Water as Time

Prof. Dr. Elena Trencheva, Project Leader
Elena Trencheva is a visual artist, production and costume designer, researcher and educator whose practice centers on space as lived experience, embodied cognition and the semiotics of the designed environment. She investigates how spatial and material choices construct meaning, identity and sensory presence on screen. She holds a PhD in costume semiotics and conducted post-doctoral research at Aalto University, Helsinki. She leads the BA in Production Design at NATFA, Sofia, where she teaches production design and visual storytelling. She has participated in numerous scientific forums and international research projects, and her practice spans feature films, documentaries and web series.

Prof. Dr. David Novack
David Novack teaches sound and cinema at Lusófona University, with degrees in engineering and music, and a PhD in Media Arts. David has enjoyed an award-winning career in sound design and re-recording mixing for dozens of films. Highlights include Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine, Larry Clark’s Kids. Recently, David designed sound for Pedro Serrazina’s animated short Shadows of Ourselves which premiered at Rotterdam and took the Special Jury Prize at Monstra. In live theater, David designed sound for an opera by Roger Waters (Ça Ira), sound/projections for the Papp Theater’s Death of a Salesman in Yiddish, and a science-in-art international exhibition, Space Messengers, in Portugal. David’s research focuses on equalizing film-sound theory with image and, through the FilmEU Centre of Excellence FilMind, exploring embodied cognition via sound design. David is also a musician and an accomplished documentary filmmaker.

Dr. Maarten Coëgnarts
Maarten Coëgnarts is assistant professor in film studies at the University of Antwerp, artistic researcher at LUCA School of Arts and research fellow at the University of the Free State. His research on embodied cognition, metaphor and cinema has been published in various peer-reviewed journals including Art & Perception, Frontiers in Neuroscience, Metaphor and Symbol, New Review of Film and Television Studies, Projections, and The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. He is co-editor of Embodied Cognition and Cinema (Leuven University Press, 2015) and author of Film as Embodied Art: Bodily Meaning in the Cinema of Stanley Kubrick (Academic Studies Press, 2019). He also serves as co-editor of Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind.

Prof. Dr. Radostina Neykova
Radostina Neykova is a visual artist, animation director, illustrator, researcher and educator working with handmade embroidery and textile cut-out animation techniques. Her films, including The Boy Who Erased Kisses (2025), Marmalade (2020) and Ugly Fairy Tale (2018), have received international recognition. She holds solo exhibitions and delivers animation workshops across Europe, the Americas and Africa. The author of several academic books on cinema and animation, she leads the Animation and Animation Directing programs at NATFA, Sofia. Her practice bridges tactile craft, visual storytelling and scholarly inquiry into cinema for younger audiences.

Prof. Dr. Martin Dimitrov
Martin Dimitrov is a Director of Photography, visual artist, researcher and educator working with narrative cinema, documentary filmmaking and visual storytelling. He holds a BA/MA in cinematography and a PhD in Film and TV Arts (NATFA, Sofia), where he currently leads the Department of Film and TV Cinematography as a full professor. His body of work encompasses 21 feature films, 30+ documentaries and 250+ commercials, distinguished by poetic clarity and a rigorous sensitivity to light. He has participated in numerous international film festivals, receiving awards across Europe and beyond. He teaches film and TV cinematography at NATFA, Sofia.

Dr. Lea Vidakovic
Lea Vidakovic is a multimedia artist, animation film director, researcher and educator working with animated installations, expanded media practices and puppet animation. She holds a BA/MA of graphic art and painting (Academy of Arts, Zagreb); BA in animation (Norway); MA of audio-visual arts (KASK, Belgium) and a PhD in animation studies (NTU/ADM Singapore). She participated in numerous exhibitions, 300+ animation festivals, residencies and scientific conferences. She is a winner of numerous art and film awards. She teaches puppet animation and photography for animation at Lusofona University, Lisbon. www.leavidakovic.com

Andrea-Nikol Kostova
Andrea-Nikol Kostova is a visual artist, film editor, researcher and educator working at the intersection of post-production, narrative structure and experimental storytelling. She holds an MA in Film Arts and teaches Film and TV Editing at NATFA, Sofia. Her editorial practice spans experimental, animated and short film forms, earning international recognition including Best Editing awards at the World Film Festival in Cannes (2025) and The FUSION Project Earth Documentary Challenge (2016). Her work explores how rhythm, time and montage construct meaning and emotional experience on screen. She combines creative vision with technical precision as both an accomplished editor and dedicated educator.

Tarun Madupu
Tarun Madupu is a sound designer, filmmaker, and film researcher originally from India and currently based in Lisbon, Portugal. He specializes in sound design for narrative work, contributing sound and music to numerous film and media projects to enhance their depth and emotional impact. Tarun also teaches sound for film at Lusófona University in Portugal, sharing his expertise with aspiring filmmakers. As a sonic artist, Tarun works with immersive sound formats and uses field recordings to create experimental sound worlds. His research focuses on his own artistic practice as a sound designer and the meaning-making abilities of sound design through the lens of embodiment, cognition, and linguistics.