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2020 Juries

Annecy 2020
  1. Feature Films
  2. Short Films
  3. Graduation Films & Off-Limits Short Films
  4. TV & Commissioned Films
  5. Contrechamp
  6. VR
  7. Youtube Award Jury
  8. Awards Jury Festivals Connexion
  9. Awards Jury for Best Original Music Award
  10. CANAL+ Youth Award Jury
  11. André-Martin Award Jury
  12. Vimeo Staff Pick Award Jury
  13. Perspectives Jury
  14. Fipresci Jury
  15. Junior Jury

Sommaire

Among the films in competition, the juries have the sensitive mission of determining the Official Awards, including the Cristal for a Short Film and the Cristal for a Feature Film, and the Special Awards.

Given the unusual context of Annecy 2020, some members of the jury who were programmed for this year, in particular in relation to the tribute to African animation, the Festival’s 60th anniversary and the Annecy jury, will be taking their seats in the 2021 edition.

Discover the jury members for the 2020 edition’s awards.

Feature Films

  • Corinne DESTOMBES
    Corinne DESTOMBES

    Head of Development
    Folimage
    France

    Biography

    In 2005, Corinne Destombes starts in animation at Folimage as production manager for stop motion and 2D series. She begins her journey to discover talents in 2010, with La Résidence (artist-in-residence), and produces series and short films. Since 2016 she has been Folimage's director of development for all formats. Always seeking talented authors and new films, she defends quality projects, especially for young audiences. She collaborates on juries or debates and regularly participates in workshops in France and internationally.

     
  • Benoit PAVAN
    Benoit PAVAN

    Journalist
    Agence France-Presse
    France

    Biography

    Benoit Pavan is a freelance journalist based in Grenoble. He works for the Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Le Monde newspaper covering all the latest cinematographic news in the alpine departments. For ten years he’s been one of the writers for the Cannes Festival’s official website. He also collaborates with the Académie des César (Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques) as part of the "Nuits en Or" and with the Institut Lumière in Lyon during their festival dedicated to 7th Art classics.

     
  • Dominique SEUTIN
    Dominique SEUTIN

    Director
    Anima Festival
    Belgium

    Biography

    Dominique Seutin studied cinema and the history of contemporary art at the University of Brussels. She has been a part of the Anima Festival team since 2000: sponsoring, conferences, professional aspects and selection. Occasionally Dominique writes articles, or sits on juries abroad or in Belgium, notably for the Magritte du Cinéma. Since June, alongside Karin Vandenrydt, she is running the Anima Festival, which will celebrate its 40th edition in February 2021.

     

Short Films

  • Matt KASZANEK
    Matt KASZANEK

    Director
    Animation Is Film Festival
    USA

    Biography

    Matt Kaszanek is currently Director of the Animation Is Film Festival in Los Angeles and VP of Distribution for Glass Half Full Media. Prior to both, he was a programmer and film buyer at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. He has worked at the New York Film Festival, New Directors New Films, AFI Fest, and the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, and, as a distributor, at Indomina Releasing and Glass Half Full. He resides year-round in Chicago.

     
  • Naomi VAN NIEKERK
    Naomi VAN NIEKERK

    Director
    Dryfsand
    South Africa

    Biography

    Founder of the collective Dryfsand, Naomi van Niekerk is a hybrid media artist and works in film, live performance and print-making. As a stop-motion animator trained as a puppeteer at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette, Naomi creates short films that are visual interpretations of poetic texts by South African authors and has acclaimed international successes at various film festivals. She is a 2020 Media Arts Fellow at the Kala Art Institute in California, in print-making.

