2026 TV & Commissioned Films Jury
Discover the TV & Commissioned Films jury members for the 2026 edition’s awards.
Fernando GALRITO
University Lecturer, Cinema Director, Artistic Director MONSTRA | Lisbon Animation Festival
Portugal
Fernando Galrito (Samora Correia, Portugal) grew up in a library where weekly film screenings sparked his passion for animation. At just eight years old, inspired by Norman McLaren, he began experimenting directly on 16 and 35 mm film. This early start led to opportunities to study cinema and animation in France and traveling across Europe to conduct 16 mm animation workshops. Back in Portugal, he extended his practice with studies in video direction, theatre, anthropology, and an MA in Culture and Technology.
From 1986 to 2005, he coordinated the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Moving Image Centre. In 2000, he founded MONSTRA | Lisbon Animation Festival, where he remains Artistic Director and Programmer. He has taught animation at ESAD.CR (Caldas da Rainha School of Arts and Design) since 2000 and is a guest lecturer at universities worldwide. As a filmmaker, he creates animation films and transdisciplinary works bridging moving image, performance and music. He also contributes to publications and broadcasts on cinema and education and is a member of major international animation organizations.
Mariam KANDELAKI
Director, Producer, Cultural Events Organiser
Georgia
Mariam Kandelaki is a Georgian animation director, producer, and cultural organizer with more than three decades of experience in animation and audiovisual storytelling. She has directed and produced numerous animated and hybrid film projects that have been presented and awarded at international festivals.
Kandelaki is the founder of several key animation initiatives in the Black Sea region, including the Animation Project Development Workshop together with the Annecy Festival, the Georgian Animation Association SaqAnima, and the Anima Tbilisi International Animation Conference, contributing significantly to the development of the regional animation industry and international co-production networks. She is also the organizer of the Nikozi International Animation Film Festival.
She has served as a jury member at numerous international animation festivals, including the Paris International Animation Film Festival (PIAFF), Animest International Animation Film Festival, Ottawa International Animation Festival, LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, and Anifilm International Festival of Animated Films, among others.
Mariam Kandelaki is a board member of CEE Animation and the Emile European Animation Awards, and a member of the European Film Academy. Her produced animated shorts, including The Pocket Man and Abandoned Village, have received numerous international awards. In 2026 she was honored with the Giannalberto Bendazzi Award at the Paris International Animation Film Festival for her outstanding contribution to animation culture and industry development.
Imogen SUTTON
Producer, Director
United Kingdom
Imogen Sutton is the Academy and BAFTA-nominated film Producer of Prologue. Her award-winning documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 include Animating Art and Daughters of de Beauvoir (with associated book). Her first job in the film industry was as a runner in Soho, London, and she went on to work in editing and research before becoming a producer and director.
Her career in animation began producing the feature film The Thief and the Cobbler and then the sell-out Richard Williams' Animation Masterclasses around the world, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, Sydney, Hong Kong, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and as in-house events at Warner Bros. and Blue Sky Studios.
Sutton is Co-Editor of the best-selling book The Animator's Survival Kit and Producer and Director of the follow-up 16 DVD box-set and prize-winning iPad app. She is the co-author of Adventures in Animation and produced Richard Williams' final film Lysistrata (2026).