STEFANO BEGGIORA is Associate Professor of History of India, Hindi Literature, and Ethnography of Shamanism at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. With a strong passion for oriental societies and cultures, he has been conducting Indological and anthropological research and development cooperation activities in India for many years. After specializing in the study of South Asian shamanism, he has published numerous essays and books on ādivāsī, the indigenous peoples of South Asia, as well as scientific articles on colonial history, welfare and development, constitutional rights for low castes and ethnic minorities, contemporary history of the political movements of the Indian Subcontinent.
JOHN BLEASDALE is a teacher at Ca Foscari, a writer and film critic. His work appears regularly in Sight and Sound, The Economist, The Financial Times and many online publications. He is the producer and host of the Writers on Film podcast. He is currently writing a biography of Terrence Malick.
CECILIA COSSIO, researcher of Hindi Language and Literature at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice from 1978 to 2006, for almost thirty years she has been studying Indian cinema and society, about which she has published many essays and the book Cinema in India. Lo strano caso di Shashi Kapur (Cinema in India. The Strange Fate of Shashi Kapoor, 2005). She is presently in charge of editing the Indian section of the website AsiaMedia. (http//asiamedia.unive.it).
TIZIANA D’AMICO is university researcher at the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice where she teaches Czech Literature and Language. Her areas of interest and research are the avantgarde, primarily Czech surrealism; multimedia translation (subtitle and comics); and memory studies in the popular culture production. She studied Philology and History of Eastern Europe (Polish, Czech and Slovak literature and language) at the University of Neaple “L’Orientale”, where she also obtained her PhD in Cultures of Eastern Europe.
VINCENZA D’URSO teaches Korean Language and Literature at Ca’ Foscari and has been the Director of the King Sejong Institute of Venice. She has been awarded the Grand Prize for Literary Translation from the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism in 2009. She has been the curator of various film events where important filmmakers were involved, including Lee Chang-dong and Kim Ki-duk.
ELISABETTA DI SOPRA, video-artist, lives and works in Venice. Her artistic research is expressed through her way of using the video-making language, which she uses to investigate the most sensible dynamics of the everyday dimension and its unexpressed micro-stories, where the woman’s body has a central role. She also works as a promoter of video-art works for different expositions and galleries.
CYNTHIA FELANDO is Editor of Short Film Studies, a peer-reviewed academic journal. After graduating with a Ph.D. from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, professional experience includes working as an art house and film festival programmer; Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara; and Visiting Professor at UCLA. Short film related publications include the monograph, Discovering Short Films: The History and Style of Live-Action Fiction Shorts; “Girls rule in Sofia Coppola’s Lick the Star,” The Bloomsbury Handbook to Sofia Coppola, editor: Suzanne Ferris; and “Spike Jonze Shorts Stories,” The Films of Spike Jonze,” eds: Wyatt Moss-Wellington and Kim Wilkins.
FLAVIO GREGORI is full professor of English literature at Ca’ Foscari University. Among his main fields of research there are the relationships between literature and cinema — as in the case of the series of conferences on Kubrick, literature and the arts he has organized since 2000. He has co-directed the literary festival Incroci di civiltà – Crossings of Civilizations, in Venice. He was also the director of a series on literature and cinema for the publishing house L’Epos.
KEIKO KUSAKABE, Japanese film and CM producer and distributor, is the president of Makotoya. Many internationally acclaimed movies are to her name, among which some of the most famous works by Yoshihiko Matsushi, Hisayasu Sato and in particular Shinya Tsumamoto, including the prize-winner Kotoko (2011, Orizzonti Prize at Venice Film Festival).
STEFANO LOCATI is actively involved inAsian cinema. He holds a Ph.D. in Literatures and Media: Narrative and Languages. He is currently teaching assistant at IULM University. He has authored the books “Il nuovo cinema di Hong Kong. Voci e sguardi oltre l’handover” (2014, with E. Sacchi), “Evolution. Darwin e il cinema” (2009, with E. Canadelli), and “La spada del destino. I samurai nel cinema giapponese dalle origini a oggi” (Luni Editrice, 2019).
ANTON GIULIO MANCINO (Bari, 1968), former film critic and essayist, is associate professor of Film History at the University of Macerata. Member of the National Syndicate of Italian Film Critics (SNCCI, of which from 2012 he was Trustee of the Puglia Group until 2017) from 2001 to 2004 and from 2009 to 2012 he was a selector of the International Critics’ Week of the Venice Film Festival.
LAURA MARCELLINO is a Ca’ Foscari graduate, EU MEDIA expert, who has taken part in the international film market and festival world as programme expert for almost 30 years;in addition, she has also acted as retrospective curator, festival juror, PR, tutor, lecturer, moderator, producer, translator and involved in subtitling. For 21 years she was one of the organizers of the Venice Biennale Film Festival and directed its film industry office. She is presently collaborating with the National Cinema Museum-TorinoFilmLab and the Locarno Film Festival.
CARLO MONTANARO has written numerous critical essays and has contributed to the organization of important cultural events. He is one of the main organizers of the “Le Giornate del Cinema Muto” in Pordenone. He was director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Since 2010 he has been holding the position as President of the Italian Association for Research on the History of Cinema. He is also owner of the Carlo Montanaro Archive and founder of “The Factory of Vision”.
ELENA POLLACCHI (PhD, Cam.) teaches Chinese Film History at Ca’ Foscari University. Since 2010 she has been Curator of the Asian section for the Kosmorama – Trondheim International Film Festival in Norway and she currently serves as a Programme Advisor for the Venice International Film Festival for Chinese language and Korean film. Her researches focuses on contemporary Chinese cinema as well as on production and/or distribution-related issues within the framework of international film festivals.
ANDRIJANA RUŽIĆ graduated in History and Criticism of Art at the Università degli Studi in Milan, Italy. She specialized in History of Animated Film under Giannalberto Bendazzi’s mentorship. As an independent scholar she has participated to numerous international conferences for animation studies presenting works of diverse independent authors of animation and has served as a juror in international animation festivals. She is member of the Selection Board of Animafest Scanner, the international symposium for contemporary animation studies, held annually at the International Festival of Animated Film (Animafest) in Zagreb, Croatia. She writes about animation and other arts for Belgrade weekly magazine Vreme, Croatian film magazine Hrvatski filmski ljetopis and French animation magazine Blinkblank and is the author of the book Michael Dudok de Wit – A Life in Animation (CRC Focus).
