THE JURY
Meet the CAF jury, who chose the winners of Best Short Film, Best Student Short Film and Best Micro Short Film. Thank you to Into Film's Youth Advisory Council for choosing the winners of the Young Jury Award!
EIKO MEREDITH
Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Eiko studied at Hiroshima City University. During her studies Eiko began volunteering at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival. Whilst there, she learned first hand what it takes to organise a successful animation festival.
She then decided to study animation in the UK.
After moving to South Wales, she missed having a local animation festival so much that in 2010 she set up the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival, the only Japanese-themed animation festival in Wales.
Always keen to promote Japanese culture and animation.
As you can imagine, Eiko is a true Otaku.
EVGENIA GOLUBEVA
Evgenia is an award winning animation director, character designer and screenwriter. Her clients include Disney, Nick Jr, BBC and Sky Kids. She’s written for TV shows like Circle Square, Obki, Hey Duggee and Best Bugs Forever. She’s directed 15 episodes of kids TV show “Millie and Lou” for Blue Zoo and YouTube Originals.
Evgenia develops her own IP for kids TV and books. One of her TV shows ‘The Question Club’, was acquired by The Riki Group and is currently in production. ‘The Saskatoons’ was presented at Cartoon forum 2021 and is in development with Sardinha Em Lata and Pikkukala. Evgenia has directed a number of award-winning short films. Among her awards are the UNICEF Award at Cartoons on the Bay, the Audience Award at Indie Junior Allianz, the Czech TV Award at Zlin Festival and the Audience Award at Cardiff Animation Film Festival in 2020.
TOM LUCAS
Tom Lucas has been working in the animation industry for over ten years. Since graduating from University of South Wales Tom has freelanced for a variety of studios on series, short films and commercials and is now a Senior Artist at Cloth Cat in Cardiff.
In his spare time, Tom has also made a string of short films (mostly set in space) including “Botanical Nightmare”, “Death in Space” and most recently “Pre-Venge”.