Mira NAIR

Mira Nair has worked across genres, directing both on stage and on screen. Her debut film Salaam Bombay! (1988) received over 25 awards including the Caméra d’Or at the 41st Cannes Film Festival. Her best-known films include Monsoon Wedding (2001), which won the Golden Lion Award at the 58th Venice Film Festival, Mississippi Masala (1991), Vanity Fair (2004), and Queen of Katwe (2016). The musical adaptation of Monsoon Wedding, which sold out at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2017, will be staged again in 2021 at the Roundhouse in London. A longtime activist, Nair founded the Salaam Baalak Trust in 1999, an organization that works with Indian street children. She also started the Maisha Film Lab in 2004, a free school that provides training for emerging filmmakers in East Africa. In 2012, Nair was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s prestigious civilian honor, for her work in arts and culture.

Thierry JOBIN

Thierry Jobin is the artistic director of the Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF). After making his debut as a journalist at a young age, Jobin has been working as a film critic for 25 years and publishing his works in numerous mainstream media outlets such as Le Temps in Geneva. In addition to promoting Asian cinema through his work at FIFF, Jobin is an expert for Visions Sud Est, a Swiss fund that promotes film productions in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe; and Final Cut, a post-production fund for African cinema.

YANG Haegue

Yang Haegue is a visual artist based in Seoul and Berlin, who exhibits internationally and teaches at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. Yang has participated in numerous major exhibitions including the 53rd Venice Biennale, where she represented the Korean Pavilion and exhibited at the Arsenale. Her work has also been shown at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Sharjah Biennial 12, and the 16th Istanbul Biennial. She held her recent solo exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art in New York and The Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach; furthermore, her works are collected by museums such as the Guggenheim Museum, Centre Pompidou, and the Tate Modern. Yang’s next solo exhibition O2 & H2O will be held this September at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul.

ZHAO Tao

Zhao Tao is a Chinese actress and producer. Graduating from the Folk Dance Department of Beijing Dance Academy, Zhao started her acting career with Jia Zhang-ke’s Platform (2000). In 2006, she starred in Still Life (2006), which won the Golden Lion at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival. Zhao won David di Donatello for Best Actress for her performance in Shun Li and the Poet (2012), the first Asian actress to do so. She appeared in most of director Jia Zhang-ke’s works, such as A Touch of Sin (2013), Mountains May Depart (2015), and Ash is Purest White (2018). She served on the jury for the 7th Rome International Film Festival and the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival. Zhao also produced Useless (2007), which won the Horizons Award for Best Documentary at the 64th Venice International Film Festival, and Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue which competed at the 2020 Berlinale.

JUNG Sung-il

Jung Sung-il is a South Korean film critic and director. He launched a monthly film magazine Kino in 1995 and served as the editor-in-chief, in addition to publishing two volumes of film criticism. His debut film Cafe Noir (2009) premiered at the 14th Busan International Film Festival and the 66th Venice Film Festival, while his documentary following the Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing, Night and Fog in Zona (2017), screened at the 20th Busan International Film Festival and the 45th International Film Festival Rotterdam. Jung’s two documentaries on filmmaker Im Kwon-taek entitled Gravity of the Tea (2018) and Cloud, Encore (2018) were invited to the 23rd Busan International Film Festival.

Mouly SURYA

Mouly Surya has won numerous awards locally and internationally on her directorial debut Fiksi (2008). Her latest film Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (2017) premiered at the 70th Cannes Film Festival at the Directors’ Fortnight and theatrically released in 14 countries including the United States and Canada. The film was also Indonesia’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards.

Nick DEOCAMPO

Nick Deocampo is a Filipino documentary filmmaker whose oeuvre spans from political films shot during the anti-dictatorship period of the 1980s to films that chronicle the history of Philippine cinema. Deocampo received his Master of Arts degree in Cinema Studies at New York University and is currently a professor at the University of the Philippines Film Institute. He served as a juror in festivals including those in Berlin, Tokyo, Oberhausen, Tampere, and Jakarta. Deocampo has also written award-winning books on the history of Philippine and Asian cinema.

PARK Inho

Park Inho is a film critic. She is the president of Busan Film Critics Association (BCFA) and does commentaries on classic films at Busan Cinema Center’s Cinematheque Busan as well. She contributes to film magazines based in Busan: Critic b, published by the BCFA, and IndieCritique. She also writes for the Korea Film Archive (KOFA) and FILO, a bimonthly film magazine.

