Lucca Animation

Tommaso Cerasuolo (Venice, 1972) is a graphic artist, illustrator, short animation films director, and also lead singer of rock group Perturbazione. He partners as animator with the Turin production firm Zenit Arti Audiovisive. Lecturer at animation courses for amateurs, since 2001 he is also responsible for the animation section of Valsusa Filmfest Amongst his works the Perturbazione video clips Animalia (2006, 2D and 3D, drawing, co-directed by Marco Fantozzi) and Un anno in più (2008, stop-motion and pixillation, co-directed by Giovanna Russiello) awarded with several prizes at Sabina International Short Film Festival in Mompeo (Rieti, 2007 and 2008 editions).

Barry J.C. Purves (Woodbridge, 1955), one of the maximum world experts in puppet animation, in his career spanning over thirty years and counting, has signed the direction of numerous commercials, title sequences and television series like Wind in the Willows (1981-1986) and Rupert Bear (2006-2007). He directed the animation of Mars Attacks! (1995) and King Kong (2003) and his short films Next (1989), Screen Play (1992), Rigoletto (1993), Achilles (1995), Gilbert and Sullivan (1998) and Hamilton Mattress (2001), have been awarded with several international prizes (including BAFTA in 1996 for Achilles), besides garnering a number of Academy Award nominations. Purves is director, writer and designer for the stage as well; he gives lectures and regularly holds workshops on his animator activity in universities and studios all over the world. In 2007 he published his first book: Stop Motion - Passion, Process and Performance.

Ondřej Švadlena
Animator, Czech Republic

Designer and 3D animator, Ondřej Švadlena (1978) escapes Czechoslovakia with his family in 1984 to get political asylum in Canada. He spends the childhood in Quebec, to move later to Munich and then Brussels, to study illustration and comics. He then comes back to his homeland and completes his studies with a Master of Arts at the Prague Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (2003). He studied with one of the great masters of Czech animation,  Jiří Barta. He presented his films Trikn (2005, 3D music video) and Sanitkasan (2007) in festivals all over the world (such as NEMO in Paris-Montreal and Onedotzero in London) and received a number of awards (like the first prize at  Prague Siggraph Animation Festival in 2007 for Sanitkasan).

Suzie Templeton
Animator, England

Suzie Templeton (Hampshire, 1967) is an artist, writer and filmmaker specialised in stop motion animation. After a scientific degree at UCL (University College London) and several experiences around the world (she, amongst other activities, worked for a women's refuge in India) she heads back to England to become an animator. She attends an art school in Farnham and produces her first puppet film, Stanley (1999). She then enrolls at the prestigious Royal College of Art and directs two works: Inside (experimental video with live shooting of animated sand projected on an actress) and Dog (2001) which has been awarded with the BAFTA in 2002. Her short film Peter & the Wolf (2006) received in 2008 the honorable mention by Lucca Animation jury and the Academy Award as Best Animated Short Film.