Jury & Awards
Jury
Avid Liongoren (Philippines)
Avid Liongoren has made 2 feature films, several shorts, hundreds of commercials and thousands of artworks. He works in both live action and animated productions. He is the founder of Rocketsheep, a tiny indie animation studio made up of highly talented artists who specialize in animation and friendsheep. Their first feature, Saving Sally (2016), was made with the aid of the CNC French film grant. It went on to win the Jury Prize at Belgium's BIFFF, Portugal's Fantasporto and South Korea's SICAF as well as several other international awards. Their second film, Hayop Ka! (2020) competed at the prestigious Annecy Festival in France. In the several years that Avid has been pursuing film, he has yet to experience financial success so he is always willing to sell his internal organs to fund his projects.
Javier Fernandez (Spain)
Javier Fernandez currently holds the presidency of EUNIC Japan, the Association of European Cultural Institutes and he is the Culture Manager of the Spanish House of Culture (Instituto Cervantes). With 20 years of experience in the GAC industries(Gaming, Animation, and Comics), he co-founded Doki Doki, the first and only Spanish-speaking Animation Festival in Asia. At Instituto Cervantes, he has supported the promotion of RobotDreams in the Japanese market and facilitated collaborations with the San Sebastian Film Festival, the Tokyo International Film Festival, and the Niigata Animation Film Festival. With professional experience in audiovisual companies across both the EU, Japan and China, he bridges diplomacy, research and innovation.
Chie Hayakawa (Japan)
Film Director. Her debut feature film, PLAN 75, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a Special Mention for the Caméra d'Or. Her latest work, Renoir, was selected for the festival's main Competition and continues to be screened worldwide. Since 2025, she has been a professor at the Faculty of Anime and Manga, Kaishi Professional University in Niigata.
Awards
Awards presented by the International Jury.
A trophy will be presented to the winner. In addition, a distribution grant of 500,000 JPY will be awarded to the Japanese distributor of the winning film to support its domestic theatrical release.
Feature Competition Jury Award
A trophy will be presented to the winner (Runner-up to the Grand Prix).
The Grand Prix of the Indie Box section is titled the "Swan Award," named after the swan, the official bird of Niigata City. The winner will be presented with a trophy and a production support grant of 500,000 JPY.
A trophy will be presented to the winner (Runner-up to the Grand Prix).
The Award has been newly established to recognize and discover emerging talent across both competition sections. The winner will be presented with a trophy.