Cannes Lions 2026 Jury Is Here — 10 Indians, First-Ever Jurors from Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and the Most Diverse Line-Up Yet

Introduction

Every June, a group of the world's most respected creative and marketing professionals travel to the south of France and do something that quietly shapes the entire global advertising industry for the year ahead — they decide what excellence looks like. The Cannes Lions awarding jury is not simply a panel of judges. It is a living editorial board for global creativity, and the diversity of its composition directly influences which ideas, which markets, and which cultural perspectives get celebrated and replicated worldwide. The 2026 jury line-up, announced for the 73rd edition of the festival running June 22 to 26 in Cannes, France, is the most geographically and institutionally diverse in the event's history. India has ten voices in that room. Here is the full picture.

The Big Announcement

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has officially announced its complete Awarding Jury line-up for 2026, featuring representatives from a wider range of markets than any previous edition. The festival takes place from June 22 to 26 in Cannes, France, marking its 73rd year as the global benchmark for creative excellence across advertising, marketing, and communications.

India's ten confirmed jury members, and the categories they will judge, are:

• Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asia — Creative Data
• Rakesh Menon, Chief Creative Experience Officer, Ulka — Creative Business Transformation
• Dheeraj Sinha, CEO, McCann India — Creative Strategy
• Gurbaksh Singh, CCO and Chief Innovation Officer, Dentsu Creative India — Digital Craft
• Prachi Narayan, Managing Partner, Havas Play India — Entertainment
• Subhajit Mukherjee, Music Composer — Entertainment Lions for Music
• Binda Dey, Global CMO, Knight Riders Sports — Entertainment Lions for Sport
• Kainaz Karmakar, CCO, Ogilvy India — Health and Wellness
• Anisha Iyer, CEO, OMD India — Media
• Pooja Manek, Creative and Founding Member, Talented Agency — Outdoor
• Dhruv Warrior, Executive Creative Director, VML India — Print and Publishing

Anupriya Acharya's inclusion in the Creative Data jury brings India's total confirmed representation to eleven jury positions across the full line-up — broader than any previous Indian cohort at the festival.

This year's jury also marks historic firsts on the global stage, with jurors from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela joining for the first time, alongside strengthened representation from Africa, the Pacific, MENA, and Latin America. French insurance brand AXA makes its jury debut following a strong 2025 Lions performance, continuing a broader shift toward brand-side representation in the judging process.

What This Means for Your Brand

The composition of the Cannes Lions jury is not an abstract industry milestone — it has direct, practical implications for how Indian brands and agencies should think about their creative ambitions over the next twelve months.

Three strategic observations matter most for Indian marketing and communications professionals. First, jury membership translates into creative standard-setting. The eleven Indian jury members will collectively cast votes that determine what wins Lions across categories spanning data-driven marketing, digital craft, entertainment, sports, music, health communication, media strategy, outdoor, print, and creative business transformation. Indian sensibilities, storytelling instincts, and market realities will be embedded in the evaluation criteria that the global industry uses to calibrate its creative ambitions for the coming year.

Second, the spread of categories is more significant than the count of names. India's representation is not concentrated in traditional advertising categories. It spans the full contemporary marketing spectrum — from Anupriya Acharya evaluating data-led creativity to Binda Dey assessing sports entertainment to Pooja Manek judging outdoor work. This breadth signals that Indian expertise is now considered globally authoritative across virtually every discipline in modern marketing communications.

Third, Pooja Manek's presence as a founder-member of Talented Agency — an independent — alongside the more expected network agency representation reflects the festival's deliberate push to diversify beyond holding company dominance. For India's thriving independent agency ecosystem, this is a meaningful signal that creative quality, not organisational scale, is what earns a seat at the global table.

