By the time I first became a jury member, I had already organised and led several jury processes in India. I knew the mechanics well.
Yet sitting on the other side felt surreal.
I was used to inviting jury members. Now I was one, internationally, in Germany at ITFS Stuttgart, alongside the FMX.
A month before the screenings even began, the jury announcement landed. I saw the names I would be sitting beside and paused for a moment. Bill Plympton. Reinhard Klooss. It was a company I had to absorb quietly.
Then the films began, and the weight dissolved. The curator instinct took over. Status stopped mattering. The only questions that remained were simple. Which film moved me. Which storytelling landed with precision. Which moments made you forget yourself.
I wasn’t thinking about responsibility. I was waiting to be immersed.
Annecy International Animation Film Festival was different. It felt like an alma mater. Over the years I had arrived there in many forms: journalist, managing editor, participant, regional representative, pavilion organiser, panel moderator.
And eventually, jury member.
That journey from first visit to the jury room felt complete. The experience was deeply fulfilling: the films, the conversations, the shared discoveries inside the jury process.
Being a jury member across several awards and festivals, and not only in animation, has always been a welcome experience. Every jury, every tradition reveals a different lens. Between screenings come debates, disagreements, and the quiet surprise of seeing someone else notice something you had missed entirely.
The great thing about being a jury member is that sometimes an entry, be it a mobile app, a short film, or a startup, can make you so personally passionate that you develop a sense of ownership over it. You are ready to stand up and champion it, push for it, defend it inside the sanctity of the jury room with all its proper procedures and protocols. That experience is very unique in itself.
That is why this was never Jury Duty.
It was always Jury Joy.