Juries 23

A graphic artist and director of animation films, Yiorgos Tsangaris is also the founder and artistic director of Animafest Cyprus. He has contributed to several museums on the island of Cyprus where he lives. He is regularly involved in international festivals, whether as a juror or an artist. His works are regularly selected for international festivals.

Pablo Pico is a composer and artist who has composed the music for many short and feature films, including Mum is Pouring Rain, Marona’s Fantastic Tale and the series Dumpster Dog. His work has earned him several awards and has led to collaborations with musicians such as Oxmo Puccino, Isabel Sörling and Arthur H.

Gaëlle Grisard trained as a graphic designer and illustrator at ESAG (Paris) and La Cambre. She has worked as a press illustrator for prestigious Belgian and French newspapers. Her love of animation led her to teaching, which she now does at the Haute École Albert Jacquard. She continues to work as an illustrator and graphic designer.

Laura Almantaite began her career in the audiovisual sector in 2007. She has worked as a consultant and producer on a dozen film projects, including documentary, animation and fiction films. In 2014 Laura founded the BLON festival in Vilnius, a festival she still heads today.

After studying cinema, law and economics, Jean-François Bigot worked as an assistant director and stage manager on several fiction films before becoming a producer and then a joint manager of JPL Films in Rennes. He is the founder of L’Arrosoir à Émile, a French association whose aim is to promote animated films.

Pascale Hecquet is a graphic designer, illustrator, and director. She is the author of many short films that have been shown at festivals. As a director, she is particularly attentive to films for young audiences. She likes to use her imagination to tackle important subjects for children, such as sharing, friendship and greed.

After eleven years at the Atelier de Cinéma d’Animation in Annecy, Karine Miralles opened Labodanim in 2011 in Mâcon. She introduces young people and adults to animated film, in France and abroad, among others through workshops on traditional techniques: cartoon, silhouette, cut-out paper, sand or stop motion.

Luxembourgish animator and director Carlo Vogele trained in Berlin and at Gobelins in Paris. These two cities shaped his artistic world, as did video games and gastronomy. After seven years as a character animator at Pixar, he returned to Europe where he wrote and directed his first feature film, Icarus, released in 2022.

Britt Raes is an animator who teaches at KASK, the school where she trained. Her days are filled with both her own independent projects (Luce and the Rock, Catherine) and commissioned work. All this while eating chocolate, petting her cats and riding her bike. Except when it snows, because then she’s afraid of falling.

A comic book artist, Cyril Pedrosa is also involved in contemporary drawing and animation projects. Among other things, he has contributed to the graphic research for Wolfwalkers and is the graphic author of Sébastien Laudenbach’s forthcoming feature film Prends garde à toi (Beware). He is currently at work on his first animated feature film, La longue nuit (The long night).

Director, scriptwriter and storyboard artist Marlyn Spaaij is part of the vibrant creative world of the Dutch animation industry. After being involved in series and short film projects, she is currently at work on her first feature film, adapted from her graphic novel of the same name, Sisters of the Mist.

Norwegian director and animator Mats Grorud drew on his experience in Lebanon and on the accounts of the refugees he worked with to write his first feature film, The Tower. After collaborating on feature films, music videos and documentaries, he is currently working on a new film about oil exploitation in Nigeria.

Mariana Cadenas is a journalist turned filmmaker who has worked for AFP as well as on several documentary projects. A graduate of KU Leuven and LUCA School of Arts, her focus today is on VR, with two films supported by the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF): an animation series about migration and a VR experience about women cartoonists.

Jan Hameeuw is an executive VR and VFX producer. Based in Belgium, he regularly works on international projects. He is a co-founder of THEPACK (www.thepack.studio), a well-known player in the Belgian post-production and immersive technology scene. He’s a keen innovator and breathes energy and curiosity into his studio.

After obtaining a master’s in communication management and political science, An Oost travelled the world as a model, building up a worldwide network within the world of art, design and fashion. In 2014 she joined the production company Timescapes, where she works as distribution manager and producer for Extended Reality (XR) projects.

Richard Harris started out in radio in New York, where he was a programme producer and director, before joining CBS TV in Los Angeles as a writer-producer of films and miniseries. A chef and interior designer , this jack-of-all-trades is currently a contributor to The Bulletin and The Brussels Times Magazine.

Astrid Jansen holds a master’s in journalism from IHECS and one in political science from ULB. Specializing in cinema and the Belgian cultural sector, she writes for L’Avenir and also works for the radio and for film magazines. Involved in the scripting of short films, she sits on national and international juries.

Chantal Moens began her career as an editor for the Belgian Film Yearbook and then continued as a critic for various reviews. After working in distribution and consulting for the Flanders Audiovisual Fund, she is now PR manager for the Belgian Film Critics Association. She also writes for the online magazine humbugmag.be.