Armando Montes de Santiago

For the past 18 years, she has worked on the organizing committee of the FIL, where she was responsible for international sales for many years. She is currently in charge of the General Coordination of Exhibitors and Professionals, as well as other important projects for the FIL, such as the Comic + Graphic Novel Hall and Books to Taste.

Other activities involving the participant:

Opening Ceremony
Presentation of: Foráneo
Presentation of the Pura Pinche Fortaleza Graphic Novel Award

Isidro Ferrer

Invitado de Honor

He is an illustrator and graphic designer whose work spans a vast physical and emotional geography. A graduate in dramatic arts and scenography, Isidro Ferrer is a graphic artist in the broadest sense of the term: he is the creator of hundreds of posters, book covers, objects, toys, editorial design, monumental infographics, animated shorts, textiles, brand imagery, sculptures, and lamps. Any medium, technique, or communication channel serves him to express with images his passion for the theater of life.

As an illustrator, he has published over 50 books, including: El vuelo de la razón (1993, Ministry of Culture Award for Best Edited Book); Yo me lo guiso, yo me lo como (1996, Laus Silver Award for Illustration); El verano y sus amigos (1996, Lazarillo Award for Illustration); En Cosme i el monstre Menjamots (2000, Serra d’Or Criticism Award); Una casa para el abuelo (2003, Daniel Gil Award for Illustration; 2006, Junceda Award for Illustration); Libro de las preguntas (2006, AEPD Award and Cálamo Award); Un jardín (2017, Bologna Ragazzi Award Mention); Enciclopedia visual de los sonidos (2022, BRAW Amazing Bookshelf. Bologna Children’s Book Fair); Frankenstein o el Prometeo moderno (2023, National Award for Best University Edition); Piedra a piedra (2023, Ministry of Culture Award for Best Edited Book).

His work has been exhibited in numerous countries across Europe, America, and Asia. He has received the National Design Award in 2002 and the National Illustration Award in 2006. Since 2000, he has been a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale).

Other activities involving the participant:

Design Beyond the Book: Publishers Who Understand Typography

Francisca Yáñez

Visual artist, illustrator, and designer based in Santiago, Chile. She grew up in exile across various countries, including Argentina, Germany, and Costa Rica. Her work focuses on institutions and publishing houses related to culture, education, and human rights, and is deeply influenced by her childhood experiences of displacement and the blend of cultures and influences. Her itinerant project on childhood and migration, "From a Country Without a Name," travels to different cities around the world. As an illustrator and author, she won the Marta Brunet Award from the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage in 2018.

Javier Mariscal

Invitado de Honor

Who, in 2050, will turn 100 years old, is a creator who has worked across various disciplines and on a wide range of mediums without showing any particular preference. Graphic design, furniture design, painting, sculpture, interior design, urban landscape, gardening, horticulture... all are part of his professional and personal activities. He enjoys just as much looking at a painting by Klee as riding an escalator or driving his scooter along a coastal road. Sometimes, he cannot distinguish between an appliance, a person, or a chair; everything has volume, and they are images that think, laugh, and cry. Each image that appears on his retina, each daily experience, is processed without prejudice in his visual memory, and then emerges in his work.

His first comic strip was published in the mid-seventies in several fanzines of the time. He played a very active role in the Movida and the visual revolution of Spanish comics with his characters Los Garriris (1974). He is known for creating Cobi, the mascot of the Barcelona '92 Olympics, and for the sculpture Gambrinus, located at the Moll de la Fusta.

In 2008, he co-directed with Fernando Trueba the animated film Chico & Rita, which was internationally recognized, won Goya Awards, and was nominated for the 2012 Oscars. In 2023, they released their second animated film, Dispararon al pianista.

Bea Lema

Invitado de Honor

She is an illustrator and comic author. She uses embroidery and weaving as mediums to transfer her images. Her work, generally autobiographical, addresses themes related to madness, trauma, family relationships, religion, and popular rituals.

In 2018, she published O Corpo de Cristo, which won the XII Premio Castelao from the Diputación de A Coruña. El cuerpo de Cristo (Astiberri, 2023), based on the previous edition, has been published in France and Italy, and will be released in Portugal soon. The project was awarded a grant for a graphic novel residency at the Maison des Auteurs in 2022, thanks to Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Cité Internationale de la Bande dessinée et de L’image, with the collaboration of the French Embassy in Spain. In 2024, she received the France Télévisions Public Award for this work at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, a globally recognized event.

Other activities involving the participant:

Arpilleras Workshop

Lale Sonja Westivind

Lale is an animator/illustrator based in Pennsylvania, USA. Her work has been published internationally in Kramers Ergot (USA), Strapazin (CH), Lagon Revue (FR), La Cruda Negra (ES), The Lifted Brow (AU), Hidden Champion (JP), and many others. Her animated music video for Lightning Bolt's "Metal East" won an award at LIFF in 2015. She has self-published over a dozen comics and two anthologies. Her comic Hot Dog Beach #2 won an Ignatz Award in 2012. She received a Koyama Provides grant in 2022 to create her comic series Void Packer. Her book Grip has been published in four languages and received critical acclaim. Original artwork from her pages was exhibited at the Formula Bula festival in Paris in 2023 and at the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery in Philadelphia this year. Perfectly Acceptable Press in Chicago published a collection of her work titled Grand Electric Thought Power Mother this year. Her solo art exhibition in Treviso, Italy, with Strane Dizioni during this year's TCBF coincided with the release of a new book titled Becoming Being. Next year, a mural she designed will be exhibited at Philadelphia Airport, and Breakdown Press will publish a new art book titled Hax Memora.

