Paola Bristot is an Italian curator, editor, and cultural organizer specialized in comics, illustration, and animation. She has been active in the field since the 1990s, working across exhibitions, publishing, festivals, and educational projects. She has collaborated extensively with Viva Comix and has curated numerous exhibitions dedicated to contemporary comics, graphic novels, illustration, and animation, presenting artists such as Lorenzo Mattotti, Davide Toffolo, Igort, Gabriella Giandelli, Manuele Fior, Bruno Bozzetto, and Vittorio Giardino. Her exhibitions have been presented in Italy and internationally, including in Paris, Hamburg, Ljubljana, Venice, Udine, Bologna, and Pordenone.
She has also worked extensively in animation, co-curating the “ANIMAZIONI” series of Italian auteur animated short films with Andrea Martignoni. Between 2008 and 2009, she was involved in the curation and production of the Piccolo Festival dell’Animazione in Udine, in collaboration with Animateka Film Festival in Ljubljana.
Since 2017, she has been involved with the Giornate Animate initiative at the Accademia di Venezia, which brings together artists and professionals from illustration, comics, and animation. In 2018, she opened Studio Viva Comix in Pordenone, a space dedicated to exhibitions and presentations. Alongside her curatorial and editorial work, she has developed and conducted numerous educational workshops focusing on comics, animation, visual experimentation, and paper theatre, working with children, young people, and adults.