Jury
MONSTRA 2026 Jury
Feature Films Competition
Julia Peguet
Julia Peguet (b. France) has been working as an animator since 2000. She specialised in stop-motion when she joined in 2004 the studio Aardman Animations. Over the years, she’s animated in other studios all over Europe too. In recent years, she started to also teach animation for students as well as for professionals of the cinema industry who wish to retrain. She published a book “Secrets d’Animateur” (2018) to share everything she learnt through her career with a wider audience.
Mohamed Ghazala
Mohamed Ghazala (b. 1978, Libya), PhD, is an Egyptian award-winning animation filmmaker and scholar engaged with animation cultures in the Arab and African worlds. His work bridges research, curation, and practice through lectures, film programs, and international juries, including Annecy, Zagreb, and Stuttgart. He is the author of “Animation in the Arab World” and “Animation in Africa”, widely regarded as authoritative references in their respective fields.
Maria Trigo Teixeira
Maria Trigo Teixeira (born 1990, Portugal) is an animation film director based between Porto and Berlin. Her films ‘It Shouldn’t Rain Tomorrow’ (2024) and ‘Inside me’ (2019) were internationally screened and awarded, eventually qualifying for the Academy Awards. She also programmed the monthly screenings of the Shortcutz Berlin festival, participated in the Berlinale Talents 2025, did an exhibition for the Galeria Solar and taught at IPCA. Currently, she is working on her new film “Man and Dog”, a tragicomedy that explores the dynamics of power in human relationships.
Pierre Yves Drapeau
Sound designer, film music composer and mixer, Pierre Yves Drapeau (b. Canada) creates soundtracks for different formats. In the early 2000s in Montreal, he specializes in creating soundtracks for auteur animated films with Normand Roger who becomes his mentor and with whom he works full-time for a decade before pursuing his career in the film and television industry. He founded Studiotoons in 2009, a sound post-productions company offering a full range of creative end technical services.
Mário Augusto
Mário Augusto (b. 1963, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal) has been a TV journalist since 1985. He has been, for many years, the Academy Awards’ official Portuguese reporter, assigned to cover the Oscars ceremony. He has been a presenter of the program “Janela Indiscreta” for 23 years. Besides TV, he has also worked in press and radio, was involved in the founding of SIC, and currently works for RTP. He has also written many books on film. Mário has a special interest in animation film and was part of the organization of the CINANIMA festival during the 1980s.
Long Shorts and Short Films Competitions
Aneta Zagórska
Aneta Zagórska is a Kraków and Lisbon based film producer with over twenty years of experience and more than thirty produced films across fiction, documentary and animation. Her work focuses on innovative visual storytelling and global creative collaboration. She is the CEO of Krakow Animation Center and produces internationally, including the feature film ‘MAMA’, premiered at Cannes 2025.
Rita Maria
Born in Lisbon, in 1984, Rita Maria is a singer, composer, teacher and curator in the field of contemporary music and jazz. She studied at ESMAE and Berklee College of Music, developing a career that bridges improvisation, artistic creation, pedagogy and curatorship. She won the 2018 Artist of the Year Award. Rita is the co-founder of RODA record label and curator of the THEIA festival. She is currently preparing the third volume of the project ‘The Art of Song’
Michèle Lemieux
Michèle Lemieux is an illustrator and animation filmmaker who has taught at UQAM’s school of design for over 30 years. Since the late 1970s, she’s worked on 15 illustrated books for young people, including ‘Stormy Night’ (1997), which was adapted to the screen in 2003 at the NFB. In 2006, during a workshop given by Jacques Drouin, Lemieux was introduced to the Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreen, subsequently becoming the artistic heir at the NFB to this unique animation technique. She has made two short films using the pinscreen: ‘Here and the Great Elsewhere’ (2012) and ‘The Painting’ (2024).
Rui Alves de Sousa
Rui Alves de Sousa has been one of Antena 1’s voices since 2022, with programmes such as “De Olhos Bem Fechados”, “Pranchas e Balões”, “Mortinhos por Sair de Casa” and “A Hora da Pop”. Previously, he worked with books, in the music industry, in film production and in health communication. He also created the podcasts “À Beira do Abismo”, “Escolhe Tu!”, and is currently hosting “Imperdoável”. He has written for many websites and is one of the most recent editors of “À Pala de Walsh”. He has also done stand up comedy and theater, and is currently developing new plays.
Vladimir Leschiov
Born in 1970, in Daugavpils, Latvia. Artist, film director, producer, animator, and teacher.
Super Short Films Competition
António Prates
António José Prates (born 1949, Vale de Açor) is a famous portuguese gallerist, entrepreneur, writer and musician, who started the Gallery of São Bento in 1984, the Portuguese Center for Serigraphy in 1985, and some years later, the António Prates Gallery and the António Prates Foundation. He is known for promoting and fostering the arts in Portugal, not only of Portuguese artists but also foreign ones, through the Portuguese Center for Serigraphy and his galleries, commercializing original pieces.
Bruno Simão
Bruno Simão (born 1979, Lisboa) is a photographer, stage director and actor. Currently, he continues to work as a photographer, covering dance and music shows, and theater plays, and collaborates with several institutions, theater companies and individual creators. Sporadically, he also works as stage director, actor, set and costume designer, in theater productions.
Marta Sousa Ribeiro
Marta Sousa Ribeiro (born 1992, Lisbon) is currently part of the board of the association MUTIM – Women Workers of Moving Images. She was also one of the co-founders of VIDEOLOTION. She has produced shorts, features, video-installations, series, and more. She premiered her debut feature “SIMON CALLS” in 2020. She was head of the Film & TV department at the production company Playground (2024–25).
