Guests of Honor in Previous Years
The high points in all past festivals were the visits of internationally renowned film and literature creators. Among the visitors were the authors Carol Berg (author of the Rai-Kirah trilogy – "Transformation", "Revelation" and "Restoration"), Tim Powers (author of "The Anubis Gates", "Last Call", "The Drawing of the Dark" and more), Neil Geiman (creator of the masterwork comic book series "Sandman", author of many books, among which "American Gods", "Coraline" and "Stardust", and scriptwriter of "Mirror Mask", "Beowulf", "Stardust" and more), Guy Gavriel Kay (author of "Tigana" and "Lions of El-Rassan", currently being adapted for the big screen by Warner Bros.) and Orson Scott Card (author of the best seller "Ender's Game" also currently adapted into film by Warner), all of them leading voices in the fantastic and speculative creation in our world. In the past two years our visitor portfolio has expanded to include film creators: Robert Burnett ("Free Enterprise"), Roger Nygard ("Trekkies"), Robert Nichols ("Adventures Into Digital Comics", worldwide debut in Icon), David Kaplan ("Year of the Fish") and other film creators visited Icon and introduced their films to the audience.
The presence of such influential creators is not common in Israel and their arrival has boosted the prestige of the festival both nationally and internationally.
Icon 2007 Icon's Guest of Honor: author Carol Berg (in collaboration with Graff publishing)International film festival's guests of Honor: creators of "Wristcutters: A Love Story", Goran Dukic and Mikal Portnoi Lazarev.Special guests: director / screenwriter David Kaplan (creator of "Year of the Fish") and the computer graphics artist and concept-art designer Yariv Newman (in collaboration with snowball VFX studio).
Icon 2006 Icon's Guest of Honor: author, scriptwriter and comics-writer Neil Gieman (in collaboration with Comikaza).Special guests: film makers Robert Nichols and Marek Dobes.
Icon 2005 Icon's Guest of Honor: author Tim Powers.Special guests: film creators Robert Burnett and Roger Nygard.
Icon 2004 Icon's Guest of Honor: author Guy Gavriel Kay
Icon 2003 Icon's Guest of Honor: author Orson Scott Card
Icon 98 Icon's guests of Honor: authors Brian Stableford and Ian Watson