2024 Juries

Biography

Composer Adriana García Galán worked on the feature film Virus tropical (Macondo Award for the Best Original Song), the animated series Ugamú, the feature film Window of Time, as well as on other short films and audiovisuals.

She was awarded a scholarship to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, joined the "La Seine" research programme at the Beaux-Arts de Paris and engaged in a residency at the Palais de Tokyo pavilion. More recently, among other awards of merit, in 2020 Adriana received a creative grant from the Columbian Ministry of Culture and in 2022 she was invited to do a CKWEB Idartes residency at the Centre for Sound Art in Buenos Aires.

Her work can be found in collections in the Pompidou Centre and the National Centre for Visual Arts (CNAP).

Biography

Leonor Silveira graduated in International Relations from Lusíada University, and in Cultural Heritage Law from the University of Lisbon.

Her acting career begins in 1988 in cinema, with The Cannibals by Manoel de Oliveira. Since then, she has worked with numerous directors – most recently João Canijo in Living Bad and Bad Living (Silver Bear Jury Prize, Berlinale 2023).

Leonor’s performances notably earned her the Bárbara Virgínia Prize by the Portuguese Academy of Cinema. She was a jury member at Cannes, San Sebastián, Locarno, among others.

In television, she participated in fiction series such as Sara by Marco Martins, and Therapy by Patricia Sequeira.

Leonor Silveira was distinguished by France with the order of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Officier des Arts et des Lettres. She received the Degree of Commander by Order of Merit, by the former Portuguese president Doctor Jorge Sampaio.

Biography

After studying a range of subjects from biology to infotainment, Ilan Urroz accumulated a wide array of professional experience before taking the helm in 2009 of the animation hub, La Cartoucherie, in the Drôme region of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. From 2015 in Marseille, Ilan was managing the group of creative industries in the entire Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region.

Along with his associate Nicolas Flory, he bought Foliascope in 2018. This Drôme-based production company has its own special 2D animation studio and one of the largest stop-motion studios in Europe. Its catalogue includes the feature films Wardi, No Dogs or Italians Allowed (award-winner at Annecy 2022) and The Inventor (selected for Annecy 2023), as well as the TV series Some of Us, Lina’s World and Music Queens.

Biography

With 10 years as a producer and leader, Christian Bermejo has helmed the creative direction at the Pixelatl Film Festival in Mexico. These projects and efforts have significantly impacted the Latin American creative scene, establishing the main platform for animators to develop and pitch IPs, resulting in 11 original productions aired on major networks.

As the founder of a college film festival and a seasoned writer, his latest achievement was curating Mexico's presentation as the country of honor at Annecy Festival 2023.

Biography

Flóra Anna Buda was born and raised in an artistic environment in the outskirts of Budapest. After her studies in fashion, her love for drawing and interest in storytelling led her to animation. Her MOME graduation film called Entropia was premiered at the 69^th Berlinale, won the 33^rd Teddy Award and was in competition at Annecy.

She became an intern at MIYU Productions where later she made her first professional film – in co-production with Boddah – called 27. It had its premiere at Cannes Film Festival where it won the Short Film Palme d’Or, and then the Cristal for a Short Film at Annecy Festival. Currently, she is developing new projects.

One of her main goals is to keep searching for new ways of creating diverse universes, telling honest stories and finding a way to create an artistic project out of her recent interest, with an open mind.

Biography

Jérémy Clapin is one of the contemporary animation scene’s leading directors. After short films (Backbone Tale, Skhizein, Palmipedarium) that gradually propelled him to the forefront of the international scene, in 2019 he released his first animation feature, I Lost My Body, which met with unprecedented success.

The film won the Cristal for a Feature Film at Annecy, the Grand Prix at Cannes Critics' Week, 2 Césars for Best Animated Film and Best Original Score, and an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film.

In 2023, he directed his first live-action feature film, Meanwhile on Earth, with actress Megan Northam.

Biography

Eric Beckman is founder and CEO of NYC based GKIDS, an independent producer and distributor of award-winning animation.

Since 2010, the company has scored 13 Best Animated Feature Oscar® nominations and 6 Golden Globe® nominations. Their most recent release, Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron won Best Animated Feature awards at both the Oscars® and Golden Globes®. GKIDS is the US home of Japan’s Studio Ghibli, one of the world’s most coveted animation collections, along with some of the most iconic and successful European and Asian animation titles, studios, and directors.

In 2017, Eric and GKIDS launched the annual Animation Is Film festival, in partnership with Annecy Festival and Variety. AIF is now the preeminent animation festival in the US and a fixture on the fall awards circuit. Eric is also co-founder of New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival, an Oscar®-qualifying event and the largest film festival for children and teens.

Eric received the Mifa & Variety’s Animation Personality of the Year Award at Annecy in 2017.

Biography

One of the film industry’s most experienced animation producers, Julie Lockhart’s work has received three Academy Award nominations.

She held leadership roles at Aardman Animation and was producer on many acclaimed animated shorts, commercials and ground-breaking television series, including Creature Comforts and Shaun the Sheep (Cristal for Best TV Production Annecy 2007). Stepping into features, she developed and produced The Pirates! Band of Misfits for Sony Pictures and Shaun the Sheep Movie for Studio Canal/Lionsgate.

Whilst at Locksmith, she has been instrumental in building a brand new studio from scratch into the international high end animation feature film company it is today, as well as serving as Producer on Locksmith’s debut feature film Ron’s Gone Wrong, and Executive Producer on the company’s latest production, Richard Curtis’s That Christmas for Netflix.

Biography

Jeff Rowe is known for his exceptional contributions to the world of animation.

Rowe made his directorial and writing debut with the animated feature Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, which was released in theaters in 2023 and has become the highest-rated animation film of the year. The feature has been praised for its visually striking art style.

Additionally, Rowe co-wrote and co-directed the Academy Award-nominated film The Mitchells vs. the Machines. The film, which was released on Netflix in 2021, went on to become Netflix’s biggest animated film of the year and has been recognized for its unique visual style.

On the television side, Rowe served as a writer on the Primetime Emmy award-winning Disney Channel animated series Gravity Falls from 2014 to 2016, before going on to write on the animated series Disenchantment for Netflix.