Sam Mendes announced as judge for The Imagination Awards

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have launched The Imagination Awards, a competition split into two awards for young inventors and designers.

The awards offer two opportunities: Charlie's Challenge, which asks students aged five to 15 to take inspiration from the show’s title character to come up with new solutions to problems facing the world, and the Young Theatre Design Award, which aims to seek out emerging artistic talent.

Today, the judges for the inaugural awards have been announced with a panel including Charlie director Sam Mendes and set and costume designer Mark Thompson.

For Charlie's Challenge, the judges will be Roma Agrawal, structural engineer, WSP Group, 18 year-old entrepreneur and founder of Thinkspace James Anderson, Inventor in Residence, Science Museum Mark Champkins and animator Emily Mulhall.

For the Young Designers Award, the judges will be members of the Charlie creative team including director Sam Mendes, producer Caro Newling, set and costume designer Mark Thompson and director of corporate responsibility at Warner Bros, Jess Moore.

Mendes explained the importance of the imagination when creating Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: "At the start of the show, Charlie Bucket’s world is grey and cold, but he uses his imagination to transform the world into something wonderful. And Willy Wonka and his factory are the embodiment of the power of imagination.

"Creating something out of nothing is miraculous – that’s what Roald Dahl did, it’s what Charlie Bucket and Willy Wonka do, and it’s what we’re celebrating with this prize."

The Patron for the awards will be Ken Robinson.

Entries for the awards close on Monday 6 June with a shortlist announced on 20 June and winners announced on 8 July. For more information, click here.