The jury members will have the delicate task of choosing among the competing films and bestowing 17 official awards, including the Cristal for short films and the Cristal for feature films.
Check out the jury members for Annecy 2017.
Artistic Director for the FICAM (Meknès International Animation Film Festival)
Institut Français Meknès
Morocco
With a degree in cultural mediation, Mohamed Beyoud joined the Meknès Institut Français in 1999 as head of their cultural action department. Part of his mission has been to oversee artistic direction for the FICAM since 2001. Organised by the Aïcha Foundation and the Meknès Institut Français, this event was the first of its kind in Africa and the Arab nation. In 2006, "TelQuel", a French-language Moroccan magazine, featured him in their "50 most influential people for the Morocco of tomorrow" article. He is also a cartoonist who has collaborated with different Moroccan media organisations.
Céline Sciamma has directed three feature films:
Water Lilies was presented in the Un certain regard section at Cannes 2007 and won the Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film.
Tomboy was the Panorama opener at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011.
Her most recent film Girlhood was the opener for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes 2014. Céline is also a screenwriter, she has worked with André Téchiné for his film Being 17 and Claude Barras on My Life as a Courgette, Cristal for a Feature Film at Annecy 2016 and for which she won the César Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2017.
Alberto Vázquez's books have been published in many countries such as Spain, France, Italy, Brazil and Korea.
He wrote and directed the shorts Birdboy (2010), Unicorn Blood (2013) and Decorado (2016).
In collaboration with Pedro Rivero and adapted from his graphic novel of the same name, he finished his first feature, Psiconautas in 2015, which was in competition the following year in Annecy.
Shown in major festivals around the world, his films and have won over a hundred prizes including one in Annecy and three Goyas.
He is currently working on his next animated film, Unicorn Wars.
Independent filmmaker Maryam Kashkoolinia has been working in animation for over 15 years.
She got her BA in Graphic Design and after working 12 years as a graphic designer and illustrator, she decided to continue her education at the Tehran University of Art where she received her MA in Directing Animation.
Ever since, she's been making a name for herself, especially at Annecy with shorts like "In Our Home" (2007), Official Selection; "Tunnel" (2012) and "When I Was a Child" (2014), in competition.
She currently teaches at universities while working on her upcoming film: "One More Step".
Born in 1965, Stephan Roelants has over 30 years of audiovisual experience in Belgium, London and Los Angeles. In 1997, he created Studio 352, an animation studio and Mélusine Productions, a production company dedicated to animation and documentaries.
In 20 years, Melusine Productions/Studio 352 have contributed to the production of around 60 TV series and 15 feature films. Some worth noting include A Town Called Panic, Ernest & Celestine and Song of the Sea. The company's latest productions focused on script value and graphic poetry are Ethel & Ernest and The Breadwinner.
Journalist and Producer at Radio France, author of "Cinéma d'animation, la French Touch"
France
Laurent Valière is a journalist for France Info and a producer at France Musique. He used to host France Inter's radio show, "Tous les Mickey du monde", has produced radio documentaries on animation for France Culture and film documentaries about several animation films and filmmakers. He was also a presenter for the first Work in Progress sessions at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. He has just published a book with La Martinière and Arte Éditions entitled "Cinéma d'animation, la French Touch", with a preface by Michel Ocelot and Sébastien Laudenbach. He produces France Musique's weekly show dedicated to musicals, "42e rue".
After earning an MFA in Animation and Multimedia from the Beijing Film Academy, Ying Huang started teaching in the prestigious establishment. Whether working in digital animation with paper cut-outs (Happy Birthday) or ink drawings (The Pond), she has won dozens of awards in China and around the world. A jury member for student animation festivals, she has also chaired the jury of the BFA Animation Academy Awards for the past three years. In 2016, her short film The Plume, which revisits a traditional Chinese painting style, was in competition at the Hiroshima Festival and took home the Golden Dolphin at Xiamen.
Thomas Meyer-Hermann was born in 1956 in Cologne. He studied at the Academy of Arts in Stuttgart before directing six prize-winning animated shorts. Since 1989, he has been producing shorts, music videos, commissioned films, and TV series at Studio FILM BILDER in Stuttgart. His productions include Rubicon by Gil Alkabetz, The Final Solution by Phil Mulloy, Love & Theft by Andreas Hykade, as well as the series TOM & the Slice of Bread with Strawberry Jam & Honey, Patchwork Pals, and Animanimals. Since 2000, he has also been an animation professor at the Art University in Kassel.
With a degree in law, Anna Serner also studied at the Stockholm Film School. She was CEO at the Advertising Association of Sweden and at the Swedish Newspaper Organisation before becoming CEO at the Swedish Film Institute.
She believes that because film is such a popular and influential art, it can contribute to a more open and democratic society. Deeply engaged in concerns like gender equality, Anna has made great strides in her country's film industry and has been invited to promote the Swedish model all over the world, at festivals, at the New York Film Academy, at Eurimages..
A household name for science fiction publishers in France since 1970, Philippe Caza has illustrated hundreds of covers for books, comics and magazines. As a comic book author, he did work for the French comics Pilote and Métal hurlant, (Scènes de la vie de banlieue, Arkhê, Laïlah, etc.) and his greatest saga was Le Monde d’Arkadi (published by Delcourt).
As for animation, he collaborated with René Laloux in the 80s on the feature Light Years and on the shorts The Captive and How Wang-Fo Was Saved. He also wrote and did artwork for The Rain Children (2003), directed by Philippe Leclerc.
In charge of research and the promotion of film collections
CNC - Centre National du Cinéma et de l'image animée
France
For the past fifteen years, Jean-Baptiste Garnero has been working to collect and present collections that are entrusted or belong to the CNC. He has therefore overseen several projects designed to reassert the value of animation production and its history in France and abroad through cultural organisations such as festivals, cinematheques, museums, professional schools and UNESCO.
He is currently participating in putting the last pinscreen made by Alexandre Alexeïeff and Claire Parker back into production, and once again used to make films in France.
After graduating from the École nationale supérieure d'art et de design in Nancy (France), Chao Wu took life as the main inspiration for her work in traditional animation, video, field studies and multimedia installations.
She has already received over thirty prizes for her work in China and elsewhere, and gained recognition in particular for the collaborative piece "The Project of Awakening Vegetative Patients via Artistic Stimulation", created in 2014.
The following year she was resident at Fontevraud Abbey and she regularly speaks at conferences.
The members of the André-Martin Award will reward a French short film and a French feature film produced in 2016.
The jury for the Festivals Connexion Award – Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes / In partnership with Lumières Numériques & Pilon Cinéma is made up of:
This year, there will be 8 members of the Junior Jury, all aged between 10 and 14 years. 4 Swiss youngsters from the "Éveil à l’image" department of the Animatou festival will be joining 4 kids from the Atelier de cinéma d’animation d’Annecy et de Haute-Savoie (aaa).