Meet your AUREA#8 Jury
We are thrilled to announce the jury for AUREA#8!
For the past seven years, the AUREA Award has celebrated excellence in immersive and innovative realities, and our all-star jury has been key to its success. With this year’s theme, “Through the Looking Glass: Where Layered Realities Unfold,” the jury will reflect on humanity, illusions, magnification (even distortion) and the reinterpretations of truth and transparency.
This year’s jury brings together industry leaders and visionaries who are at the forefront of immersive technology and entertainment. Their expertise and insights will guide us in recognising the most groundbreaking projects shaping the future of XR in entertainment!
Kathleen Cohen
Jury Chair
Kathleen is known as a Tech Humanist and an XR Immersive Strategist with over 25 years building both user and guest experiences.
Founder of The Collaboratorium, a consultancy focusing on Spatial Computing, XR/AI Research, Strategy & Production, as well as Public Engagement - Kathleen’s clients range from Megacity, Gigacity projects to Media & Entertainment and Health & Wellness implementations. Her XR/AI Research focuses on key learnings from both the Indigenous Science and the Neurodivergent communities. Currently, Kathleen is teaming up to build a City of Los Angeles Reclamation project - turning abandoned parcels of land into immersive, urban sanctuaries.
Kathleen’s background as a Creative and a Producer include: DreamWorks Interactive, IBM Centers for Innovation and Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. Kathleen also was the former Vice President of Digital Innovation & Integration for The National Constitution Center helping to tell the contemporary story of the U.S. Constitution. For the past six years, Kathleen has been the Jury Chair and a Keynote Speaker for the AUREA Award, a conference and awards show, focusing on global excellence in immersive XR entertainment, hosted by Europa-Park.
Frank Govaere
Born in Belgium, Frank Govaere studied film and animation at the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium and was a master student of Raoul Servais, one of the founding fathers of European animation. He graduated as Master of Fine Arts.
He started his career in traditional animation working on Feature Films and TV-Series and became one of the pioneers of digitising 2D-Animation workflows and extended his skills into 3D Animation and VFX, specialising in the realisation of large media productions. Frank headed the VFX-Unit at UFA Serial Drama and is a driving force behind UFA’s endeavours in VR/AR/XR -specifically in regard to the creative and technical development of Volumetric Film.
In 2021, he joined ICT AG and was involved in the set-up of one of the first virtual production studios in Germany: HALOSTAGE.
Christina Lee Storm
Christina Lee Storm is an award-winning producer and Governor of the Television Academy's Emerging Media Programming peer group. She has expertise from DreamWorks Animation and Netflix, explores the transformative power in storytelling and workflow design. With credits including How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Trolls, Boss Baby and Jurassic Punk, Christina’s work celebrates the innovation and limitless future of immersive entertainment.
Thomas Wagner
Thomas Wagner is Co-Founder and CEO of VR Coaster GmbH&Co.KG, the worldwide leading company for Virtual-Reality-Experiences on ride attractions. He is also Professor for Virtual Design at the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern. Working in the Media and Games Industry for over 20 years now, Wagner has won several international Awards for Excellence in Game-, 3D- and Mobile App Design, including two Adobe Max Awards, the iTunes „Best of“ Selection and multiple awards in the Theme Park Industry. He is the inventor of the wireless VR Coaster System that changed the Theme Park Industry with over 70 installations on roller coasters and drop towers all over the world.
Julian Reyes
Julian Reyes is an award-winning XR producer and Director of the Virtual Worlds Museum™. With a background in immersive media and electronic music, he bridges technology and art to preserve virtual world heritage, foster interoperability, and promote ethical innovation. He has held roles at Meta, Cisco, and Exponent. Julian is our previous AUREA winner sitting on the jury for AUREA#8.