Thomas Renoldner is one of the most recognized contemporary avant garde animation artist. He is interested in the various areas of art: music, painting, film, installation and performance. His filmography includes numerous experimental, animated and documentary films, including “Sunny Afternoon” and “Don’t Know What”. The latter has been selected to more than 100 festivals, won the main awards at Annecy and Ottawa, and was qualified for the Oscards and was an Annie Awards finalist. He is also an experienced tutor, he led animation workshops and seminars for children, youngsters & professionals and leads the Animation Lab at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He is a founder and co-curator of the Animation Avantgarde competition programme at Vienna Independent Shorts Film Festival and founded and directs the BAAF (The Best Austrian Animation Festival).

I have been leading workshops for many years. I worked with kids and youngsters, two of the workshops I even led with the participation of my daughters. There is this magic moment of creation, which fascinates me. The moment of pleasure and probably the feeling of having the power to create something. And there is the surprise, that something starts to move kind of unexpectedly. These strong emotions make the kids addicted to trying out more, to continue, to explore, to experiment – and also to discover themselves. Later with adults I found it rewarding when they can come to this level of joy of exploration. Of course, with all my yearslong experience I can see the repetition of ideas, the danger of cliches they might follow, or the domination of mainstream media invading our imagination. I am trying to find methods to avoid these possible downsides. I was very happy to work with Marzie and Sina, who like me concentrated on the central concept of giving the Jumpstart participants the space to realise themselves. The concept of not focusing on the mainstream approach of storytelling and searching for new ways including installation art – projections outside cinema or TV – helped participants to find their ideas, and to experience the joy of new experiences, as I have described in the beginning for them.