    "Jean-Luc Xiberras" Award for a First Film for An Ordinary Blue Monday (Annecy 2016)

     
  • Denis WALGENWITZ
    Denis WALGENWITZ

    Director
    France

    Biography

    Directing short films since 1991, Denis Walgenwitz has participated in all types of projects, as assistant director (Persepolis, pilot of The Red Turtle), or production associate (Despicable Me, My Life as a Courgette). He co-founded the Ciclic Animation residency programme and chaired the AFCA for over 15 years. After co-directing The Death, Dad & Son (Junior Jury Award for a Short Film, Annecy 2018), he joins Ari Folman's team again as line producer, which he is currently occupying for Where is Anne Frank?.

     

Graduation Films & Off-Limits Short Films

  • Signe BAUMANE
    Signe BAUMANE

    Director & Producer, My Love Affair With Marriage
    USA/Latvia

    Biography

    Signe Baumane is a Latvian-born independent filmmaker, artist and animator based in New York City. Signe is currently making her second animated feature, My Love Affair With Marriage, which will be completed Spring 2021. Her first, Rocks in My Pockets, premiered at Karlovy Vary in 2014, went to over 160 film festivals and had its U.S. release through Zeitgeist Films. Her 16 animated shorts have screened collectively at over 400 film festivals including Berlinale, Sundance and Annecy.

     
  • Jeanette BONDS
    Jeannette BONDS

    Festival Co-Founder & Director, Director & Producer
    GLAS Animation, B&B Pictures
    Panama/USA

    Biography

    Jeanette Bonds is a Panamanian-American filmmaker living and working in LA. She is the Co-Founder and Director of GLAS Animation and is a director/producer at B&B Pictures, a company founded with her longtime collaborator Sean Buckelew. She received her MFA at CalArts in Film/Video. She is a part of LNWC, on the board of ASIFA-Hollywood, and a programmer at Slamdance. In 2020 she received recipient of the June Foray Award at the 2020 Annie Awards. In the past she worked with Glamour Magazine and Short of the Week.

     
  • Thomas RENOLDNER
    Thomas RENOLDNER

    Director & Head of Selection
    Animation Avantgarde at Vienna Shorts Filmfestival
    Austria

    Biography

    Born in Linz in 1960, Thomas Renoldner studied animation at the Academy of Applied Arts, Vienna. He is an artist, filmmaker, musician, lecturer, curator and Head of the Animation Lab at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His last film of many, Don't Know What, 2019, was invited to over 65 international festivals and has won 15 awards, the Grand Prize, Ottawa Animation Festival 2019 and "Off-Limits" Award, Annecy Animation Festival 2019 included.

     

TV & Commissioned Films

  • Marco DE BLOIS
    Marco DE BLOIS

    Artistic Director
    Les Sommets du cinéma d’animation
    Canada

    Biography

    Marco de Blois has been artistic director of the Sommets du cinéma d’animation (Animation Film Summits) since 2002. He is programmer and curator of animation film at the Cinémathèque québécoise. He enriches the films and artefacts collections and showcases them via retrospectives, exhibitions and conferences. He collaborated with the magazine 24 images and taught animation history and aesthetics at Laval University and Concordia University.

     
  • Jeong
    Dahee JEONG

    Director & Producer
    Between The Pictures
    South Korea

    Biography

    Born in South Korea, Dahee Jeong studied Communication Design in Seoul and Animation at the EnsAD in Paris. Since 2013 she has been working as an independent animation film director and producer. Her first film, Man on the Chair (2014) won the Cristal for a Short Film at Annecy. The Empty (2016) won the Grand Prix at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival. Her latest film, Movements (2019) was presented at the Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight. Dahee is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

     
  • Diane LAUNIER
    Diane LAUNIER

    Managing Director
    Art Ludique Le Musée
    France

    Biography

    In Paris in 2003 Diane Launier and her husband create Arludik, the first gallery in the world dedicated to animation, video games and comics. In 2005 she co-organises the Miyazaki-Moebius exhibition at the Monnaie de Paris. In 2013 Diane co-founds Art Ludique, the first museum in the world dedicated to the creative industries. She participates in the creation and international exhibition tours of Pixar, Marvel, Aardman, Blue Sky Studios, Walt Disney, etc. She co-creates the Disney Art Challenge and in 2020 co-directs the short film Les Chats des pharaons.

