Luc Mayrand, who has spent the past 23 years as a Disney Imagineer, has been named as chair of the judging committee for the 2021 Thea Awards.

Mayrand, who is vice president and creative portfolio executive at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Disney Resorts, has been the leading force behind a number of high-profile projects at the Shanghai and Hong Kong parks.

He has also been a member of the Thea award judging committee for the past five years.

Tasked with leading the 26-person awards committee, Mayrand will be responsible for overseeing the judging process of up to 300 submissions for the prestigious industry awards.

Mayrand revealed that, this year, the awards will look to celebrate projects that have "moved the industry forward".

“It is not the technological aspects or the magnitude of the submitted projects that weigh most heavy," Mayrand said.

"We realise and acknowledge that the very act of creating something sublime requires enormous effort, regardless of the means at your disposal.

"Therefore, we hope to receive entries for different scales of projects, large or small, and obviously give them all equal chances.”

In order to address the timing effect of the pandemic, entries for this year's awards will be accepted for projects that opened between 1 July 2019 and 31 July 2021.

Online submissions opened on 1 May and will run until 6 August 2021.

“We encourage everyone to participate in the THEA Awards, and to keep challenging your teams to develop creative ideas and excellent achievements," Mayrand added.

"Submissions are not limited to clients and those who made the projects, anyone can submit a project they saw for consideration”.

• To find out more about – and to submit an entry for – the Thea Awards, click here.