Laura Vandewynckel (1986, Belgium) graduated as a Philologist at Ghent University. She studied Dramatic Arts for three years and animation film at the RITCS School of Arts in Brussels. In her work, animation techniques, documentary film, and theatre intertwine. She graduated with Paradise in 2014, which was selected for the student competition in Cannes and TIFF. She also made the hybrid documentary Pharmakos (2017) and 3D-animated Le Crépuscule (2023). Currently, she is conducting doctoral research at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and RITCS, investigating the potential of automata (puppets, robots, and kinetic sculptures) as social game changers.