GoCritic! Animafest Zagreb 2025
The next GoCritic! workshop in partnership with the Animation Festival Network will take place at the World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb in Croatia from 2-7 June. Six promising international film journalists and critics will work with tutor Vladan Petković on reviews, interviews, industry stories and essays focused on the animation scene. These articles will be published on Cineuropa and Zippy Frames..
GoCritic! Participants at Animafest Zagreb 2025
Arsalan Awais
“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” This profound belief by Roald Dahl resonates deeply with Arsalan and inspires his work as a multidisciplinary visual artist, animator and puppeteer. He focuses on creating stories that promote inclusivity, diversity and mental well-being, particularly for children. Over the years, he has directed campaigns, curated exhibitions and collaborated with renowned mentors to bring transformative ideas to life. Arsalan’s ultimate goal is to establish a children’s television studio in Pakistan (along the lines of Nickelodeon), where he can reshape cultural narratives and create innovative, impactful content.
Alen Golež
Alen Golež a film and literary critic from Slovenia with a penchant for stylised cinema. He has a bachelor's degree in philosophy and is currently studying sociology of culture in Ljubljana. Professionally and academically, Alen is currently focused on exploring the often-trivialised topics of humour and (post)irony in art and how they are used to convey the anxieties and traumas of today.
Sergiu Inizian
Sergiu Inizian is a Romanian journalist, film critic and essayist. As a student, he covered two of Romania’s most popular film festivals: the Transilvania International Film Festival and Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest. He participated in the 2023 FIPRESCI Warsaw Critics Project and frequently collaborates with Eye for Film, a UK-based publication, where he covered the 2024 Berlinale. He has participated in two GoCritic! workshops at Fest Anča and Animest Bucharest, served on the People’s Jury at the Five Flavours Asian Film Festival and is an alumnus of Talents Sarajevo.
Arsene Rosenmann
Arsène Rosenmann is a newcomer to the professional field. He has been drawn to animation since he was a child, and he never lost that interest. During his bachelor’s degree in cinematographic and audiovisual studies at Université Gustave Eiffel, from which he graduated in 2016, he directed the documentary La Voie de l’arc (The Way Of The Bow) about Japanese archery, and he participated in the making of the student film Clair Obscur. In 2023, he graduated with a master’s degree in Japanese language and culture from Université Paris Cité. Arsène enjoys the process of research and has written about architects Tadao Ando and Kengo Kuma. In October 2024, he participated in the GoCritic! video journalism workshop at Animest in Bucharest.
Erika Roša
Erika Roša is a freelance language teacher, translator and film critic based in Zagreb, Croatia. She has an MA in American and Italian Literature and is currently pursuing a PhD degree at the University of Zagreb. She writes film reviews for the radio show Filmoskop, which airs on the Croatian radio, the film magazine Croatian Cinema Chronicle, and the portal Dokumentarni.net. In 2023, she served on the Critics Jury at the 16th Kinoklub Gledalište Film Festival in Zagreb and at the 13th edition of Porečdox in Poreč. She participated in the Talents Press workshop at the 2023 Sarajevo Film Festival and in the GoCritic! film criticism workshop at 2024 Animafest Zagreb. The Croatian Society of Film Critics awarded her with the Vladimir Vuković Award for Best New Film Critic in 2024.
Emel-Elizabeth Tuulik
Emel-Elizabeth Tuulik is an Estonian-Kurdish writer and curator with a background in art history and semiotics. Her research explores personal mythology, structuralism and female archetypes in cinema, themes that continue to influence her artistic and professional practices. Amongst other credits, she has been a part of the European Workshop for Film Criticism, Baltic Women in Film Mentorship programme and Media Inclusion Initiative programme held by the Toronto International Film Festival. Emel-Elizabeth feels an irrepressible need to amplify underrepresented voices in cinema, with a particular focus on Near Eastern and Baltic identities. She is currently a part of the programming team for the New Talents programme at PÖFF Shorts and has served as a jury member for multiple festivals such as Giornate degli Autori, taking place alongside the Venice Film Festival. As a writer, Emel-Elizabeth has published 30+ pieces on cinema, theatre and art.
