The 28th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which will be held for 10 days from Oct 4 (Wed) to Oct 13 (Fri), has confirmed the jury members for the KIM Jiseok, BIFF Mecenat, and Sonje Awards.

[The 28th Busan International Film Festival KIM Jiseok Award Jury]

From left: Martine THEROUANNE, NISHIKAWA Miwa, and LEE Kwangkuk

[The 28th Busan International Film Festival BIFF Mecenat Award Jury]

From left: HARA Kazuo, Anke LEWEKE, and Kyungsoon

[The 28th Busan International Film Festival Sonje Award Jury]

From left: JANG Kunjae, WEI Shujun, and Bianca BALBUENA

The Sonje Award is given to the best Korean and Asian short films in the Wide Angle section. The 2 selected films will receive a prize of KRW 10,000,000 each.

Director Jang Kunjae of A Midsummer's Fantasia (2014), director Wei Shujun, who has been invited to the Cannes Film Festival for 4 consecutive projects, and producer Bianca Balbuena, who boasts extensive experience with international co-productions, have been appointed as the BIFF 2023 Sonje Award jury members.

The 28th Busan International Film Festival, which has announced the 9 jury members for this year’s Kim Jiseok, BIFF Mecenat, and Sonje Awards, will be held for 10 days from Oct 4 (Wed) to Oct 13 (Fri) around the Busan Cinema Center.

KIM Jiseok Award

■ Martine THEROUANNE | France | Festival Director of Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema

Martine Thérouanne is the festival director and co-founder of the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema (France) and she is a member of the NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) board. She has participated in many international film festivals as a jury member, such as the 2008 Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema, 2010 Busan International Film Festival, 2012 Hanoi International Film Festival, 2018 Pacific Meridian International Film Festival of Asian Pacific Countries, and 2022 Tashkent International Film Festival. Martine Thérouanne's dedication for culture, and particularly cinema, has been rewarded by several prestigious national and international titles such as the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2012, Korean Cinema Award in 2018, and Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2021.

■ NISHIKAWA Miwa | Japan | Director

Nishikawa Miwa is a Japanese film director, born in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1974. While receiving a degree in literature from Waseda University, she worked on several independent films, as well as joined the crew of director Kore-eda Hirokazu’s After Life (1998) as an assistant. She debuted as a screenwriter and director with Wild Berries (2002), which won Best Screenplay at the 2004 Mainichi Film Awards. Following her debut, Nishikawa directed numerous projects including Sway (2006), Dear Doctor (2009), and The Long Excuse (2016). Her film Dreams for Sale (2012) was invited to the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. She received Best International Feature Audience Choice Award at the 2020 Chicago International Film Festival for Under the Open Sky (2020).

■ LEE Kwangkuk | Korea | Director

Lee Kwangkuk garnered much attention and accolades with his feature film debut Romance Joe (2011), which won the 2011 Busan International Film Festival’s Citizen Critics' Award, 2012 Busan Film Critics Awards for Best Screenplay, and Best New Director at the 2012 Buil Film Awards. His subsequent feature films, A Matter of Interpretation (2014) and A Tiger in Winter (2017), have also gained recognition from critics and audiences around the world with invitations and awards from domestic and international film festivals, including the Busan International Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Lee’s fourth feature film, A Wing and a Prayer (2022), was invited to the 2022 Busan International Film Festival Jiseok section.

BIFF Mecenat Award

■ HARA Kazuo | Japan | Director

Born in 1945 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Hara Kazuo dropped out of Tokyo College of Photography and made his directorial debut with the documentary film, Goodbye CP (1972). Hara achieved international acclaim with Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 (1974), which was praised as a pioneering self-documentary, and The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987), which received the 1987 Berlin International Film Festival’s Caligari Film Award and the Grand Prix at the 1987 Cinéma du reel. Hara's other works include A Dedicated Life (1994), Many Faces of Chika (2004), Sennan Asbestos Disaster (2017), and more. His recent project, Minamata Mandala (2020), a three-part documentary with 372 minutes of running time and more than 15 years of filming, depicts the victims of the environmental disease, Minamata, as they fight for legal recognition and compensation.

