What If? Competition judges
- Published
This year the BBC is looking into the future, to find out what it holds for health, education, transport and even love. The season is called "What If?" and we asked you to send us your visions of the future. Hundreds of you did, the competition is now closed and we will be announcing the winners on March 25th.
Five high-profile artists and creatives representing each continent will judge the pieces and choose the winner from a shortlist created by the What If? competition team.
These are our five judges.
Americas
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Curator, writer and academic Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev was named the most influential figure in contemporary art in 2012 by Art Review magazine in its annual Power 100 list.
She has held a number of senior curator positions at prestigious institutions, including acting as the artistic director of dOCUMENTA 13, one of the most important international exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. She divides her time between bases in New York and Rome.
Her books include William Kentridge and Arte Povera.
Asia
Gitanjali Rao
Gitanjali Rao is an illustrator, director, producer and animator from India.
Her film Printed Rainbow won two official awards and the Rail d'or at La Semaine de la Critique Cannes 2006 and was described as "an exquisite jewel of an animation short" at The World Cinema Festival in Amsterdam.
She has won more than 20 awards in India and abroad and in 2011 returned to Cannes as La Semaine de la Critique Jury member. As a producer at Acme Film Works, she has worked on a number of award-winning commercials.
She is currently working on two feature-length animation films: Lovestory 2012 and Girgit.
Africa
Mohamed Ghazala
Mohamed Ghazala was born in Benghazi, Libya, but has Egyptian nationality. His film Honyan's Shoe won the best animation award at the 2010 African Movie Academy Awards.
He is the founder and director of Africa's first chapter of the International Animated Film Association and has directed or co-directed a number of award-winning films including Carnival, Crazy Works, Sayari Yetu and Yemen's first animated film, Salma.
Ghazala is currently lecturing at the animation department at Minia University, Egypt. His mission is to promote Egyptian, Arabic and African animation around the world.
Europe
Steve Harding-Hill
Steve Harding-Hill is one of the top animation directors at Aardman Studios, an Oscar-winning company based in the UK.
In 1991, he was awarded the prestigious Channel Four/ Momi Animation Award, and in 1993 he won the British Film Institute Mari Kuttna Award for best animated film with Angry George Irons.
His film The Ticker Talks won the best animated film award at Bradford Animation Festival in 1995. It was also nominated for a Bafta in the best animated film category in 1996 and later that year it went on to win the Special Jury Prize at the Ottawa Animation Festival.
He has directed worldwide advertising campaigns for British and international brands as well as a high-profile campaign for the UK Department of Health's Change4Life.
Oceania
Ross Dawson
Ross Dawson is a leading futurist and entrepreneur from Australia.
In 2007, Digital Media magazine named him as one of the 40 biggest players in Australia's digital age: "Ross Dawson is one of the truly big thinkers of the Australian digital media industry. He has been described as a guru of the online media and Web 2.0 movement."
He is the author of a number of books including Living Networks, which in 2002 predicted the social networking revolution.
He founded the think tank Future Exploration Network and is the chairman of Advanced Human Technologies, a firm that advises leading organisations around the world on the digital future.