Béla TARR

Béla Tarr is a Hungarian filmmaker best known for his signature style in Damnation (1987), Satan’s Tango (1994), Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), and The Man from London (2007). Black-and-white filming and long takes have become his signature aesthetic. His following feature Satan’s Tango (which runs for over seven hours) and Werckmeister Harmonies (which is comprised of thirty-nine shots) have become international sensations. The Man from London competed in the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Tarr’s most recent film The Turin Horse (2011) won the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival and the FIPRESCI Award at the 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Jean-Marie Gustave Le CLÉZIO

Named as the greatest living French language writer by the French literary magazine Lire in 1994, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio is best known for his novel The Interrogation (French title: Le Procès-verbal) and Désert. Le Clézio is the 2008 Nobel laureate in Literature. Touching on various cultural domains, he has served as a jury member at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. The essay Ballaciner (2007), published in French, interviews Korean filmmakers Park Chan Wook, Lee Chang-dong, and Lee Jeong-hyang and reflects the author’s keen interest in Korean cinema. Le Clézio taught as an endowed chair professor at Ewha Womans University in South Korea during the 2007 academic year.

David GILMOUR

Writer, critic, and professor, David Gilmour works in a diverse range of cultural fields. Gilmour’s novels have been celebrated by literary circles, most notably Northrop Frye. His 2005 novel A Perfect Night to Go to China won the Governor General’s Award for English fiction. Considered as Gilmour’s most important work as a critic, The Film Club is an autobiographical memoire that captures conversations with his son. The memoire has been translated into twenty-five languages. Gilmour is also the former host of the Canadian televised documentary series, Gilmour on the Arts, winning a Gemini Award as the best television broadcasting in 1997. Gilmour is currently the Pelham Edgar Professor of Literary Studies at Victoria College at University of Toronto.

JUNG Woo-sung

One of Korea’s iconic film stars, Jung Woo-sung started his acting career in The Fox with Nine Tails (1994). His roles in Beat (1997) and City of the Rising Sun (1998) catapulted Jung into an iconic figure of the Young generation. Carrying his acting career to China, Jung established himself as an international actor from his cast in Musa (2001). The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008) brought Jung to the Cannes Film Festival and The Reign of Assassins (2010) brought the actor to the Venice International Film Festival.

KAWASE Naomi

Kawase Naomi is an international documentary and feature film director. Her debut documentary Embracing (1992) was given a Special Mention FIPRESCI Prize at the 1995 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. In 1997, Kawase became the youngest Camera d’Or winner in the history of Cannes Film Festival for her first feature Suzaku (1997). Her 2006 documentary Tarachime-Birth/Mother won awards at the Locarno International Film Festival as well as the Taiwan, Copenhagen, and Yamagata International Documentary Film Festivals. In 2007, she won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival with The Mourning Forest (2007). Regarded as the leading female filmmaker of Japan, retrospectives of Kawase’s prolific body of work have been organized and displayed in Korea as well as Europe.

Arturo RIPSTEIN

Arturo Ripstein began his professional career at the age of 19 as the assistant director of Luis BUNUEL on El Ángel exterminador (The Exterminating Angel, 1962). From his directorial debut Tiempode morir (Time to Die, 1965), he worked with award winning writers such as Nobel Prize Winner Gabriel Garcia MARQUEZ. Later, he formed the Mexican Independent Film Group with directors like Felipe CASAL and Raphael CASTANETO. In 1997, Ripstein was awarded the National Prize for the Arts in Mexico and became the only filmmaker aside from Buñuel to have received the honor

Cameron BAILEY

Cameron Bailey is the Co-Director of the Toronto International Film Festival. Serving as a festival programmer for more than thirteen years, he had been responsible for the annual selection of films from Africa, South Asia and the Philippines. He has also worked as a curator, journalist, and screenplay writer. In 1997, Bailey completed his first screenplay, The Planet of Junior Brown. As a film critic, he has been published in Filmmaker and Screen. He came to Busan in 2000 as a FIPRESCI jury member.

