Radostina Neykova is a Bulgarian director, animator, children’s book illustrator, and academic. A professor at the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts “Krastyo Sarafov” (NATFA), she directs the Animation programme and the Production and Post-production faculty programme.
Her films explore unconventional handmade techniques, including embroidery and textile cut-out animation. Her award-winning shorts include The Boy Who Erased Kisses (2025), Marmalade (2020), Ugly Fairy Tale (2018), Grumpy Does Repairs (2015), and Trip (2011).
She has held solo exhibitions in Europe, the Americas, and Africa, and conducts animation workshops and masterclasses internationally. A member of several Bulgarian film and animation organizations, she has also written academic books, including Aesthetics, Technology and Communication in Cinema for Adolescent Audiences (2022), Contemporary Cinema for Children (2016), and Comic Books on the Contemporary Screen (2009).
Born in Samora Correia, Portugal, Fernando Galrito is a filmmaker, associate professor, and artistic director of MONSTRA, the Lisbon Animated Film Festival. He trained in cinema, animation, video, and theatre directing, graduated in anthropology, and earned a master’s degree in Culture, Communication and New Technologies. His doctoral research explores animation’s transition from the screen to the stage and gallery.
Since 2000, he has taught Animation and Interdisciplinary Artistic Projects at the Caldas da Rainha School of Arts and Design (ESAD.CR). He lectures and leads workshops internationally on animation, education, new technologies, and their relationship with other arts.
His animated films, documentaries, and videos have been screened and awarded at national and international festivals and shown on television. His work also extends to planetariums, dance, theatre, and the visual and performing arts. He oversees FIRST, the International Student Meeting for Animation Arts organized by ESAD.CR, and serves on international festival juries.
