Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has announced the composition of this year’s Shortlisting Jury, which will decide which works from around the world enter the shortlist for the Festival awards. Among experts from different markets and disciplines are also two representatives from Croatia: Rajna Cuculić, Executive Director of WPP Media for Croatia and Slovenia and Board member of HURA and IAB Croatia, and Anselmo Tumpić, Creative Director of the agency Studio Tumpić/Prenc.
Their appointment comes at a time when Cannes Lions is increasingly trying to expand the representation of markets and experts participating in defining the Festival’s criteria. This year’s jury includes representatives from a larger number of African and Pacific markets, while experts from Ethiopia, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka are participating in the Shortlisting process for the first time.
Still, for the regional industry, the more important signal comes from the fact that Croatia is once again among the markets whose experts participate in the process of evaluating global creativity. The Shortlisting Jury holds one of the key roles within the Festival because this is where the filtering of thousands of entries from around the world begins. It is the stage where winners are not yet selected, but where it is decided what even enters serious international competition.
Rajna Cuculić will be part of the jury in the Media category, one of the Festival’s most competitive categories, which rewards strategic and creative use of media. In recent years, this category has increasingly highlighted projects that connect data, technology, content distribution and cultural context, turning Media Lions into a space where not only campaigns are evaluated, but also the understanding of how attention functions today. Speaking about the appointment, Cuculić said she sees this as recognition for the domestic market as well, emphasizing that “relevance does not come from the size of the market, but from the level of work that comes from it.”
In the Design category, Croatia will be represented by Anselmo Tumpić, whose role will be to participate in the selection of works that use design as a central communication tool for brands. In recent years, Design Lions has been viewed less exclusively through aesthetics, and increasingly through the ability of design to influence audience experience, perception and behaviour. Tumpić believes his appointment comes as a result of the continuous strengthening of the domestic creative scene and the increasingly visible presence of regional works at international festivals.
As he said, “The increasingly frequent participation of our members in the Cannes jury is a natural continuation of the growing quality of work coming from our market.” In his statement, he also pointed out that Studio Tumpić/Prenc already has a Cannes Lions award won in 2024, which further confirms that domestic studios and agencies are increasingly entering international competition not only as participants, but as relevant players within the industry itself.
This year’s Cannes Lions takes place from 22 to 26 June and will once again gather thousands of representatives from agencies, brands, media and technology companies from more than 90 countries. Alongside the awards ceremonies, Cannes Lions continues to be one of the main places where the industry attempts to define what creative value actually means today. That is why the composition of the jury often says just as much as the winners themselves, because it shows which markets, agencies and individuals are participating in shaping the criteria by which creativity will be measured globally.
The 2026 Shortlisting Jurors have been named as:
Brand Experience & Activation
Alkisti Stolp | CEO, McCann, Germany
Anton Kim | Chief Marketing Officer, Forte, Kazakhstan
Cristina Re Calegari | Head of Marketing and Communication, Synlab Italia, Italy
Deh Bastos | Creative and Content Director, Paim, Brazil
Delali Dzidzienyo | Head, Marketing and Corporate Affairs, First National Bank Ghana, Africa
Eka Kipiani | Creative Director and Founder, Supermarket, Georgia
Florencia Loda | Chief Creative Officer, draftLine, AB InBev, Argentina
Heinrich Vejlgaard | Executive Creative Director, Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded, Denmark
Humza Ijaz | Managing Director, Head of Design and Digital Products, Accenture Song, Middle East
Ivan Landzhev | Chief Creative Officer, gutsandbrainsDDB, Bulgaria
Jan Ott Hendrik | Executive Creative Director, BBDO Beijing, Mainland China
Jon Biggs | EMEA Executive Creative Director, Monks, EMEA
Jonelle Ricketts | Head of Marketing, IKEA, Canada
Josephine Muvumba | Managing Director, MetropolitanRepublic, Uganda
Karla Bonilla | President and Chief Creative Officer, Fire Creative, Puerto Rico
Kit Koh | Group Executive Creative Director, Leo Shanghai, Mainland China
