Meet the Juries of BLON’s Animation Competitions

Meet the Juries of BLON’s Animation Competitions

18 August 2026

Meet the people who will be selecting this year’s BLON winners.

International Competition Jury

Jana Kraft – Programme Director at DOK Leipzig, Germany

Fabian Driehorst – animation producer at Fabian&Fred, Germany

Ieva Šukytė – film journalist, Lithuania

Baltic Sea & Nordic Competition Jury

Kaz Prapuolenis – screenwriter and comic artist, USA

Aušra Juknevičienė – Director of Klaipėda Puppet Theatre, Lithuania

Menghui Huang – Director of Neverland Frames, Finland

Lithuanian Animation Competition Jury

Martin Vandas – producer, Czech Republic

Rafael Motamayor – film critic, Norway

Viktorija Ežiukas – illustrator, Lithuania

Ukrainian Animation Competition Jury

Baptiste Salvan – producer and film distributor, France

Petrit Gora – Artistic Director of REX Animation Film Festival, Sweden

Skaistė Marčienė – Director of the Pranas Domšaitis Gallery, Lithuania

International Young Audience Competition Jury

For this competition, the decision is in the hands of Klaipėda school students. The young jury will watch the films selected especially for younger audiences and choose their own competition winner.

The jurors won’t only be watching and judging films at BLON. You’ll also have a chance to meet some of them across the festival programme, hear them speak and join conversations beyond the cinema screen.

The winners of this year’s BLON competitions will be revealed during the festival, taking place 10–13 September in Klaipėda.

Meet all BLON guests – https://blon.lt/guests

Kaz Prapuolenis
Jury
Animation
Kaz Prapuolenis
USA

Born in Hoboken, New Jersey to Lithuanian parents. Attended art school in New York City and studied comics with Art Spiegelman (Maus). Drew comics for various publications (The New Yorker, Raw Magazine). Created weekly comic strip, Underworld, that ran newspapers across the US. In 2001, started working in animation as a storyboard writer for Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney. In 2015, shifted to writing animation scripts. In addition to TV work, has co-written 3 SpongeBob feature films.