also directed the fabulous cartoon film “The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily”.

Lorenzo Mattotti presented his new animated film at the festival and also held an intense and fruitful master-class.

Photo: Jericca Cleland

Jericca Cleland

Jericca Cleland is a Canadian director, writer, and cinematographer, and one of the partners in Nørlum Animation Studio.

Jericca Cleland worked 8 years at Pixar, where she was a part of the team making iconic animated movies like "Toy Story 2" and "Finding Nemo". Later, she moved on to movies like "Wolfwalkers", "The Breadwinner", "Leap!" and the Oscar nominated feature "Song of the Sea".

At the festival, Jericca Cleland gave valuable insights into what it takes to create a modern animated feature that can reach cinemas all over the world.

Photo: Klas Gelinder

Tuomas Korpi

Tuomas Korpi (born 1985) is a Finnish concept artist, illustrator and production designer, as well as being the founder of Studio Piñata.

He has worked for companies like Marvel, Supercell, Blizzard, Rovio, EA and Ubisoft and has provided concept art for films like "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "X-Men: Days of Future Past". Tuomas Korpi also helped to draw and develop the charming series about the Moomins, which was directed by Oscar-winning director Steve Box.

Tuomas Korpi was the festival’s selected Concept Artist of the Year. He spoke at Creativity Conference and also presented an exhibition and a session with live drawing.

Photo: Sun Creature Studio

Sun Creature

Sun Creature (founded 2014) is a Danish animation studio that was started on the basis of a crowdfunding idea. What began with the ambition of funding an animated series titled “The Reward: Tales of Alethrion” evolved in the following years to become one of the most important animation studios in Denmark, with customers that include Netflix, Riot Games and Amazon Studios.

The studio has a penchant for world and story building and has attracted international attention with its animated children's series “The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe” and, most recently, with the critically acclaimed animated documentary “Flugt” (“Flee”).

At the festival, they talked about the first steps on their journey, and about how their projects are always carried by passion and commitment.

Photo: Alma-Oline Meidal Weitling

Halfdan Pisket

Halfdan Pisket (born 1985) is a Danish cartoonist and visual artist whose big breakthrough was his trilogy about his Armenian-Turkish father

The trilogy’s three volumes are: Desertør (“Deserter”), Kakerlak (“Cockroach”) and Dansker (“Dane”). The series has won many awards for its partly biographical narrative, including the prestigious Prix de la Série at the Angoulême Comics Festival. Halfdan Pisket's drawing style is characterised by a highly accomplished use of black and white illustrations, which often contain symbolic layers.

At the festival's début, Halfdan Pisket provided insights into the extensive and highly personal work he did while researching and drawing the trilogy.

Photo: John Kenn Mortensen

John Kenn Mortensen

John Kenn Mortensen (born 1978) is a Danish cartoonist, author and director known for his gruesome stories and illustrations.

His début was the book “Post-it Monstre” (“Post-it Monsters”), which quickly became a cult classic. Since then, he has drawn many more darkly humorous scary monster tales in his familiar black line style, including the children's book “Turen gennem Midnatsskoven” (“The trip through the Midnight Forest”). John Kenn Mortensen has also illustrated the Danish edition of Neil Gaiman's retelling of Hansel and Gretel and Caitlín R. Kiernan's “The Variegated Alphabet” and contributed art to the New York Times.

John Kenn Mortensen held a fun and inspiring workshop at the festival where participants were able to draw monsters with him.

Photo: Gints Zilbalodis

Gints Zilbalodis

Gints Zilbalodis (born 1994) is an animator and film director from Latvia.

He has impressed audiences with his computer-animated one-man film production “Away”, which he animated and produced, as well as composing and recording the musical score “Away” was his breakthrough but he had already previously produced a handful of animated shorts. And there are already more of them on the way.

At the festival, he introduced his own film and talked about his working process. It involves both creativity and administration, so it was exciting to hear about how much you can achieve even when you have to do everything by yourself.

More names coming soon ...