Keynote Speaker
Liza Enebeis
Introducing our first keynote speaker, Liza Enebeis!
Liza is Creative Director and Partner at Studio Dumbar/DEPT® an award-winning international agency with a Dutch heritage, specializing in visual branding and motion. Her portfolio includes the visual identity for Amsterdam Sinfonietta, D&AD Creativity festival, the brand refresh of the van Gogh Museum and co-initiator of DEMO: Design in Motion Festival.
A graduate from the Royal College of Art, London, Liza previously worked for Pentagram London and was the co-founder and host of Typeradio.org, the first podcast to focus on type and design with over 550 episodes, giving a voice to established and upcoming designers from all around the world.
Keynote Speaker
Liz Blazer
Liz Blazer is a filmmaker, author, art director, visual artist and educator at Pratt Institute. Her book, Animated Storytelling: Simple Steps for Creating Animation and Motion Graphics is considered a foundational resource by many and is currently in its second edition.
She has worked as a development artist for Disney, a special effects designer for MTV, and as an art director for the Palestinian/Israeli Sesame Street. Her animated documentary Backseat Bingo traveled to 180 film festivals in 15 countries and won many awards, including awards from the HBO Comedy Arts Festival, Animation Magazine and International Documentary Association. One of her favorite projects was creating and directing Food Court Diaries, animated documentary shorts for the Cartoon Network.
Blazer especially enjoys the challenges and rewards of teaching. She is a high-energy professor who emphasizes storytelling and pitching as she guides her students to bring their art to life through animation.
Keynote Speakers
Jakub Klimeš and Filip Gladiš
Mangoshake studio is a powerhouse of architectural visualisations, product animations and even filmmaking magic. The artistic minds behind it are Jakub Klimeš and Filip Gladiš. Their journey began when they met in high school and later they both dove into the world of architecture at the faculty of Civil Engineering at Brno University of Technology. Even during their studies, Jakub and Filip were drawn to the world of visualisation and animation - whether for architecture or product design.
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Today, they are committed to guiding brands toward modern presentation standards, believing that a well-executed showcase can be a decisive factor in sales success. For them, visual communication is not merely a toll, it is a true form of art.
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Leveraging their expertise, Filip and Jakub craft photorealistic 3D campaigns tailored to each product, effectively highlighting its core values and key message. Their philosophy? Advertising should never be mundane - it should be striking, engaging and above all, memorable.
MODE Fest 2027
Welcome to the sixth biennial MODE Fest, celebrating the work of students and emerging motion designers who are creating some of the most interesting, imaginative, and well-crafted motion design work today.
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MODE Fest invites students, recent grads, and institutions to submit their best student motion work across several different categories. All submissions will be reviewed by our judges, who are renowned industry professionals and respected academics. Finalists will be screened at MODE Fest and included on MODE Fest's ongoing Vimeo channel. Prizes for each category will be awarded live at the event, including the coveted "Best in Show."
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Categories include Branding/Promotional, Title Sequence, Information/Persuasive, Interactive/Experiential, and Open Format.
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We encourage Professors to consider the institutional rate, which includes unlimited student entries.
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Submissions open on November 1st.
Categories:
Best in Show Award:
Overall highest rated project, which can be from any of the following categories.
Branding/Promotional/Advertising:
Short form project promoting or advertising a brand, event, product, or service.
Title Sequence:
Title sequence for film, tv, game, or event.
Informational or Persuasive:
Short form explanatory or informational project, with the goal of influencing an opinion.
Interactive/Experiential UX/UI:
Motion design in the context of a user interface for a game, application, or website.
AR/VR:
Motion design in the context of an augmented reality or virtual reality experience.
Experiential:
Motion design in the context of an installation, projection, or location-based experience (interactivity is optional.)
Open Format Personal Project:
Narrative: short form project with a narrative emphasis.
Non-Narrative: short form project exploring aesthetics, production techniques, and/or technologies.