One of my favorite pros of having produced the Computer Animation Festival is that I am sometimes asked to sit on an animation jury. I usually say yes, even though I have been witness to some exhausting jury sessions, I still love watching and discussing animation with others in a jury forum. I like there to be something at stake. Not just prizes for the animators who have probably suffered in one way or another to produce their films, but as a jury member you can feel the weight your decisions have in defining the style and structure of the animation pieces shown at that particular festival.

Most of the juries I have served on have been in the States or Western Europe. Needless to say, there is a fairly regular overlap in content submitted to these geographic locations.  I often found myself wondering how to get more Asian countries to submit their films to SIGGRAPH North America, (as it’s being called now that we have SIGGRAPH Asia and our 2011 Conference is being held in Vancouver, Canada.) So when I was at ANIMA this past winter and a very nice festival organizer from China asked if I would be able to sit on the jury of the 7^th China International Computer Animation and Digital Art Festival (CICADAF 2010), how could I say no?