Expert Take

The philosophical direction of this year's jury selection is articulated clearly by the festival's own leadership. Simon Cook, CEO of LIONS, described the jury's role as setting the global creative benchmark for the year ahead and providing a view of the future shape of creativity — framing the judging process not as a retrospective review of past work but as a forward-looking definition of where the industry is heading. Marian Brannelly, Global Director of Awards at LIONS, characterised this year's composition as reflecting how creativity is evolving — becoming more interconnected, more diverse, and more influential across every part of business. Her observation that a growing number of leaders from independent agencies and brands are now represented directly addresses a long-standing criticism that Cannes juries over-represented large network agency perspectives at the expense of the broader industry.

For India specifically, the eleven jury positions represent the culmination of a trajectory that has been building for several years — from occasional representation in select categories to systemic presence across the full festival programme. The diversity of organisations represented in India's cohort — spanning Publicis, McCann, Dentsu Creative, Ogilvy, Havas, OMD, VML, Knight Riders Sports, a music composer working independently, and an independent agency founder — mirrors the actual diversity of India's creative industry in a way that earlier, more network-concentrated jury line-ups did not.

The brands.in Perspective

There is a version of this story that focuses on the prestige of the appointments and stops there. brands.in thinks that misses the more important point. The Cannes Lions jury does not just celebrate work — it defines it. When Indian professionals sit on these juries, they bring with them a specific understanding of how creativity operates in a market of 1.4 billion people, across dozens of languages, at every income level, through every media channel simultaneously. That understanding enriches global creative standards in ways that benefit not just Indian work but the entire industry's conception of what effective, human, culturally resonant creativity looks like. Eleven Indian jury members in 2026 is not a statistic to be proud of and move on from. It is a responsibility to be exercised with the seriousness and creative ambition it deserves. The industry will be watching what these jurors celebrate — and what they reward will shape what gets made everywhere next year.

Key Takeaways for Marketers

• India has eleven confirmed jury positions at Cannes Lions 2026 — its broadest category representation across the festival's full programme to date
• Categories covered span Creative Data, Business Transformation, Strategy, Digital Craft, Entertainment, Music, Sport, Health, Media, Outdoor, and Print — the full spectrum of modern marketing disciplines
• First-time jurors from Dominican Republic and Venezuela, alongside expanded Africa, Pacific, MENA and LATAM representation, signal the festival's structural commitment to geographic diversity
• Independent agency and brand-side jury inclusion reflects a deliberate move away from network agency dominance in creative standard-setting
• Indian jury members will directly influence what the global industry celebrates and replicates across every major marketing discipline in the year ahead

FAQ

How many Indians are on the Cannes Lions 2026 jury and which categories do they cover? India has eleven confirmed jury positions at Cannes Lions 2026, covering Creative Data, Creative Business Transformation, Creative Strategy, Digital Craft, Entertainment, Entertainment Lions for Music, Entertainment Lions for Sport, Health and Wellness, Media, Outdoor, and Print and Publishing.

What makes the Cannes Lions 2026 jury line-up historically significant? This year's jury represents more markets than any previous edition, includes first-time jurors from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, strengthens representation from Africa, the Pacific, MENA and Latin America, and features a growing number of independent agency leaders and brand-side marketing executives — making it the most geographically and institutionally diverse jury in the festival's 73-year history.

When and where does Cannes Lions 2026 take place? The 73rd Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity runs from June 22 to 26, 2026, in Cannes, France. Note that jury line-ups for the Creative Brand, Dan Wieden Titanium, and Luxury categories are yet to be announced.

Closing

Eleven Indians. Eleven categories. One global stage. The question the Indian advertising and marketing industry now needs to ask itself is not whether it has earned a place at the Cannes table — it clearly has. The question is what it will do with that influence. The work that gets submitted, the campaigns that get entered, and the creative ambition that Indian agencies and brands bring to the 2026 festival will be evaluated by some of their own peers. That is both an opportunity and a standard to meet. Which Indian campaign do you believe is most deserving of Lions recognition in 2026? Share your pick below, and follow brands.in every day for Cannes coverage, creative intelligence, and marketing insights that keep India's most ambitious professionals ahead of the curve.