María Luque

María Luque was born in Rosario and lives in Buenos Aires. Since 2005, she has exhibited her work in museums and galleries in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Spain. She works as an editorial illustrator and coordinates workshops. In 2011, she created the project “Merienda dibujo,” a series of meetings with artists. She is a co-founder of the Festival Furioso de Dibujo. She participated in “Informe, historieta argentina del siglo XXI,” published by Editorial Municipal de Rosario.

She is the author of La mano del pintor, a graphic novel about Cándido López (Sigilo, 2016; L'Agrume Éditions 2017; Lote 42 2019), Casa transparente (Sexto Piso, Premio Novela Gráfica Ciudades Iberoamericanas), Espuma (Galería Editorial, 2018), Noticias de pintores (Sigilo, 2019), and Corazón geométrico (Sigilo, 2022). In 2022, she received a Konex Award, Diploma of Merit in Humor and Comic.

Leire Urbeltz

Invitado de Honor

She is a PhD candidate at the William A. Douglass Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, USA; holds a master’s degree in research and creation in art, and a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the University of the Basque Country. She studied creative illustration and visual communication techniques at the EINA School, linked to the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and a master’s degree in illustrated children's books at the Escuela i con i in Matadero-Madrid. She has participated in various international residencies, including at the Seoul Museum of Art-Nanji Residency (South Korea), the Centro Cultural El Paso del Norte in Ciudad Juárez (Mexico), and the Manga Art Studio in Beijing (China). She was an artist-in-residence at the Fundación BilbaoArte in 2012, won the first prize at the Encuentros Arte Joven de Navarra in 2015, and received grants from the Government of Navarra's Creation Aid in 2023 and 2016. In 2017, she received a Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators from the Fundación BBVA. She has held several solo exhibitions in El Paso (Texas), Bilbao, and Vitoria, and has participated in group exhibitions in Seoul, Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Vitoria, Pamplona, Cáceres, Bradford, and Beijing. As an illustrator, she has published several children's and young adult books and designed the image for the Basque Book and Music Fair, among others. She has worked as a muralist for various institutions and urban art festivals. She was a member of the Department of Art Education at the Huarte Contemporary Art Center and an art mediator for the city council of Pamplona, Azkuna Zentroa, and the Communauté d’agglomération Pays Basque-Euskal Hirigune Elkargoa. She has worked as an associate professor at the Public University of Navarra, teaching art education in the primary education degree program.

Mantraste

Mantraste (Bruno Reis Santos), born in 1988, is a Portuguese illustrator and author. He is currently a professor of illustration at ESAD.CR, the institution where he earned his degree in Illustration in 2009 and graduated in Graphic Design in 2013.

He has been involved in several community projects, including “O Meu Bairro do Futuro,” Inminent Community Artistic Workshops in Alta de Lisboa (2021), and “Subimos Junt_s?”, a hand-painted tile panel created with students from APPACDM and E. S. Campos Melo, featured in Wool+, Covilhã (2024). He was also part of the Tasco residency in Viana do Alentejo (2021 and 2022).

He has had several solo and group exhibitions, including “Uma Specie de Livro” at Casa Abysmo (FOLIO 2023) and “Este Fardo Carreguei-o Eu” at Stolen Books (Lisbon, 2020).

In addition to his work on children's books as an illustrator, such as “Voltas e Reviravoltas” by Ana Maria Magalhães and Isabel Alçada (Assembleia da República Portuguesa, 2023) and “Mão Verde II” by Capicua (2022), he has several of his own publications, including “A Sebenta do Diabo” (Stolen Books, 2017) and “The Tree as an Antenna to a Spiritual Revolution” (Stolen Books, 2020).

He views his work as a form of reflection on himself and others, with a continuous interest in expressions of popular art and craftsmanship.

Martha Saint

Martha Saint (Sushi con K-tsup) es originaria de la Ciudad de México, actualmente reside en Montreal. Se formó como historiadora del arte en el Claustro de Sor Juana. Al mismo tiempo practica pintura de manera autodidacta. Desde el 2016 expone su trabajo en diversas galerías, museos y bienales. En el 2019 toma un seminario en edición y publicación de libros impresos y electrónicos que la encamina a trabajar como ilustradora. En 2022, se muda a Montréal y realiza una formación en diseño gráfico. Martha Saint ha trabajado para clientes nacionales e internacionales tales como Editorial Planeta México, Tierra Adentro, Editorial Podimo, Little White Lies, Liberté y Dieu du Ciel.