Chalida UABUMRUNGJIT

Chalida Uabumrungjit studied film at Thammasat University in Thailand and film archiving at University of East Anglia in UK. Uabumrungjit is a founding member of Thai Short Film & Video Festival for which she has served as the festival director since 1997. She was also on the selection committee at Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund and has been on the executive committee at the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) since 2013. Creating a number of experimental films and documentaries as well as serving as the director of Thai Film Archive, Uabumrungjit has been dynamically active in the film industry.

Ifa ISFANSYAH

Ifa Isfansyah began his career in cinema by producing and directing several short films after graduating from the Television Department of the Indonesian Institute of Art Jogjakarta. In 2006, Isfansyah was selected by Busan International Film Festival as an Asian Film Academy (AFA) fellow. His feature debut, Garuda Di Dadaku (2009), was met with great success; his second film, The Dancer (2011), was awarded Best Director and Best Picture awards at Indonesian Film Festival. Since then, he has directed seven feature films as well as established himself as a founding member of Fourcolours Films, an independent production company that supports local filmmakers. Isfansyah has shown his continuing support for the Indonesian film industry by establishing the Jogja Film Academy and Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival.

KIM Yiseok

Kim Yiseok is a professor in the Department of Film Studies at Dong-Eui University. He served as the president of Busan Independent Film Association and Busan Film Critics Association. He is currently the president of Cine Folk, a film and culture cooperative, and the director of Cinema & Transmedia Institute (DCTI) at Dong-Eui University. Kim received his doctorate degree in Film and Audiovisual Studies at University of Paris 8. He translated two seminal works in cinema studies from French to Korean as well as writing two volumes on the subject.

Sharipa URAZBAYEVA

Sharipa Urazbayeva graduated in film and TV production from T.K. Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts and completed an international internship in the study of the technology of film at NOVA University of Lisbon in 2013. Her short films Mimi (2013), Source (2013), Ego (2014), The Potato Eaters (2016), and The Little One (2017) have screened at international film festivals including the Cannes Film Festival. Her feature debut, Mariam (2019), screened at Busan International Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival, in addition to winning the Golden Cyclo Award at the 26th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas.

CHOO Sang Mee

Choo Sang Mee starred in numerous films such as The Contact (1997), Turning Gate (2002), and The Wonder Years (2007). She gained fame acting across genres in dramas and plays as well. Choo made her directorial debut with the short film Dressing Room (2010) which was selected for the Jeonju International Film Festival’s Competition section. Her following work A Woman Under the Influence (2013) was invited to the 18th Busan International Film Festival’s Korean Short Film Competition section. She has been expanding her filmography as a director, with her feature debut The Children Gone to Poland (2018) invited to the 23rd Busan International Film Festival’s Wide Angle section. Choo served on the executive committees at the 21st Seoul International Women’s Film Festival and the 12th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival.

JUNG Jin Young

Jung Jin Young made his acting debut on stage in 1988 and gained recognition for his screen performance in A Promise (1998). He has since acted in various films, plays, and dramas. Jung is a frequent collaborator of director Lee Joon-ik, starring in five of Lee’s films including King and the Clown (2005). He starred in four films that attracted more than 10 million viewers: King and the Clown (2005), Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2013), Ode to my Father (2014), and A Taxi Driver (2017). Jung has delivered powerful performances in auteur films such as Grass (2018) and Ode to the Goose (2018) and socially conscious films such as Where the Truth Lies (2009) and Another Family (2014). Marking the 33rd year of his acting career, Jung made his directorial debut with Me and Me (2020).

Sanja STRUNA

Sanja Struna is a translator and an independent film critic with a focus on Asian, especially Korean cinema. She started her career in the film festival circuit as a film festival coordinator for various Slovenian film festivals; however, she soon found herself pursuing a path of film journalism. From 2015-2019, she was the editor-in-chief of the British website View of the Arts, run by an all-female team, dedicated to providing a platform to established as well as new and upcoming arts talent from all around the world. She writes for various publications and is a semi-regular guest on the Slovenian filminist podcast FilmFlow. In addition, she is a regular contributor to Ekran, Magazine for Film and Television, the oldest and most prominent Slovenian film magazine. She is a member of the executive committee of FIPRESCI Slovenia.

