INTERNATIONAL JURY

Špela ČADEŽ Slovenia

Špela Čadež is animation director and co-founder of Finta Studio in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her films have received 100+ awards at festivals worldwide and were screened in competition selections such as the Sundance Film Festival, Clermont Ferrand and Annecy. A passionate advocate for the analogue, Čadež has impressed with films in puppet and cut-out animation techniques.

Caibei CAI China

Caibei Cai (b.1992 Shenzhen, China) received her MA from Jiangnan University in 2017 and Royal College of Art in 2018. She often places her work in a tactile dimension. She is good at capturing the illusion of the screen and the hidden body by drawing frame by frame. Her films always invite the audience to experience the conflicts within the body and the anxious environment outside the body. Her works have been awarded and selected by many international film festivals or animation festivals , such as Image Forum, Slamdance, DOK Leipzig, Animafest Zagreb, Ottawa Animation Festival, Anifilm, Feinaki Beijing Animation Week, etc. She has also worked as a unit curator for Feinaki Beijing Animation Week and Dongbuzhou International Animation Week.

NISHINO Shinjiro Japan

Representative Director, GAS AS INTERFACE CO., LTD. In 1996, Shinjiro Nishino launched "GASBOOK," a platform to gather and showcase new ideas in art and design from around the world. In 2004, he established GAS AS I/F, a company that serves as a platform connecting creators with society and businesses both domestically and internationally. Since 2006, he has been running "CALM & PUNK GALLERY" in Nishi-Azabu, Tokyo, acting as a bridge between art and business. In August 2022, Nishino also initiated "GASBON METABOLISM," a multi-disciplinary art facility in Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture, aiming to contribute to the promotion of art and culture.

Gints ZILBALODIS Latvia

Gints Zilbalodis(1994) is a Latvian filmmaker best known for directing ‘Flow’ (2024) which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was also nominated for Best International Feature Film becoming the first independent feature film to win this award and the first Latvian film to be nominated. Zilbalodis debut feature film ‘Away’, which he made entirely by himself, won the Best Feature Film Contrechamp Award in Annecy. Prior to ‘Away’ he made 7 short films in various mediums including hand-drawn animation, 3D animation and live-action and often mixing their characteristic aesthetics. In 2019 he founded Dream Well Studio.

Jiwon HAN South Korea

Jiwon Han is an animated film director, illustrator, and comic book writer based in Seoul, Korea. Her work often explores the dreams and emotional experiences of youth, focusing on the subjective moments of characters living in Korea’s pressure-filled society. Jiwon Han began her film career with the short animation Kopi Luwak while studying at the Korean National University of Arts, which earned her the Grand Prize at the Seoul Indie Ani-fest in 2010. She later released a feature-length compilation of her short animations, Clearer Than You Think. Her projects include the web animation series Recipe to My Daughter, contributions to the Kakao TV web drama Amanza, and the short-form animated series That Summer, based on the original novel by Choi Eun-young. This original animated film ’Lost in Starlight’ is the first animation produced and released by Netflix in Korea, in collaboration with Climax Studio.

YAMAMOTO Ken Japan

YAMAMOTO Ken is an animation director and animator. He worked at Production I.G and is now active as a freelancer. His directorial works include the music video Eve “Yakusoku” (2020), the web series Yuki Hodokishi Ni Ai (2022), and the feature film Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Beginning of a New Era (2024). He is currently directing the TV series Shunkashuto Daikosha: Haru no Mai, based on the novel of the same name by Kana Akatsuki, scheduled for broadcast in 2026.