Ilinca Stihi
Ilinca Stihi is a graduate of The Bucharest Academy of Theatre and Film, the Film directing department. Since 2005 she has been a director at the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation.
From 2023 she is a Doctor in Cinema and Media with the thesis CinemaNet: The Rise of Netlike Cinema. Aesthetics, policies, and trends in contemporary film culture. During the preparation of the thesis she attended a Doctoral stage in Digital Art at Sorbonne Nouvelle.
She directed and signed the original script for numerous audio dramas. Several of them have been awarded in prestigious festivals as Prix Ex Aequo, Bratislava, Prix Marulic, Croatia, Premios Ondas, Spain, New York International Radio Festival, USA, Prix Italia, Italy, Grand Prix Nova, Romania.
She also directed the Swedish version of her audio drama Maldoror- The Sentimental Biography of a Serial Killer for Radio Sweden. In 2019 she wrote and directed with French sound artist Amandine Casadamont The Bicephalus Empire, audio drama in co-production with France Culture. The same year she directed her own script, Virtuoso, for the Czech Radio, Prague.
In 2013 she initiated the Grand Prix Nova International Radio Drama Festival being part of the core team of the Romanian Audio Drama Festival.
Since 2013 until 2016 she is a member of the jury for the New York International Radio Festival. In 2014 she is the co-president of the International Festival of Radio Drama and Documentary, Prix Marulic Jury alongside Ljubo Pauzin. In 2017 and 2018 she is a member of the jury of Prix Bohemia International Radio Festival, held in Olomouc (Czech Republic).
Since 2017 she has been a pre-selection juror for the BBC Audio Drama Awards.
In 2021 and 2022 she has been a jury member for the International Radio Festival of Asian Broadcasting Union (ABU). In 2020 and 2022 she has been member of the jury for the P.J. O’Connor Radio Drama Awards (Ireland).
She held several workshops for Swiss Radio, Croatian Radio, Czech Radio, Amazon University (Columbia), Longueurs d’Ondes (France), La Semaine du Son (Belgium), Iran and the Romanian National Academy for Theatre and Film.
Katja Šimunić
Katja Šimunić graduated from the School of Ballet and Rhythmics / Department of Rhythmics and Dance and afterwards graduated in dramaturgy from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. Additionally, she holds an MA in Dance Theory from the University Paris 8 in France. As a dance practitioner (choreographer and dancer) and theorist (independent researcher, one of the editors of the Movements, Croatian dance magazine, between 2002 and 2017), she analyses dance on a transdisciplinary level, juxtaposing it with other arts, media and discourses. Parallel to her involvement in dance art, since her college days she has been an associate author and director with Croatian Radio / Drama Department, and since 2015 she has been the editor of the programmes Radio Atelier and Short Forms. In 2023 she became the editor and anchor of the radio programme Listening to Dance.
She has received several awards for her radiophonique work. She was recognized as a director (in collaboration with sound engineer Marija Pečnik Kvesić and composer Maro Market) for the short audio drama Notturno by Vladimir Vidrić, receiving the Silver Prix at Grand Prix Nova in 2017. Also, she was honored as the author and director for the short audio drama Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (in collaboration with sound engineer Tomislav Šamec and music editor Franka Meštrović), receiving the Silver Prix at Prix Marulić Festival in 2022.
As a producer, she has been recognized for her contributions to Jasna Mesarić’s Munch and Munch – Dyptich (sound engineer Marija Pečnik Kvesić, music editor Franka Meštrović) with the award for Best European Audio Drama from the BBC in 2019, as well as for Jasna Mesarić’s Byzantine Soap Opera (sound engineer Marija Pečnik Kvesić, music editor Adriana Kramarić) with the Grand Prix at Prix Marulić Festival in the same year. She also received awards for producing the short audio drama Earthquake (by Janko Polić Kamov, directed by Dario Harjaček, with music by Maro Market and sound mastering by Lana Deban), receiving the Silver Prix at Grand Prix Nova in 2020 and the Best European Audio Drama award from the BBC in 2021.
Katja Šimunić describes herself as a worker of acoustic choreography and a lover of sound movements that lead to freedom and equality.
