Over fifteen years, Jolbors Festival has grown from a local Central Asian event into a platform that brings together creative markets from across the world. Today it is a festival where new connections are made, ideas are challenged, and creative standards continue to evolve. The regular entry deadline is July 26, while the final deadline is August 24. Jolbors Festival co-founder Sabina Reingold reflects on the festival’s journey, its growing international role, and why agencies around the world are beginning to take notice.
Jolbors Festival is becoming increasingly visible internationally, but many agencies in APAC still know very little about it. How did the festival begin?
Sabina: Jolbors was born fifteen years ago in Kyrgyzstan – a small country that, at the time, barely had a creative advertising industry at all. From the very beginning, though, we never thought of it as a local initiative. Because Kyrgyzstan is part of Central Asia, the idea was always to create a platform that could bring the region together.
Back then, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan already had more developed markets. International network agencies were opening offices, bringing global expertise and gradually shaping the industry. But there was very little connection between agencies across the region, and almost no festival culture. Many people genuinely didn’t understand why creative awards mattered or how they could influence agencies, clients or the market itself.
That was exactly why Jolbors appeared. Its mission was to unite the industry, create a strong creative community and help raise the overall level of work. We wanted to build an environment where professionals could learn from one another, challenge each other and create work capable of competing internationally.
When I look back today, I think that’s what makes me happiest. Jolbors Festival and our industry have grown up together. Fifteen years ago, agencies across the region barely knew each other. Today they’re collaborating, serving on each other’s juries, recommending one another to clients, sharing knowledge and genuinely celebrating each other’s success. We didn’t just build a festival. We helped build a community.
As Jolbors becomes more international, that part of our mission hasn’t changed. The only difference is the scale. Today we want to create those same connections between creative people from many more countries, because that’s where the most interesting ideas often begin.
In 2025, Jolbors Festival became an international festival. Why was this the right moment?
Sabina: By that point, the industry had matured significantly. For several years, international jury members had been telling us that both the quality of the work and the level of the festival already matched global standards.
Eventually, it became clear that the next step was expansion. The community we’d built was already thinking internationally. It needed a platform that reflected those ambitions.
People sometimes ask me whether Jolbors Festival has changed over the years. I actually don’t think it has. Fifteen years ago we were bringing together creative people from across Central Asia because that was what the industry needed. Today we’re bringing together creative people from across countries and continents. The mission is exactly the same. Only the map has become bigger.
We want agencies from different parts of the world to meet, exchange perspectives, discover new ways of thinking and, hopefully, create work together. As more international speakers, jurors and agencies became part of the festival, opening Jolbors Festival to the world felt like the most natural next step.
What makes this stage especially exciting is that we’re still building it. Every new country, every new agency and every new creative perspective genuinely shapes what Jolbors Festival becomes.
Our jury has long been international. This year’s jury features internationally acclaimed creative leaders from Japan, South Korea, Thailand, the Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, the UAE, Brazil, Pakistan, the Philippines and Central Asia. Every member of our jury has won at the world’s leading creative festivals, including Cannes Lions, Clio, D&AD, The One Show, ADFEST and Spikes Asia, and has also served as a juror at many of the industry’s most respected international awards.
Bringing together diverse cultural perspectives, deep experience across local markets and different creative disciplines, the jury reflects what Jolbors Festival stands for: great creative ideas happen when different ways of thinking come together. Every year, the festival becomes more international, and more competitive.
Why should agencies around the world submit their work to Jolbors Festival?
Sabina: Entering an award show is, first and foremost, a professional challenge. Our jury brings together experts from very different markets, cultures and creative backgrounds, giving agencies a chance to see how their work resonates beyond familiar contexts. That perspective is incredibly valuable. It helps you understand not only what makes your ideas strong, but also how they are interpreted by people who think differently.
There’s also the opportunity to become part of a creative community that is still growing internationally. One of the things we’ve learned over the past fifteen years is that the real value of a festival isn’t limited to the awards ceremony. It comes from the conversations that happen around it. Some of the strongest professional relationships in our region began because people met at Jolbors. Agencies found production partners. Creatives found future colleagues. Clients discovered new talent. Those connections continued long after the trophies had been handed out.
As Jolbors grows internationally, we’re creating those same opportunities on a much broader scale.
There is also another reason. Many international agencies still know very little about Central Asia, even though it’s one of the fastest-growing creative regions today. Local brands are becoming more ambitious, businesses are investing more in branding and communications, and agencies across the region are producing increasingly competitive work.
And, of course, the award itself carries real weight. Our jury evaluates work according to the same standards they apply at the world’s leading festivals, so winning a Jolbors Award is meaningful recognition from people who have shaped the global creative industry themselves.
The strongest endorsement, however, comes from people who’ve experienced the festival firsthand. Thomas Hongtack Kim – founder of 2kg, CCO and Partner at Paulus, former Executive Creative Director at Cheil, and a jury&board member of several international festivals – described Jolbors as one of the best festivals he had ever attended after serving as both a juror and a speaker. For me, feedback like that matters more than any marketing campaign could.
Over the past fifteen years, I’ve watched conversations at Jolbors turn into creative partnerships, new businesses, long-term friendships and award-winning work. Those outcomes were never part of the official programme. They happened because the right people happened to be in the same place at the same time. That’s probably the contribution I’m most proud of. As we become more international, I hope we’ll see those connections happen across many more countries, cultures and creative disciplines. Because great ideas don’t emerge from everyone thinking the same way. They emerge when different perspectives meet.
And if Jolbors can help make those meetings happen, then I think we’re doing exactly what we set out to do fifteen years ago.
Explore the details and submit your work at Jolbors Festival
Jolbors Awards International 2026 Entry Deadlines
- Regular Deadline: Now – July 26, 2026
- Final Entry Period: July 27 – August 24, 2026
