FESTIVAL JURY
AniMela is proud to announce its official jury for the 2026 South Asia Short Film Competition
SOUTH ASIA JURY
Shilpa Ranade
Animator & Educator
Monisha Advani
Producer & Film Executive
Gaëtan Trigot
Producer & Distributor
South Asia Student Jury
Prakash Moorthy
Animator & Educator
Cédric Pilot
Producer & Screenwriter
Lotte Marie Allen
Curator & Educator
South Asia Student Jury
Prakash Moorthy
Animator & Educator
Biography
Prakash Moorthy is an animator, production designer, and educator whose work spans animation, live-action cinema, and public spaces. He served as Head of Animation for Sesame Street India – Galli Galli Sim Sim at Miditech and directed the animated film Sulochana and the Nature Detectives for Turner Broadcasting. He was Production Designer on the live-action features Raison de Cœur by Markus Imhoof and Vanaprastham by Shaji N. Karun, and also designed wildlife interpretation centres at Eravikulam National Park and the Munnar Wildlife Reserves. His book Animating an Indian Story was published by NID. He was the Founding Head Professor of the Department of Animation Cinema at SRFTI and is currently Professor of Practice at UID NCR, G. D. Goenka University, Delhi.
Biography
Cédric Pilot was born in the last century and has been inventing stories ever since, from explaining missing cookies to making sense of school mishaps. Choosing cinema over a career at his hometown’s paperclip factory, he graduated from ESRA in 1997 and soon joined Method Animation. There, he became a producer and screenwriter, contributing to celebrated series and films including The Little Prince, Le Petit Nicolas, and Little Vampire. As Method Animation grew and became part of the Mediawan Group (now Mediawan Kids & Family), Cédric continued developing projects for audiences of all ages. Nearly 30 years on, his appetite for storytelling — and collaboration — remains as strong as ever.
Cédric Pilot
Producer & Screenwriter
Lotte Marie Allen
Curator & Educator
Biography
Lotte Marie Allen is an interdisciplinary media-maker, curator, arts administrator, and educator from Queens, New York. She currently lives and works with her partner outside of Mumbai, India, and teaches visual design at BITS Design School. Her creative work often includes collage, videos, drawing, and other media exploring imagined futures, collective memory, and nonlinear narratives.
South Asia Jury
Biography
Shilpa Ranade is a Professor at the IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay, where she teaches animation and played a key role in establishing the discipline in 2006. An alumna of IDC, she later completed her MPhil in Animation from the Royal College of Art, London. She has directed animated short films for Channel 4, UK, with her work screening widely at international festivals. Deeply engaged with children’s content, she has created films and books in close collaboration with young audiences, and illustrated extensively for publishers including Scholastic, Pratham, Eklavya, Duckbill, and Karadi Tales. She directed the animated feature Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya for the Children’s Film Society of India, which premiered internationally and received multiple awards.
Shilpa Ranade
Animator & Educator
Monisha Advani
Producer & Film Executive
Biography
Monisha Advani is a founding partner of Emmay Entertainment, where she leads the company’s overall business strategy and growth. Since its inception in 2011, Emmay has become one of India’s leading production houses, with successful films including Airlift, Batla House, and Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway. Alongside her work in cinema, Advani actively supports entrepreneurship through angel investments and board appointments in organisations such as India Food Network, BoomLive, Decision Fuel, and Jombay, and as part of the MyFirstCheque investor consortium. Her recognitions include Outlook Business Woman of the Year (2018) and Business World’s Inspiring Woman Entrepreneur (2019). A Mumbai native, she credits her success to being a voracious reader.
Biography
After working in sales at Celluloid Dreams and Mk2 Films, Gaëtan Trigot co-founded Pentacle Productions in 2020 with producer Baptiste Salvan. Working across animation and live action, documentary and fiction, the company produces short and feature films driven by singular creative voices. Pentacle also launched Pentacle Distribution, a label dedicated to the international sales and distribution of short films, with a particular focus on animation. Over the past five years, they have produced and distributed more than 30 short films, earning over 300 selections and awards at major festivals worldwide, including Clermont-Ferrand, Short Shorts, Sitges, and Cannes Critics’ Week. In June 2025, The Night Boots by Pierre-Luc Granjon received three awards at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, including the prestigious Cristal for Best Short.
