Ever since the time when Michael “Mike” Wazowski was a small monster, he has dreamed of becoming a big Monster. And it is he who knows best that the best Monsters come from the Monsters University. However, during his first term at the University, Mike’s plans fall through after he meets James P. “Sulley” Sullivan. Sulley is a natural-born Monster. They are both overly competitive and when things get out of their hands, they both get kicked out of the elite scaring programme. To make things even worse, they realize that they will have to work together, with a group of other “regular” monsters to try to fix what they almost ruined.

Dan Scanlon (1976) is the director of the feature length film Tracy (2009). He joined Pixar where he was a story artist for Cars (2006) by John Lasseter and Joe Ranft. He served as a storyboard artist for The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000) and 101 Dalmatians II: Patch’s London Adventure (2003) by Jim Kammerud and Brian Smith. He directed the sequel of the praised hit Monsters, Inc., 2001 by Pete Docter, which is in fact its prequel in terms of timeframe and the content. He graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1998

A warm story about an unlikely encounter that grows into a friendship between a musician bear named Ernest and a girl mouse Celestine who studies dentistry in an underground mouse town. Ernest is an artist who often finds himself in trouble with the law and Celestine herself is an artist too, a painter whose talents are pushed into the background in a community that lives off of collecting and repairing teeth.

Awards: Special Mention for Best Screenplay, Director’s Fortnight, 2012 Cannes, 2013 César for Best Animated Film

Stéphane Aubier (1964) is a Belgian director and screenwriter of animated films in which different animation techniques are used. He is also an editor, cinematographer and actor. His work and career are tightly linked to the name of Vincent Patar with whom he co-directed many films, such as Pic Pic André shoow – Le deuxième from 1998 and Panique au village from 2009.

Vincent Patar (1965) is a director and screenwriter who met his future professional colleague Stéphane Aubier at the Institut des Beaux-Arts de Saint-Luc in Liège. Later on the two of them attended the École supérieure des arts visuels de La Cambre in Brusselas, which was followed by a years-long prolific cooperation.

Benjamin Renner, an award-winning animator and director of two films – Ernest & Celestine and La queue de la souris from 2008.

Twelve-year-old Raimonds has a strict and demanding mother who is not only burdened with numerous business obligations, but is also hiding her relationship with a new boyfriend, which makes her always away from home. In order to make her satisfied, Raimonds is trying to play the saxophone, a gift from his mother, and he passes his time in the company of trouble-making Peteris. Left to his own resources, Raimonds will soon get himself in trouble, run away from home, and his saxophone will get stolen too, putting in question his long-expected concert performance.

Awards: Best Film for Children Generation Kplus 2013 Berlinale

Janis Nords (1983) studied directing at the British National Film and Television School. After working intensively as an assistant to a number of Latvian directors on films and commercials, he made his debut film Amateur (Amatieris) in 2008, winning a Best Debutant Achievement Award at the Latvian National Film Festival. Mother, I Love You is his second feature-length film. His two short films made in the meantime should be mentioned as well – Freedom Day from 2010 and Au revoir Monkeys from 2011.

Jonathan, 11, and his sister Sophie spend their vacations with their grandfather who lives on the edge of a vast forest populated by mythical animals. Jonathan does what he can to avoid his little sister. He succeeds entirely too well: Sophie is kidnapped by a giant, 1000-year-old bear. Now, Jonathan has to venture into the heart of the forest to confront the strange beings that dwell there and rescue his sister.

Awards: Best Children’s Film and Best Music nominations at the Danish Film Academy Robert Festival

Esben Toft Jacobsen (1977) started studying visual communications at the Danish Design School but later on decided to study animation at the National Film School of Denmark. At the beginning he worked as a freelance artist and animator on a number of computer games but after graduating he started directing. In 2007 he earned a Special Mention Award at Berlinale for his graduation film Having a Brother.

Petra is about to celebrate her fifth birthday. What she wants most of all is a dog. A new boy named Karsten comes to her kindergarten and they become best friends. They play together all the time, even when Sigrid teases them about it. Together they meet an abandoned old dog named Bassa that Petra desperately wants to take home. However, that is not possible and Petra gets sad. But, when the day of her birthday arrives, not one but two surprises are there for her.

Arne Lindtner Næss (1944) is a Norwegian director, screenwriter, TV producer and actor who played in a number of popular Norwegian television series, such as Familiesagaen De syv søstre (1996-1999). He is the son of Peder Hamdahl Næssa, a famous national director and screenwriter. He directed as many as seventeen works, among which several TV series, the full-length debut comedy Olsenbanden Junior går under vann (2003), as well as Venner for livet (2005), S.O.S Svartskjær (2008), and Blåfjell 2 – Jakten på det magiske horn (2011).

Ten-year-old Mika is different from other kids. He has Asperger Syndrome which makes it hard for him to connect with other people. However, he loves math and notices many things that other people don’t. His life will change completely when he discovers a horse on the balcony of the apartment next door. The owner is mysterious Sascha and Mika teams up with Dana to experience different adventures and tackle many obstacles in order to help the beloved horse and himself too.

Hüseyin Tabak (1981) studied directing under the guidance of Michael Haneke at the Vienna Film Academy. He made a number of short films in the course of the period when he assisted directors on some twenty films. His most noticeable short subjects are Cheese (2008), Heim (2010) and the documentary Kick off (2010). Before making A Horse on the Balkony, based on a story by Milo Dor, he made his first documentary film Deine Schönheit ist nichts wert (Your beauty is worth nothing), screened at the 2012 9^th Dubai International Film Festival.

Seven-year-old Fidgety Bram thinks a lot about the world around him. He is terribly excited about entering the first grade, but ends up in the class of Mr. Fish, the strict teacher. Mr. Fish is completely uninterested in the details of the world inside Bram’s mind and does whatever it takes to make Bram do things the “right” way. Bram’s parents struggle with helping the two of them adapt to each other.

Awards: 2012 Cinekid Award for Best Dutch Children’s Film

Anna Van der Heide is a director of seven different projects – apart from the full-length debut Fidgety Bram, she made three TV series, one TV film (Zara, 2009), and two short subjects, among which the most noticeable one being her debut MissiePoo16 from 2007 that earned her a Dutch Gold Calf Award for Best Short Film. She also writes for theatre and is the founder of the theatrical company De Achterbank Generatie (The Back Seat Generation).

A story about the youngest revolution hero, a pioneer, Partisan Bosko Buha, born in Virovitica. The childhood of his generation was abruptly cut short by war, forcing him and his friends to mature early. Fighting side by side with the grown-ups, during their time off from war fighting, an instinct to play, child’s curiosity, and the sparks of first love would perk up.

Branko Bauer (1921–2002) is one of the most prolific and popular directors of the former Yugoslavia. His understanding of directing was very close to Hollywood dramaturgy so he enjoyed popularity of both the audience and the critics. His debut film The Blue Seagull announced his talents and his following film Millions on the Island demonstrated his high competency in the children’s film genre, the genre that he will come back to in the final phase of his work with the films Wintering in Jakobsfeld and A Farm in Mali Rit (like in the series A Farm in Mali Rit), and in his last film Bosko Buha. We should also mention his feature films Don’t Look Back, My Son (one of the most important films tackling the topic of the People’s Liberation Struggle and World War II, winner of three Golden Arenas), Three Girls Named Anna, Face to Face (Golden Arena for Best Director), and the popular comedy Martin in the Clouds.