BYUN Young-joo

As a founding member of the women’s feminist film collective "Bariteo," Byun Young-joo was in charge of filming and archiving videos. Later she founded the Documentary Film Studio “Boim.” Her documentary The Murmuring (1995) won the Shinsuke Ogawa Award at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. It was also screened at the 1st Busan International Film Festival and was the first Korean documentary to be distributed in public theaters. She has also directed feature films, and her latest film Helpless (Hwa-Cha, 2012) won the Best Director award at the 2012 PaekSang Arts Awards.

Haden GUEST

The former curator and acting director of the Warner Brothers Archive, Haden Guest is the director of the Harvard Film Archive who oversees the Cinematheque program and film archiving conducted at Harvard University since 2006. Guest's ambitious research projects principally focus upon studio-era Hollywood cinema, postwar American experimental film, and contemporary Argentine, Latin American and French cinema.

Sergei LOZNITSA

In 1991, Sergei Loznitsa entered the Russian State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. He majored in film production and direction. He studied in the studio of Nana DZHORDZHADZE. Since 2000, he produced works in the Studio of Documentary Films in St. Petersburg. During the years, he was awarded the Nipkov Program Grant in Berlin. His film My Joy (2010) was invited to the competition section of the Cannes Film Festival. He won the FIPRESCI Award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival with In the Fog, which also won the Golden Apricot at the Yerevan Film Festival.

Luciano BARISONE

A Film-club host, journalist and film critic for magazines and newspapers, Luciano Barisone has collaborated with numerous international film festivals that include the Locarno International Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival. In 2002, he founded the Alba Infinity Festival, for which he served as the artistic director until 2007. Since 2011, he has been the director of Visions du Réel in Nyon.

MUN Jeong-hyun

Director Mun Jeong-hyun has been with P.U.R.N Production, an independent documentary production since 2003. He made his debut as a documentary film director in 2003 and then directed Zelophehad's Daughters (2005). His film Grandmother's Flower (2007) won the best documentary award at the Busan International Film Festival and was invited to the Berlin Film Festival Forum. His recent film Yongsan (2010) documents the true story of a controversial eviction of squatters from a building located in downtown Seoul that resulted in several fatalities. He received the Award of Excellence at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival.

Supriyo SEN

One of the most prominent independent filmmakers from India, Supriyo SEN has produced and directed feature and short documentaries such as The Nest (2000), Way Back Home (2003), Hope Dies Last in War (2007) and Wagah (2009). His Hope Dies Last in War was funded by Asian Network Documentary (AND) of the 2006 Asian Cinema Fund (ACF). In addition, it received the Gold Award for the Best Documentary Cinematography at Independent Documentary Producers in India (IDPA). Furthermore, with his film Wagah, he received several awards that include the Berlin Today Award at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival and the Best Short Documentary at the 2009 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Edwin

2005 Fellow of Asian Film Academy of the Busan International Film Festival, director Edwin has a deep bond with the Busan International Film Festival. In 2005, his film Kara, the Daughter of a Tree (2005) became the first Indonesian short film invited to the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. His first feature Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly (2008) was invited to the 2009 Rotterdam Film Festival and screened in competition, and invited to the New Currents Section of the Busan International Film Festival as well. Postcards from the Zoo (2012) was selected for the APM (Asian Project Market: formerly known as PPP) project in 2009. The film was also selected for the official competition at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival.

Georges GOLDENSTERN

Georges Goldenstern was at the forefront of the cultural channel Arte and created Arte France Cinema. As a general director of Arte France, he has produced more than 250 films in his 15-year career span of. Since 2002, he has been the executive director of Cinéfondation created by the Cannes Film Festival.

MIN Yongkeun

His short debut, The Weekend (1996) was invited to the Wide Angle Section at the 1996 Busan International Film Festival, since then he directed Mom, I'm Sorry (1997) and Spring (1998). His short film, The Little Thief (2006) also won the Director’s Award at the Sapporo International Short Film Festival and was invited to other notable events. Particularly, with his Re-encounter (2010), the recipient of the Post-Production Fund of the Asian Cinema Fund, he received the Best Director Award of the Korean Cinema Today: Vision at the 2010 Busan International Film Festival and Best Director & Kodak award at the 2010 Seoul Independent Film Festival.