Jury Members
  • Arthur Venayre
    Arthur Venayre
    International Competition

    Arthur gained his first experience in production as a work-study student at Sacrebleu Productions while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Production Management at Gobelins School. He continued his career at Sacrebleu Productions, working on numerous short film projects. He later became a production manager at Kawanimation, where he worked on TV series and standalone animated projects. Today, he is also the production manager of an animated series produced by Netflix.

    Two years ago, he co-founded his own production company, Loqidor Productions.

  • Pola Lotta Włodarczyk
    Pola Lotta Włodarczyk
    International Competition

    Animation filmmaker and visual artist, as well as an author of posters and illustrations. Based in Łódź,  Poland, she is completing her diploma at the Polish National Film School in Łódź (PWSFTviT). Her films have been screened and awarded at film festivals in Poland and internationally. She is currently working on an original animated film.

  • Samuel Patthey
    Samuel Patthey
    International Competition

    Born in Berlin in 1993 as the son of an architect and an artist, Samuel Patthey spent a lively childhood immersed in art, culture, and creativity. He went on to study 2D Animation at HSLU Design & Kunst Lucerne in Switzerland and graduated in 2017 with the film Travelogue Tel Aviv. Since then, he has worked as an animation film director and illustrator based in Fribourg, Switzerland.

    His first film, Écorce, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in 2020 and won the Cristal for Best Short Film at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2021. His film Sans Voix premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and won the Pardo d’Oro in 2024. Currently working on his third film, Vives Voix, he continues to balance fatherhood, studies, and filmmaking.

  • Simon Breeveld
    Simon Breeveld
    Commissioned Film Competition

    Belgian film director, 3D artist, and aspiring foley artist. Driven by curiosity, he explores every tool available to create unexpected worlds, distort reality, and tell stories. Throughout his career, he has directed eight music videos using Blender for emerging Brussels-based indie artists, including Echt!, Avalanche Kaito, and Jean-Paul Groove.

  • Lucie Grannec
    Lucie Grannec
    Commissioned Film Competition

    Illustrator and animation director. She studied animation film at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Fascinated by digital cultures, she directed her student short film Furrie in 2022, which was selected by more than fifty festivals around the world. She then directed an adaptation of Perceval, or the Tale of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes for France Télévisions. She is part of the artist-run space Non-Étoile, and is particularly interested in the place of animation cinema within museums and art galleries.

  • Illia Dutsyk
    Illia Dutsyk
    Commissioned Film Competition

    Ukrainian director and a representative of the new wave of Ukrainian music video filmmakers, working at the intersection of music videos, documentary filmmaking, commercial directing, and visual experimentation. Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he gained recognition with the music video Po Komu Podzvin? for rapper Oi FUSK, and later became a two-time recipient of the Zolota Zoria Award by LiRoom.

    Throughout his career, Illia has directed more than 20 projects for Ukrainian artists and collaborated with performers including Ziferblat, Oi FUSK, Hate Speech, Jerry Heil, DANTES, and other prominent figures of the contemporary Ukrainian music scene.

    In 2025, together with HOLYWATER TECH, he created the AI-generated short film The Distance Between Two Points of Me, which was selected among the Top 10 projects of the Runway AI Film Festival and premiered at Lincoln Center in New York.

  • Alexandra Hroncová
    Alexandra Hroncová
    Ukrainian Competition

    Film distribution manager and festival strategist based in Prague. Thanks to her work, hundreds of short films have reached festivals, including the most prestigious ones such as Cannes, Berlinale, Annecy, Clermont-Ferrand, Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca, Vision du Réel, and the Academy Awards. For eight years, she has been helping independent filmmakers, young talents, production companies, and students with festival distribution and the global circuit. She curates tailor-made festival strategies, target market research, handles all logistics from submissions to distribution and PR/marketing campaigns, and maximizes the visibility of films at the events.

  • Nadja Andrasev
    Nadja Andrasev
    Ukrainian Competition

    Animation filmmaker with an MFA from MOME Budapest. She is an alumna of Animation Sans Frontiéres and the Open Workshop residency. Her films, The Noise of Licking and Symbiosis screened at numerous festivals and received over fourty awards, including the Joint Third Prize at the Cinéfondation Selection in Cannes, and the Jury Award for Best Animated Short at SXSW. After years of experience in the live action film industry, she is currently a freelance production manager, line producer and director of animated films.

  • Vitalii Nebelskyi
    Vitalii Nebelskyi
    Ukrainian Competition

    Co-founder and Creative Director of the and action creative agency. He initiated and developed the studio’s 2D, 3D, and hybrid animation departments. The studio’s clients include Upwork, Tic Tac, World of Tanks, 7-Eleven, Figma, CleanMyMac, TED-Ed, Okean Elzy, and many others.