Lauréats Pitchs Mifa 2025 // 2025 Mifa Pitches Award winners – Photo : ANNECY FESTIVAL/E. Nguyen Ngoc
Video Game Cinematics and Trailers Competition
The Mifa Video Game Cinematics and Trailers Competition, organized in collaboration with Weird Market (Spain), is an opportunity for independent studios and creators to showcase their artists' talent and illustrate the extraordinary union between the worlds of video games and animation.
2026 Awards
The Mifa Cross IP team would like to thank you once again for your enthusiasm and ongoing support for this 3rd edition of the Video Game Cinematics and Trailers Competition.
Take a look at the winners revealed during the Awards Ceremony:
Discover the prizes and partners for the 2026 Cinematics Competition.
The Jury Prize, sponsored by JALI Research Inc., was awarded to Marathon | Reveal Cinematic Short, directed by Alberto Mielgo and produced by pinkman.tv, Illusorium Studios & Agora for Bungie.
The Jury was completely captivated by this cinematic and highly inventive trailer. Dystopian, unsettling, and strikingly original, it draws audiences into a richly layered world while revealing just enough to leave them wanting more. The breathtaking scale, distinctive art direction, and surreal beauty of the setting balance wonder and unease in equal measure. We were left with compelling questions: Who are these characters? What is their connection? What happened to this world? Every frame sparks curiosity, building anticipation through a tantalizing glimpse of the film's story, genre, and tone. With its confident pacing, visual ambition, and intriguing promise of an origin story, this trailer leaves a lasting impression and an irresistible desire to discover what lies beyond.
2026 Jury: 3 women who are shaping the industry
This jury brought together three leading women whose careers span animation, innovation, production and talent development.
Karen Dufilho combines award-winning production experience with a passion for emerging technologies and creative communities, shaped by roles at Pixar, Google and Epic Games. Catherine Winder has built a career at the forefront of cross-platform storytelling, producing globally successful animation franchises such as Invincible and The Angry Birds, while exploring new forms of audience involvement across digital worlds and creator ecosystems. Vanessa Ann Sinden provides a unique perspective rooted in championing African narratives, with over two decades of experience producing highly acclaimed animation features and nurturing the next generation of creative talent.
Together, they represented a jury that values bold ideas, innovative formats, and stories that resonate across cultures, platforms and audiences.
Together, they awarded the Jury Prize, sponsored by JALI Research Inc.
JALI Research Inc. builds tools that help creators develop, direct, and animate character performances, from early story and performance exploration through to final production. The JALI suite of tools provides flexible, production-ready,non-destructive procedural workflows, multilingual lip sync and expressive facial animation and high-performance rigging and pipeline solutions.
JALI's powerful automations for character animation gives artists the freedom to iterate quickly, maintain creative control, and stay focused on storytelling.
We're honored to help recognize the creators bringing memorable characters and worlds to life through exceptional cinematics. The creativity and craftsmanship on display continue to inspire us, and we're proud to play a small part in celebrating that work.
Alysha Whyte, Operations & Outreach Manager at JALI.
2026 Selection Revealed
The third edition of the Video Game Cinematics and Trailers Competition travelled across the world to uncover the most promising video game marvels. Around a hundred of them were carefully examined by our sharp-eyed selection team.
Video game cinematics and trailers have evolved far beyond mere advertisements; they are now the hidden gems of the animation industry.
This year's selection explores a boundless visual ecosystem, ranging from the wistfully nostalgic traditional 2D to cutting-edge CGI that defies reality.
It's more than a matter of style – it's about the narrative. Our showcase features everything from bite-sized masterpieces to extended formats that blur the lines with cinematic short films. In this space, legends share the stage with the explosive energy of today's most talented emerging directors.
Watch the 2026 selection trailer:
Take another look at the creative universes from the 2025 selection and the 2025 Winners.
Please contact us if you have any questions at mifagames@citia.org.
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