Paul Driessen (1940, The Netherlands) graduated from the Art Academy in Utrecht, and was offered a job as an animator at a commercial animation film & TV studio in Hilversum. In 1967 he was invited to London to work on George Dunning's The Yellow Submarine. In 1970 he emigrated to Canada and started a freelance animation career, working mainly for the National Film Board. Since 1976 he also animated and directed many of his films for independent producers in The Netherlands. Up to now he has won over 70 international awards for his work. His film 3 Misses (2000) earned him an Oscar nomination. His work has been highly appreciated also by the professionals - ASIFA Hollywood presented the Annie Award to him for his distinguished contribution to the art of animation (1987), ASIFA International Life Achievement Award (1994), and Animafest Zagreb another Life Achievement Award (2002). In October 2005, in Cracow he was given the Special Golden Dinosaur Award for an outstanding artist and teacher. Until recently he has also taught animation on a regular basis at the University of Kassel in Germany. Under his guidance his students have won two Oscars. Lately he wrote and illustrated a couple of books, typical of the style which characterizes the rest of his work; published in English and French in Montreal. He is currently working on a new film at the NFB.

David Silverman (1957, USA) was born on Long Island, New York, and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland. He began drawing at age four, and he’s never found a good reason to stop. Winning several student film awards during his academic career helped him to focus on developing his abilities. Attending the UCLA Animation Workshop brought his talent to the attention of others in the animation community. Much of David’s career has revolved around The Simpsons. After receiving his M.F.A from UCLA in 1983, he freelanced in illustration and animation. In 1987, he landed a job animating on The Tracey Ullman Show – where The Simpsons got their start, as short segments. Animating on all 48 shorts led to David directing many of the first episodes when The Simpsons became a series, including The Simpsons Christmas Special in December, 1989, and the premiere episode a month later. David became Supervising Animation Director as well as a producer on the show. To date, he has directed 22 episodes of The Simpsons, winning 4 Emmys along the way. In the midst of his success with The Simpsons, David was wooed away first to DreamWorks (The Road to El Dorado, co-director), and then to Pixar (Monsters, Inc, co-director), and Blue Sky (Ice Age, Robots, writing and storyboarding). He returned to the series at the end of 2003, and was chosen to direct the much-anticipated film, The Simpsons Movie, released in 2007. Presently, David has a number of projects in development, including directing a live-action feature.

Dunja Janković (1980, Croatia) graduated in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and completed her MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2003 she joined the Komikaze art collective, a platform for displaying her work and participating at various festivals in Croatia and elsewhere. She has published the comic albums Agonija (2007, RS), Department of Art (2009, USA) and Habitat (2010, USA), comic strips in specialised editions such as Stripburger (2004-2010) and Komikaze (2003-2011), while in 2010 some of these were included in the anthology Ženski strip na Balkanu. In addition to illustrations and visual design of Croatian literary editions, she regularly exhibits her work in group and solo theme exhibitions and biennales in Croatia and abroad: Galerija Nova (Zagreb, 2003), Klovićevi dvori (Zagreb, 2008), Boom Fest (St. Petersburg, 2007), Ink Plots (New York, 2010), 100 pour 100 (Angoulême, 2010), MK Gallery (Portland, 2011). Dunja is the founder and manager of the ŠKVER! Art festival on the island of Mali Lošinj and a lecturer at the Independent Publishing Resource Center Portland, Comics School.