     

Contrechamp

  • BLIES
    Blies brothers (Nicolas Blies & Stéphane Hueber-Blies)

    Writers-Directors
    a_BAHN, Luxembourg

    Biography

    The Blies brothers, co-founders of the company a_BAHN, make films with a social impact due to their activist approach. After conceptualising the project Soundhunters (New York Film Festival, Berlin Prix Europa, SXSW) for Arte, they write and direct their first feature film, Zero Impunity (Annecy 2019, Palm Springs IFF, Moscow IFF). They are currently preparing their second film, Ghostdance, and are working on developing an artistic virtual reality installation, Soleils Noirs (CinéMart – IFF Rotterdam 2020).

     
  • Abi FEIJO

    Producer, Director

    Portugal

    Biography

    Coming soon

  • Joanna PRIESTLEY

    Director
    Priestley Motion Pictures
    USA

    Biography

    Joanna Priestley loves animation and has directed, animated, and produced 31 films, including abstract animated feature North of Blue, and iOS app Clam Bake. Her recent retrospectives include the British Film Institute, Fantoche Intl. Animation Festival, Stuttgart Intl. Animation Festival and Hiroshima Intl. Animation Festival. Priestley was founding president of ASIFA NW and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and she has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Film Institute and the MacDowell Colony.

     

VR

  • Myriam ACHARD

    Chief, New Media Partnerships & PR
    Centre PHI
    Canada

    Biography

    Myriam Achard has almost 25-years’ experience in the culture and communications sector. For the past 14 years, she has worked with Phoebe Greenberg to develop and promote the Canadian and international avant-garde arts scene. Over the years, by representing Phi internationally, she has created an extraordinary distribution network for projects (VR, immersive, interactive, XR, etc.) on which Phi currently takes part as a co-producer, as well as a distributor. Phi saw its creative impulsion gain international recognition on three continents, from New York to Venice and Tokyo.

     
  • Mathias CHELEBOURG
    Mathias CHELEBOURG

    Writer-Director

    France, USA

    Biography

    Seduced by narrative and technical challenges offered by the emergence of new media, Mathias Chelebourg travels from theatre to video games via contemporary art. His work appeals to a throng of prestigious clients (Chanel, Nike, Microsoft, Renault, etc.) whom he draws into his ambitious immersive projects. We owe Mathias for The Real Thing VR (co-directed with Benoit Felici), Alice, the VR Play, Jack: Part 1 and an interactive episode of the famous Doctor Who series, The Runaway, in competition at Annecy in 2019.

     
  • Brandon OLDENBURG
    Brandon OLDENBURG

    Chief Creative Officer
    Flight School Studio
    USA

    Biography

    Brandon Oldenburg is an Academy Award-winning film director (The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore), designer and immersive storyteller. Brandon has also received 4 Emmys, multiple Gold Lions at Cannes, including the Grand Prix, and a host of other distinctions. Most recently Brandon directed War Remains, a VR immersive memory about the first World War, which won the Out-of-home Entertainment of the Year accolade at the VR Awards. Prior to Flight School, Brandon co-founded Reel FX and Moonbot Studios, both leaders in animation and emerging technology.

     

Youtube Award Jury

Awards Jury Festivals Connexion – Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Award/In partnership with Lumières Numériques & Mèche Courte

Awards Jury for Best Original Music Award for a Short and Feature Film, sponsored by SACEM, in the Short Films and Feature Films categories

CANAL+ Youth Award Jury

André-Martin Award Jury

The André-Martin Award jury members will award a French Short Film and a French Feature Film.

Vimeo Staff Pick Award Jury

Perspectives Jury

The jury for the Perspectives category comprises three students from the Gabriel Fauré High School in Annecy, and they will present the City of Annecy Award.

Fipresci Jury