SUNG Il-kwon

Sung Il-kwon is the international director of FIPRESCI KOREA as well as a member of the Korean Association of Film Critics. He contributes to movie and culture reviews by issuing Korean versions of Le Monde diplomatique and Manière de voir. He has also published various reviews, including Café without Society (2020) and The New Myths of Orientalism (2006). In 2006, his review was selected as the Best Cultural Book by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea.

Alin TACIYAN

Alin Tasciyan was born in 1969 in Istanbul. She graduated from the University of Istanbul with a BA in Journalism and Public Relations in 1991. She worked for Milliyet Art Review and Milliyet daily newspaper (1992-2008) as a correspondent, film critic, and editor. In 1994, she started to make various cinema programs for Turkish Radio and Television TRT. She worked for channel NTV (1998-2000) and 24 (2008 - 2012), and the Star daily newspaper (2008 - 2014). She is currently a film critic for TRT2 and the culture & art website www.sanatatak.com. Tasciyan has been an advisor and programmer for many film festivals in Turkey. She is a member of the European Film Academy. Between 2009-2018, she was the past vice president and president of FIPRESCI; now she now serves as the Deputy Secretary.

Riccardo GELLI

Riccardo Gelli studied art and graphic design in Florence (Firenze). He has worked at an advertising agency in Florence and Munich, as a photographer, and as an artistic director. In 2003, he organized a successful Florence Korea Film Fest, the first Korean film festival abroad. He now works full time directing the Korean Film Festival in Italy. Working hard for the development of film culture in Korea and Italy, he has received various awards and certifications from Busan International Film Festival, BOM Film Production, and the Korean Embassy. He has also participated as a jury member at Jeonju International Film Festival, Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Guro International Kids Film Festival, and Pyongyang International Film Festival.

KIM Kyoungwook

KIM Kyoungwook is a film critic and an instructor in the Department of Film Art at Sejong University. She was in charge of planning, promotion, and script consultation at a film production company, and also served as a film festival programmer and a senior visiting researcher for the Korean Film Council. She has published several books including The Fantasy of Blockbusters, the Narcissism of Korean Cinema (2002), Film Sociology of the Bad World (2013), and What Does the Korean Cinema See? (2016). She now writes a series of columns titled Kim Kyoungwook’s Cinema Critique for Le Monde diplomatique Korea.

Hassan MUTHALIB

Hassan Muthalib is a writer, film critic, and a Malaysian film historian. His career spans half a century as an artist, designer, animator, film director, and actor in stage, TV, and feature films. He garnered awards for his public service advertisements, and an international award for his first documentary. He is recognized as the Father of Malaysian Animation and an Asian Animation Pioneer, with the most recent award acknowledging contributions to the nation in media and education. He is an author with three books on Malaysian film and animation. His writings have been published in Cahiers du Cinema, Southeast Asia Research, International Film Index, and the British Film Institute’s Film and Empire, Cornell University Press’s Glimpses of Freedom, and Indiana University Press’s Early Cinema in Asia. He is also the author of the book Malaysian Cinema in a Bottle published by Merpati Jingga in association with NETPAC.

KIM Ho-jun

KIM Ho-jun graduated from Chiyoda Institute of Technology and Art with a major in movie art. He was a member of the production team for The Song of Crazy Love (1990) and I Want to Live Just Until 20 Years Old (1991), and also worked as an assistant director for The Letter (1997) and Promenade (2000). After taking up the megaphone and making his directorial debut with My Little Bride (2004), he directed Jenny, Juno (2005), Sera & Lami (2010), Wrestling (2014), and Beauty Master (2015), a web drama series jointly produced by South Korea and China. From 2016 to 2019, he served on a number of judging panels for the Korean Film Council.

LEE Sang-cheol

LEE Sang-cheol made his debut in 2011 with Jesus Hospital, for which he was invited to the Vision section of the Busan International Film Festival and won the BIFF Citizen Critics’ Award, the Korean Association of Film Critics’ Award, and New Director at the Busan Film Critics Awards. In 2013, he was invited to the Panorama section of BIFF with If You Were Me 6, an omnibus film series produced by the National Human Rights Commission, and again in 2018 with The Snobs. His latest feature is a low-budget action film Two Big Men, which will be released in theaters in October 2020.

CHO Chang-ho

CHO Chang-ho made his debut in 2005 with The Peter Pan Formula, which was invited to the New Currents section of the Busan International Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival. Since then, he has been exploring the issue of the “continuity of life” through films such as Fantastic Parasuicides (2007), Lovers Vanished (2010), and Another Way (2017).