Laurent Marcus | Innovation and Technology Director, Special Group, Australia
Mabel Adeteye | Head of Brands and Marketing Communications, Wema Bank, Nigeria
Márton Jedlicska | Executive Creative Director, Publicis Groupe, Hungary
Moumita Pal | National Creative Director, Dentsu Creative, India
Nina East | Group Creative Director, Ogilvy, Australia
Penny Sadlier | Managing Director, LePub Singapore and PG One APAC, Singapore and APAC
Ricardo Aspiazu | SVP – Creative and Brand Design, Verizon, USA
Ricardo Mendoza | Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy, Guatemala
Rizek Jildeh | Head of Strategy, Adpro&, Jordan
Rob Longuet | Creative Director, Dentsu Creative, Aotearoa New Zealand
Saakshi Verma Menon | Chief Marketing Officer, Foods, PepsiCo, India
Sebastien Zanini | Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Creative Paris, France
Shu Hung | Global Chief Creative Officer, AKQA, Global
Veronica Ruiz del Vizo | CEO, Amarillo Creative Lab, Venezuela
Warunyoo Sorasetsakoon | Executive Creative Director, BBDO Bangkok, Thailand
Winston Binch | Chief Brand and Experience Officer, GALE, USA
Creative Strategy
Aki Spicer | Chief Strategy Officer and Consultant, formerly Cashmere and Monks, USA
Amine Bennis | CEO, Tribal Casablanca, Morocco
Carmen Rodriguez | Global Chief Growth Officer, GUT, Global
David Halter | Chief Practice Officer, Dentsu Creative, Australia
Emeka Obia | Regional Head of Strategy, Publicis West Africa, West and Central Africa
Gil Kemami | CEO Pan-Africa, Twotone Global, Kenya
Lulu Cuevas | Strategy Director, Cultura de Marcas, LATAM
Maria Galleriu | Chief Strategy Officer, International, 72andSunny, Global
Nilakshi Medhi | Chief Strategy Officer, Publicis Groupe, Indonesia
Rowena Bhagchandani | CEO and Co-Founder, BLKJ Havas, Singapore
Shawna Ross | Chief Strategy Officer, Dentsu Creative, USA
Taciana Lopes | SVP of Marketing and Communications, Mastercard, Brazil
Tarek Sioufi | Chief Strategy Officer, Grey London, UK
Design
Akinpelumi Okelola | Senior Design Specialist, NBCUniversal, Global
Andrea Castro | Art Director, Joystick, Costa Rica
Anna Yates | Executive Creative Director, Host Havas, Australia
Anselmo Tumpić | Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director, Studio Tumpić/Prenc, Croatia
Anthony Shea | VP, Design Director, Arnold, USA
Bastien Baumann | Chief Design Officer, Publicis Groupe, USA
Bronwen Rautenbach | Co-Founder and Creative Partner, Sunshinegun, Africa
Camila Moleta | Founder, MORE GRLS, Brazil
Colin Yesutor | Creative Director, Havas Africa, Ghana and Nigeria
David Allard | Executive Creative Director, Sid Lee, Canada
David Fischer | Creative Director and Executive Board Member, Scholz & Friends, Switzerland
Elin Eskilsson | Creative Director and Brand Designer, Kid Collective AB, Sweden
Emma Barratt | Global Executive Creative Director, Wolff Olins, Global
Eva Stetefeld | Managing Partner and Executive Creative Director, DDB, Germany
Joachim Roncin | Head of Design, Maison Fantôme, France
Jyrki Poutanen | Chief Creative Officer, United Imaginations, Finland
Nina Granath | Creative Director, Stockholm Design Lab, Sweden
Raya AbuJaber | Creative Director, Jordan
Direct
Alex Pineda | Chief Creative Officer, Horizon FCB, MENA
Arthur Tsang | Chief Creative Officer, McCann China, Greater China
Ashish Khazanchi | Managing Partner, Enormous, India
Awing Chen | Founder and Creative Partner, Good Percent, Asia
David Fraser | Executive Creative Director, BMF, Australia
Dudu Mokholo | Chief Marketing Officer, Pernod Ricard, Africa Middle East
Emmanuel Amankwah | Executive Creative Director, ReZultz Advertising M&C Saatchi, Ghana
Felipe Paniago | Chief Marketing Officer, Reclame AQUI, Brazil
Gabriela Ortiz Chacón | Creative Director, PARADAIS TBWA, Ecuador
Jenny Mak | Executive Creative Director and Partner, jnr., Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand
Jesús Rasines | Chief Creative Officer, Havas Creative, Spain
Johan Køhler | Creative Director, NoA | &Co., Denmark
Kelsey Hodgkin | CEO and Partner, Special US, USA
Mateusz Mroszczak | Chief Creative Officer, VML, Singapore
Nobuhiro Arai | Executive Creative Director, AKQA Tokyo, Japan
Odile Breffa | Strategy Director, Innocean Berlin, Germany
Pannarai Juanroong | Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy, Thailand
Sally Alzaza | Regional Creative Director, Interesting Times, MENA
Sehee Kim | Creative Director, Innocean, South Korea
Shani Gershi | VP Creative and Strategy, Kendago, Global
Steph Mackie | Co-Founder and Co-Chief Creative Officer, Mackie Biernacki Inc., Global
Tawanda Mahobele | Creative Lead, TBWA, Zimbabwe
Third Domingo | Founder and Chairman, IdeasXMachina Hakuhodo, the Philippines and APAC
Volkan Dalkılıç | Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Groupe, Türkiye
Zeynep Orbay | Creative Director, Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, the Netherlands
