Midhat Ajanovic – Ajan is a professor, writer, cartoonist, film author and theorist born in Sarajevo in 1959. He graduated in journalism in Sarajevo and studied animation at the Zagreb Film Cartoon Studio. Between 1983 and 1994, he was intensively involved in journalism, was the editor of the cultural section of the weekly Naši dani i Nedjelja, as well as a member of the editorial board of the film magazine Sineast, and a regular contributor to the dailies Vjesnik, Zagreb, Oslobođenje, Sarajevo and Borba, Belgrade. In parallel, he was involved in film, caricature, comics, essays and literature. Since 1994 he has lived in Gothenburg (Sweden), where he received his doctorate with a film thesis.

He teaches the history, theory and aesthetics of film and animation at Swedish film schools (currently at University West in Trollhättan). He has published several books of various genres and in several languages, including nine novels, one longer short story and a dozen books dealing with the theory and history of film, animation and comics.

He has worked as an organizer and artistic director at film festivals in Podgorica (Montenegro), Zagreb (Croatia) and Eksjö (Sweden), and has been a member of many international juries.

He has been awarded for his work at prestigious film festivals and exhibitions around the world.

20th World Animated Film Festival Animafest, Zagreb 2010 awarded him the Award for Special Contribution to the Study of Animated Film.  At the Gothenburg Book Fair (Göteborgs Bokmässa) he was awarded the Klas De Vilder Pris Prize for the novel Porträtt tecknat i kol och regn (“Portrait Painted with Coal and Rain”). In 2018, in the French city of Caen, Normandy, he was awarded the “Prix Mémorial – for promoting Freedom of Expression”. In 2019, at the Sarajevo Book Fair, his collection of essays Film and Comics was awarded the prize for the best book of popular science content.