Student Films Competition
Cecile Noesser
Cécile Noesser (b. France), PhD in Sociology of Arts and Culture, is the author of “The Resistible Rise of Animated Cinema. Socio-genesis of a cinema-bis in France” (L’Harmattan, 2016). She teaches at the Ecole Supérieure d’Art et de Design (ESAD) in Amiens. She is co-director of the Cinémas d’Animation Collection at L’Harmattan since 2023. She is also a cultural programmer, critic, curator and co-founder of a gallery dedicated to animation. In 2021 she created Phénakis – a mobile museum for animation.
Maria Hespanhol
Maria Hespanhol (b. Portugal) has participated in many projects including highly awarded short films such as “Summerfest” (2018), “Último Acto” (2019) and the stop-motion animation “A Rapariga de Olhos Grandes e o Rapaz de Pernas Compridas” (2023). Currently, she is finishing her own children’s book and adapting the portuguese book “Sinopse de Amor e Guerra” by Afonso Cruz to film.
Miguel Lima
Miguel Lima (b. 1987) is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker. He established his first contact with independent cinema through the production company Ar de Filmes, in 2015. In 2016, he joined the BAP studio in Porto, where he took part in the development of internationally-awarded cinematographic projects. Along with Dimitri Mihajlovic, he co-directed his first animation short “Quase me Lembro” (2023), collecting multiple national and international awards. Currently he is assistant director for the animation feature film “UNA”, by David Doutel and Vasco Sá.
Student Films Competition
Junior Jury
Marta Nunes
(Agrupamento de Escolas Francisco Simões)
Marta is currently studying Multimedia at the Escola Básica e Secundária Francisco Simões, in Almada. Ever since she was young, she has had a big interest in cinema, both traditional and animation film. She is moved by curiosity and the will to explore new forms of film. She is interested in directing, animating and photography, developing projects that combine these areas. She is constantly searching for new ways to experiment and deepen her creativity, gradually building a more conscious and solid artistic path.
Sofia Lara
(Escola Artística António Arroio)
Sofia Lara is an Audiovisual Communication student, specializing in Multimedia, at the Escola Artística António Arroio. She moved from Brazil to Portugal at 8 years old, having had a big connection with the artistic environment from a very young age. She wishes to deepen her knowledge in the area of author animation film, focusing on experimental animation. She strongly believes in the importance of expression and visual and narrative coherence, finding great value in the reflection of personal language and aesthetics in each artist’s work.
Yasmim Nascimento
(Agrupamento de Escolas D. Dinis)
Yasmim Nascimento is currently attending the 12th grade, as a Multimedia student, at the Agrupamento de Escolas D. Dinis in Lisbon. She seeks to actively participate in different projects, especially school projects, as is the case of her “Apps for Good” project, and the “Festival de Luz em Marvila”. Since childhood, Yasmim has had a big admiration for the possibility of sharing ideas through creativity.
Vasco Granja Portuguese Films Competition
Anete Melece
Anete Melece (b. 1983) is a Latvian author, illustrator, and animation filmmaker. Her animated shorts have received recognition at numerous international festivals, including an Audience Award at MONSTRA 2014. Her picture book, “The Kiosk”, which is based on one of her films, has been translated into more than 20 languages. Anete’s works are distinguished by their witty details, charming characters, and sincere storytelling.
José Manuel Costa
With an academic background in Electrical Engineering, Costa has always worked in the film industry. At the heart of his career is Cinemateca, since 1975, which he directed from 2014 to 2024. He held several positions internationally (FIAF, ACE, LUMIÈRE Project), taught Film and Documentary History and currently teaches Cinematographic Museology. He was co-founder of the Doc’s Kingdom International Seminar and also wrote several articles about film history, documentary and Portuguese film.
Marcel Jean
Since 2012, Marcel is the Artistic Director of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. He is also the Executive Director of the Cinematheque Quebecoise in Montreal, since may 2015. In 1999 he became head of the animation studio at the NFB, until he left in 2005. While working there he produced several films. He has taught history and aesthetic of animation film at the University of Montreal from 1986 to 2012 and was the Director of the documentary program at the Institut National de L’image et Son, from 2012 to 2014.
MONSTRINHA Competition
Carla Raposeira
Carla Raposeira is the director of the Culture Department of the INATEL Foundation, founder of the project INATEL Academy and responsible for the certification process of INATEL foundation as a learning entity. She was an investigator, Music History and Culture of Arts teacher, and published multiple articles in the fields of Cultural Production and Management, Immaterial Cultural Heritage, and on music. Carla also wrote for the Encyclopedia of Music of the 20th Century, and produced several music-related projects for the Smithsonian Institution.
Catarina Calvinho Gil
Catarina Calvinho Gil (Faro) is a director, producer and animator. She has worked on many projects, both national and international, which focus on the social and activist dimensions of animation. She worked as assistant director on the feature film “Nayola” (2022), directed by José Miguel Ribeiro, and the creation of Animagoria – Festa do Cinema de Animação do Algarve.
Márcio Martins
Márcio Martins (born 1979, Lisbon) is a teacher of Audiovisual Communication at the Escola Artística António Arroio. He studied in the Escola Superior de Artes Aplicadas in Castelo Branco, and worked in TV and digital media before he dedicated himself to education. Between 2020 and 2023, he coordinated the Portuguese team of the Evidence project (ERASMUS+), involving students and teachers from Portugal, Estonia, Sweden and Cyprus in the creation of multiple animation short films, among other materials, in order to fight scientific misinformation online.