Jury
2024 EDITION
International Shorts
Stephen Vuillemin
French animation director, comic book author and illustrator. His 2011 webcomic Lycéennes – described by Cartoon Brew as a “novel use of animated GIFs” – caught the attention of many media outlets. Between 2016 and 2022, he devoted himself to his first animated short film, A kind of testament, which won over 30 international awards. In 2024, he published two books: Les nourritures supervivientes, a collection of short comics, and Le Bonhomme, an illustrated book for children. He has also worked with clients such as Chanel, Stone Island, The New York Times and GQ Magazine. Previously based in London and then Taipei, Vuillemin now resides between Jura and Tokyo. Stephen’s style combines solid yet delicate drawing, vibrant colours, strange imagery and a special attention to the characteristics of the medium.
Alex Gamsu Jenkins
London-based illustrator and animation director known for his quirky yet darkly humorous style. Since graduating in 2015, he has created work for editorial, animation and commercial projects. Some of his previous clients include Adidas, Vans, The New York Times and Facebook.
Benjy Brooke
Emmy Award-winning director and partner at California-based animation studio Green Street Pictures. He served as supervising director on the Emmy-nominated series Scavengers Reign (HBO Max) and the upcoming Adult Swim comedy/thriller Common Side Effects. He also served as director on We the People (Netflix) and animation director on the Love, Death & Robots Vol. 3 episode Kill Team Kill (Netflix).
Latin American Shorts
Claudia Ruiz
Director, screenwriter and art director of short films and series, winner of more than 80 national and international awards. She is also the director of El Molinete, LDCV. Her filmography includes El niño y la noche, Ailín en la Luna, 11:40, Hablando de cosas serias, Susurradoras, Los mundos de Reni and Un momento, por favor. She participated as a stop motion director in the feature film Birritácora, and as director and animator of Un pobre dios, by Rodolfo Pastor; El viaje de Gaia and Santa Fe para curiosos, by Pablo Jáuregui; and Your Face Global Jam, by Bill Plympton, among others.
Estefanía Clotti
Argentine animator and cartoonist born in Rosario in 1985. She studied at the School for Animators of the Rosario Audiovisual Center and graduated as an audiovisual producer from the Provincial School of Film and Television in the same city. She has directed several animated short films, such as El dominio de las piedras (2017), Cómo hacer una casa (2018) and Acordate dame un beso al despertar (2021), which have received recognition at several festivals. In addition, she has exhibited her work in galleries and museums. She teaches Experimental Animation at the Rosario School for Animators alongside Berenice Galdiz Carlstein.
Carlos Gómez Salamanca
Colombian audiovisual artist whose work focuses on the development and production of art projects, animation films and immersive experiences. He has won numerous awards at film festivals in America, Asia and Europe. In 2023, he won the national award for Audiovisual Creation in the Experimental Media category (Colombia) and was nominated for the César Awards (France). He has been a jury member at the Annecy Festival (France) and the Havana Festival (Cuba), among others.
International Graduation Shorts
Fernanda Soma
Senior Executive Producer and partner at Le Cube. Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, her experience in animation, illustration and design projects has been used by some of the most recognized brands and agencies worldwide, such as Nike, Coca-Cola, Spotify, Apple, Ogilvy, W+K, R/GA.
With 12 years of experience in the advertising industry, she specializes in both communication and client management as well as in production flow planning and problem solving.
After studying Graphic Design at the University of Palermo, her experience has taken her from music videos, television, branding and graphic campaigns to live action, stop motion, post-production and 3D. During this journey, she has been in charge of multiple award-winning projects.
Max Winston
Originally from Northern California and a Renaissance man, he is obsessed with cartoons and his main passion is taking the art of animation to new and exciting extremes.
During his 16 years in the animation industry, he has brought his talents to shows such as Uncle Grandpa, Spongebob Squarepants, and Robot Chicken.
With his company, RatBat Studios, he oversees and produces short films for Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney, and even more amazing clients. He recently completed the first ever Looney Tunes stop motion short film for Warner Bros.
Manuel Barenboim
Manuel is an Argentine audiovisual and animation director, currently living in New York and creative director of Motion Principles. He studied Architecture at the University of Buenos Aires and, in 2010, moved to Los Angeles to pursue a Masters in Experimental Animation at CALArts.
His work emerges from a broad background, including fine art, live video performance, science, and video games. Manuel’s audiovisual language encompasses animation (hand-drawn, stop-motion, experimental), collages, drawing, and motion graphics, and is characterized by rich sound design.
Since 2018, Manuel is a professor of animation at the David Geffen school of drama at Yale university. Manuel is a member of the video team at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he specializes in animating artworks and archival material for documentary videos. His animations have been part of operas at the Lincoln Center in New York, at the Sydney Opera House, and at the Los Angeles Opera. His title sequence for the film Sins of My Father won Best Use of Animation at the 2010 Telly Awards. His short film Cocoon received Best Editing at the Seattle Fashion Film Festival in 2017. He has made several short films that have been featured in festivals around the world.
Latin American Graduation Shorts
Keila Cepeda
Director who has contributed to the development and animation of short films and animated series, including Kukla (2017), Los Crakoshans (2018) and Un cuarto de equipaje (2021). In 2019, she began directing Chimborazo, a short film with more than 100 festival nominations and 15 awards, which helped consolidate her position as an environmental film author. This commitment drives her to create new projects, such as SACHA, an environmental animation series about the Amazon rainforest.
Lena Mandel
Multidisciplinary visual artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She works in animation, design, painting and illustration, and explores various techniques and styles, both analog and digital. Her work is characterized by its versatility and adaptation to different creative processes. She has worked as a freelancer with Rudo Co. and in independent national and international productions. She studied Image and Sound Design (UBA), Animation (IDAC) and plastic arts at Guillermo Roux’s workshop. She is currently studying animation and anatomical drawing, and is in the process of developing collaborative and personal projects.
Emilia Abot
Traditional 2D animator born in Azul, in the center of the province of Buenos Aires. She graduated from the Image and Sound program at UP and specialized in motion graphics at Image Campus. She has been working in the commercial and independent animation industry for 9 years, covering different areas and roles.
She participated in the shorts: Santa Sombra, Carne de Dios, Todos los futuro, Misión Leche and Latimos. She has also collaborated with the following advertising studios: 2veinte, Wildthings, 1stAveMachine BA, LeCube, Wonderlust, Nice Shit, , 4Humans, Bitt Studio, Gizmo, Nos, Váscolo, Idea Rocket, Pes, Club Camping, Nora Studio, Ronda, Superestudio, Osa.
At the same time, she works on authorial projects with Director Florentina Gonzalez.