Keynote Speakers

Devoney Looser

Devoney Looser is Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University. She’s the author or editor of nine books, including The Making of Jane Austen, named a Publishers Weekly Best Summer Book / Nonfiction, and The Daily Jane Austen: A Year in Quotes. Looser’s essays have appeared in The Atlantic, the New York Times, Salon, Slate, The TLS, Entertainment Weekly, and The Washington Post. A Guggenheim Fellow and National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar, Looser’s next book is a biography, Sister Novelists: Jane and Anna Maria Porter in the Age of Austen, out from Bloomsbury in September 2022.

Regina Pessoa

Regina Pessoa was born in Coimbra, Portugal in 1969. She studied Painting at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. In 1999, she directed her first film, "The Night" using a technique of animated engraving on plaster plates. Since then, working with a variety of animated engraving techniques, she has continued to create and direct auteur films such as "Tragic Story with a Happy End" in 2005, “Kali the Little Vampire" in 2012 and “Uncle-Thomas accounting for the days” in 2019.

Her films have since gone on to win over 150 awards at major international film festivals. In 2016 became Senior Lecturer at Animationsinstitut - FILMAKADEMIE, Germany. In 2018 became a Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2021, she was elected in 3rd place - and the 1st woman - in a list of the best 25 animation short filmmakers of the last 25 years, by a jury made up of 25 international leading academics, scholars, artistic directors and journalists, an initiative of Animac - Catalonia International Animation Film Festival - on the occasion of the celebration of its 25th anniversary.

Regina expresses a distinctive and creative personal vision, not only in her films, but through her illustration, painting and drawing works. She is currently developing her next film, MOTEHR FACES at Ciclope Filmes Studio owned by her and her partner and situated on the grounds of their charming Museum of Moving Image - CASA MUSEU DE VILAR.

FILMOGRAPHY:

1999: The Night - won 10 International Awards, including the Young Portuguese Filmmaker Award at CINANIMA; Honourable Mention at FILMFEST Dresden; Best Animated Short at Europa Cinema International Film Festival, Viareggio, etc.

2005: Tragic Story With Happy Ending - won 52 International Awards, including Annecy Grand Prix; Grand Prix Animated Shorts SXSW (South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival); Best Animation at Interfilm Berlin - International Short Film Festival; “OSCARS” Shortlist, etc

2012: KALI, the little Vampire - won 23 awards, including the HIROSHIMA Prize at International Animation Festival; The Golden Gate Award for Best Animation Short at San Francisco Int. Film Festival; ANNIE Awards Nomination in the Best Animated Short Subject Category, etc

2019: Uncle Thomas - accounting for the days - won 37 Awards, including the Annecy Jury Award; Best Short Film at RIGA IFF; Nomination in the category European Short Film at EFA - European Film Awards; “OSCARS” Shortlist; ANNIE Award for Best Short Subject, etc.

Rui Prada

Rui Prada is Associate Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa and Researcher in the AI for People and Society Research Group at INESC-ID Lisbon. He was co-responsible for the creation of courses on Game Design and Development and the creation of the Specialisation in Games of the Master Program in Information Systems and Computer Engineering at IST. He conducts research on social intelligent agents, affective computing, human-agent interaction, computer games, applied gaming, and game AI. He is co-author of the book “Design e Desenvolvimento de Jogos” edited by FCA and was one of the founding members of the Portuguese Society of Videogame Sciences. He is currently the coordinator of the iv4XR EU-funded project that researches automated testing of Extended Reality systems.

Thomas Leitch

Thomas Leitch holds the Unidel Andrew B. Kirkpatrick, Jr. Chair in Writing at the University of Delaware. His most recent books are The Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies and The History of American Literature on Film. He is currently editing the collection The Scandal of Adaptation.