Lake Bell, Seth Meyers, Bob Odenkirk & Matthew Modine Among Jury For New York International Children’s Film Festival

EXCLUSIVE: New York International Children’s Film Festival has announced its 2025 jury, including Lake Bell, Seth Meyers, Bob Odenkirk, Matthew Modine and Guillermo Martinez, Director and Head of Story at Sony Pictures Animation. Scroll down for the full jury.

The Festival, closing its 29th edition this weekend, is an Oscar-qualifying festival for short films. NYICFF’s 2024 jury award-winning film Magic Candies qualified through last year’s event and was nominated for a 2025 Academy Award. In addition to Magic Candies, NYICFF screened Oscar nominee Yuck as part of its 2024 slate.

NYICFF also presented a preview screening of Best Animated Feature winner Flow, followed by a Q&A with co-writer and producer Matīss Kaža, last November, as well as Oscar nominees Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (with Q&A with director Merlin Crossingham) and The Wild Robot (with Q&A with director Chris Sanders and lead Lupita Nyong’o) as part of its year-round preview screening series in 2024.

NYICFF 2025 runs through March 16 with awards to be announced on March 19 on the festival’s social media platforms.

NYICFF 2025 Jury [provided by the festival]

Lake Bell

Actor, writer, director, and author of All About Brains: A Book About People

Guillermo Martinez

Director and Head of Story at Sony Pictures Animation

Seth Meyers

Emmy winning comedian and host of Late Night with Seth Meyers; author of I’m Not Scared, You’re Scared

Matthew Modine

Emmy nominated actor (Zero Day, Oppenheimer) and producer

Chris Nee

Emmy-winning writer, producer, and creator, Doc McStuffins