First wave of shots Awards EMEA 2025 judges announced

With deadline for this year's shots Awards EMEA fast approaching we're very pleased to announce the first wave of creative minds who are poised to judge the best work from the EMEA region over the last year.

Sponsored by GPN Global Production Network and Division.Film, the awards consists of 24 distinct categories, which are judged in ten separate jury groups, and we've already announced this year's head judges [listed below], who will be leading those groups:

• Animation & VFX: Merna Karam, Art Director, Illustrator & 2D Animator, Zanad
• Cinematography: Sveta Aparina, Director of Photography
• Casting, Production Design, and Styling: Alba Barneda, Global Head of Production, CANADA
• Charity: Tamryn Kerr, Co-Founder and CCO, Hijinks
• Concept & Copywriting: Seyoan Vela, CCO, Livingroom
• Direction: Chris Watling, Founder & Partner, BABY TEETH
• Editing: Adriana Legay, Editor, COLLECTIV / Final Cut
• Music & Sound Design: Michaël Sauvage, Sound Designer, Sauvage Sound Studios
• Music Video: Jack Howard, EP & Commercial Director, OkayStudio
• New Director: Richard Adkins, Co-Head of Production, Wieden + Kennedy London

Above: Our first wave of jury members for the EMEA awards 2025 [top to bottom, from left to right - image 1] Andy Steele, Anthony Austin, Bruce Macdonald, Chris Baker, Deon van Zyl, Dionne Archibald, Duarte Domingos, Gaopie Kabe, Hend Esmat, [image 2] Greg Hackett, Gijs van den Berg, Hossam Tarek, Tiger Savage, Anna Mantzaris, and Sara Wallace.

Joining the head judges is an esteemed panel of creative arbiters from across the EMEA region, more of whom will be added in the coming weeks;

• Kojo Abban, EP, LS Productions
• Dionne Archibald, Head of Executive Production, Coffee & TV
• Mazen Attalla, Artist/Animator, Attalla Studio for Visual Arts
• Anthony Austin, Executive Producer, Nexus Studios
• Christopher Baker, Head of New Business, Park Village
• Tash Beecher, Global & EMEA Creative Director, Syneos Health
• Michael Boszko, Creative Director
• Hugo Diaz, Executive Producer & Partner, Henry
• Duarte Domingos, Cinematographer
• Rita El Hachem, Founder & EP, Stoked
• Leonie Ellis, Founder/MD/EP, LE Collaborations
• Hend Esmat, Design & Animation Director, Hend & Lamiaa
• Jesper Gadeberg, Independent Music Supervisor
• Greg Hackett, Director & Founder, Spindle
• Jakub Jirásek, Director/Writer/Musician
• Gaopie Kabe, Cinematographer, Krewkut
• Bruce Macdonald, Film Executive/Director, Boomtown Productions Dubai
• Anna Mantzaris, Director, Passion Pictures / Self-Employed
• Nkanyezi Masango, Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Creative
• Laura McGovern, Creative Director
• Sarah Musker, Freelance Copywriter
• Tobias Paul, Managing Director & Executive Producer, Simon & Paul
• Laura Russ, Director of Photography/Director, Betti Berlin
• Tiger Savage, Creative Director/Consultant, Savage Tiger
• Lana Senaoui, Director, ProdCo
• Andy Steele, Head of 3D, RASCAL
• Hossam Tarek, CG Generalist, Batates Studio
• Kate Taylor, MD/EP/Owner, Rogue
• Sara Wallace,  EP,  Love Song
• Lisa Weller, Music & Business Director, Jung von Matt MUSIC
• Gijs van den Berg, Creative Director, KesselsKramer
• Deon van Zyl, SASC Cinematographer

To find out more about our judges, click here.

The deadline for 2025's EMEA awards is Friday September 12th and the awards themselves will be held on November 19th at The Londoner in Leicester Square. 

To enter your work and be in with a chance of picking up a coveted shots trophy, click here to find out all the information you need to enter. 

There are additional details on the categories you can enter here, and for info on price and eligibility, please click here. 

Above: More of this year's jury members [top to bottom, from left to right] Jakub Jirásek, Jesper Gadeberg, Laura McGovern, Laura Russ, Leonie Ellis, Lisa Weller, Mazen Attalla, Michael Boszko, Nkanyezi Masango and Rita El Hachem.