■ Anke LEWEKE | Germany | Film Critic

Anke Leweke studied law in Bonn and Berlin and has worked as a film critic for Die Zeit and Die Tageszeitung since 1992, as well as Deutschlandfunk Kultur and other public broadcasters. In 2008, she received the Golden Prometheus award for "Radio Journalist of the Year" and was co-curator of the exhibition "Berlin School" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2013. From 2002 to 2018, Leweke was a member of the selection committee for the Competition Programme and the Forum section of the Berlin International Film Festival. She has been a consultant for the Shanghai International Film Festival since 2012 and a consultant for the Hong Kong International Film Festival since 2014. She currently serves on the DOK Leipzig selection committee.

■ Kyungsoon | Korea | Director

Kyungsoon won the Woonpa Award at the 1999 Busan International Film Festival with her debut film Mindullae (1999), which depicted the struggles of grieving parents, fighting to regain the honor of their late children who lost their lives during South Korea’s democratization movement. Such concerns became central in her works, as shown in Patriot Game (2001), What Do People Live For (2003), Shocking Family (2006), Red Maria (2011), and Red Maria 2 (2015), which satirizes Korean nationalism, and Patriot Game 2 - To Call a Deer a Horse (2019), which reflects the reality of Korean democracy following the dismissal of the Unified Progressive Party. Kyungsoon is currently in production for Shark – A Story of Growing Old, a 2022 Asian Cinema Fund’s Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund selection.

Sonje Award

■ JANG Kunjae | Korea | Director

Jang Kunjae has directed a number of feature films including Eighteen (2009), Sleepless Night (2012), A Midsummer's Fantasia (2014), Vestige (2020), and Juhee from 5 to 7 (2022), which have won awards at various prestigious film festivals around the world. In addition, he was the executive producer of director Shin Dong-min’s feature debut Mom’s Song (2020) and directed the TVING original series Monstrous (2022). Jang co-authored What Will Become of Cinema? Thoughts of 62 People Who Imagine the Future of Cinema (2021) and organized the Korean publication of Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s book Acting in Front of the Camera (2022). His recent work includes Because I Hate Korea (2023), the cinematic adaptation of author Chang Kang-myoung’s 2015 novel of the same name.

■ WEI Shujun | China | Director

Wei Shujun is a scriptwriter and film director from Beijing. He attended the Busan International Film Festival in 2018 with his short film, On the Border (2018), an official selection in the Wide Angle section, which received the Special Jury Award at Cannes Film Festival. His feature films include Striding into the Wind (2020), which premiered at Cannes Film Festival, and Ripples of Life (2021), which premiered at Directors' Fortnight in Cannes, both of which were also invited to the Busan International Film Festival. Wei’s latest film, Only the River Flows (2023), premiered at Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival in 2023, receiving much acclaim from the international cinematic community.

■ Bianca BALBUENA | Philippines | Head of Studios & Managing Director of Anima & Secret Menu

Bianca Balbuena is the managing director of Kroma Entertainment’s Anima, which has produced Sundance Awardee Leonor Will Never Die (2022) and Emmy-nominated The Missing 8 (2021). She co-founded Epicmedia, which has produced Berlinale Silver Bear, A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery (2016), and Venice Lion of the Future, Engkwentro (2009). She is the recipient of the Asian Film Commissions Network’s Producer of the Year and the youngest winner of the FIAPF Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Balbuena has served as a jury member at various film festivals including Sydney Film Festival and Fribourg International Film Festival. She is the European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs Ambassador for Asia and has mentored at the Locarno Film Festival Open Doors Lab, Talents Tokyo, and Berlinale Talents Short Form Station.

■ The 28th Busan International Film Festival : Oct 4 (Wed) – Oct 13 (Fri)
■ The 18th Asian Contents & Film Market : Oct 7 (Sat) – Oct 10 (Tues)