JEONG Jae-eun

Jeong Jae-eun made her debut with Take Care of My Cat (2001), a film about the friendship and growth of four 20-year-old women living in Incheon, South Korea. She won numerous awards including the KNF Award Special Mention at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, NETPAC Award at the Busan International Film Festival, Best Feature Film at the Valencia International Film Festival – Cinema Jove, the Debut Prize at the Cologne International Women’s Film Festival, and Best New Director at the Korean Film Awards. She directed an omnibus film about human rights If You Were Me (2003) and The Aggressives(2005), which was invited to the Generation Competition section of the Berlin International Film Festival. With an interest in urban space and environment, she also directed an architecture documentary trilogy, Talking Architect (2011), Talking Architecture, City: Hall (2013), and Ecology in Concrete (2017). Her recent film Butterfly Sleep (2018), starring Japanese actress NAKAYAMA Miho and Korean actor KIM Jae-wook, was invited to the Busan International Film Festival and released in South Korea and Japan in 2018.

JU Sung-chul

KINO and FILM 2.0 and served as the chief editor at Cine21. His books include Leslie Cheung, Whom We Loved In Those Days; Film Craftsmen of Our Time; The Moment of the Debut; Johnnie To; and A Film Journalist’s Writing Class. He appeared on SBS(Seoul Broadcasting System) film review television program Connect! Movie World, Channel CGV’s The Good Movie, SK B tv’s Movie Big, and KBS(Korea Broadcasting System) 100 Years of Korean Cinema The Classic. He also worked as a programmer for Bechdel Day 2020, and currently appears on JTBC’s film-based talk show Movie Room.

KWAK Sin-ae

Kwak Sin-ae is a film producer and the CEO of Barunson E&A. After graduating from Dong-A University with a degree in Korean Language and Literature, she worked at a publishing agency and a subcontracted TV drama production company, and began her career in film as a film journalist for the monthly film magazine KINO. She became the head of the Barunson Film Division in 2010, the CEO of Barunson Film in 2013, and the CEO of Barunson E&A in 2015. She was in charge of promoting and marketing films such as Happy End (1999), Wanee & Junah (2001), Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring (2003), and Maundy Thursday (2006). She produced Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned (2016), RV: Resurrected Victims (2017), and Parasite (2019), for which she won Best Producer at the Women in Film Korea Awards, and Best Film at the Buil Film Awards, the Blue Dragon Film Awards, and Baeksang Arts Awards in 2019 and Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 2020.

NAM Dong-keun

Nam Dong-keun graduated with a degree in Theater and Film from Cheongju University and began his career behind the camera as a member of a commercial production team in 1996. He made his debut as a director of photography for commercials, and now boasts a repertoire of over 1,000 commercials and 150 music videos. He entered the film industry with Fabricated City by director Bae Jong (née PARK Kwang-hyun) in 2015. In 2017, he participated in the production of Peace Breaker, the Chinese remake of the Korean film A Hard Day, and in 2018 he shot The Great Battle, a historical epic action film about the siege of Ansi Fortress in Goguryeo. Having expanded the scope of his activities to encompass television dramas, filming OCN’s Strangers from Hell in 2019, he is actively building a diversified career across industries.

PARK Jung-hun

Park Jung-hun entered the film industry in 2002 as a member of the production crew for the film Chihwaseon and shot his first feature film Grape Candy in 2012. Afterward he filmed numerous independent films, as well as his first commercial feature The Villainess (2017). With impressive handheld filming and new camera techniques, he has created unique action films that received worldwide recognition and won the Buil Film Award, Busan Film Critics Association Award, and the Grand Bell Award in 2017. Since then he has been active in both the independent and commercial film scenes, working on HerStory (2017), Door Lock (2018), A French Woman (2019), and Voice of Silence (2019).

SUNG Seung-taek

Sung Seung-taek graduated from the School of Film, TV & Multimedia at the Korea National University of Arts in 2003, and made his debut as a director of photography for the film Flying Boys (2004). He has worked on You Are My Sunshine (2005), The Cut (2007), Ghost Sweepers (2012), Love Forecast (2014), Room No. 7 (2017), and Inseparable Bros (2018) among others. He currently serves as a professor in the Department of Film and TV at Jeonju University.