Jury & Judging
Judging structure for the 2026 CMAS World Championship — the roles on-site and the international jury appointed by the CMAS Visual Commission. Anonymous online scoring.
Anonymised Online Judging
A nine-member international jury appointed by the CMAS Visual Commission judges the championship. Scoring is anonymised and conducted online.
Every submitted photograph and video is anonymised before it reaches the jury — scoring is on the work only, not the author or the federation. Final standings are published on the CMAS website within 10 working days of the closing ceremony.
Roles
Technical Delegate
Cenk Ceylanoğlu
CMAS-appointed. Oversees the championship’s conformity with CMAS rules — procedural, technical and safety.
LOC Championship Director
Senior representative of the Local Organising Committee (POSSI + Karang Divers). Runs the event on the ground, coordinates with the Technical Delegate.
Head of Judges
Coordinates the judging process across both disciplines. Liaison to the jury.
President of the Photo Jury
Leads the Photography discipline scoring across the seven categories.
President of the Video Jury
Jovana Milanko
Leads the Video discipline scoring across the three categories.
International Jury Members
The international jury members appointed by the CMAS Visual Commission score submissions anonymously online.
Meet the Jury
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Dr Cenk Ceylanoğlu is a dentist and orthodontic specialist in private practice in Istanbul since 2004. He began scuba diving in 1998 and, inspired by the underwater world, took up underwater photography in 2002, competing in national championships from 2005. Over his competitive career he received more than 20 national and international awards — winning the overall European Championship in 2014, becoming World Champion in the Wide-Angle with Model category in 2017, and placing third overall at the 2017 CMAS World Underwater Photography Championship. Since retiring from competition he has served as Technical Delegate for the CMAS Underwater Photography Championships in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025. In 2021 he published a book of underwater photography drawn from his diving career worldwide.
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Jovana Milanko is an award-winning cinematographer specialising in underwater film. Born in Novi Sad, Serbia, she completed a Master’s degree in Cinematography at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. To support her ambition of becoming an underwater cinematographer she worked as a scuba diving instructor and became a skilled underwater filmmaker. She now travels the world exploring and filming the aquatic environment, which remains her main inspiration.
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Kay Burn Lim is an acclaimed underwater cinematographer and photographer from Australia. His work earned a Best Cinematography nomination at the 2018 Canadian Screen Awards, and he has contributed to television series including “Great Blue Wild”. Kay is active in product development with underwater camera-equipment manufacturers, and in late 2023 he founded SUBNOX, a company specialising in underwater video lighting. He also serves as a brand ambassador for several companies.