Donald RICHIE

Named by TIME magazine, “the dean of Japan’s arts critics.” and acknowledged as the foremost authority in Japanese cinema, Donald Richie has written some 40 books in all- on other aspects of the country and it’s people. He also wrote for Newsweek, The Nation, Variety, The New York Times, The Guardian, Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly and more. He organized the retrospective of the Japanese Telluride Film Festival, served on the juries at international film festivals of Hawaii, Locarno, Thessaloniki and Kerala.

Aparna SEN

Born in Calcutta in 1945. Aparna Sen was impressed by European cinema that strongly affected her art life in her youth. Started her film career as an actress when participated in Sampatti by Satyajit Ray, then her works in cinema and theatre appeared successively getting praises from critics. Her first film 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981), an English political movie, was the birth certificate of a realistic film director who cares for details though focused on women issues in most cases in the beginning. Her filmography includes Paroma (1984), Sati (1989), What the sea said (1995) and House of Memories (2000), which was presented at the 5th PIFF

Claire DENIS

Born in Paris, 1946. Claire Denis graduated in film direction at the IDHEC of Paris in 1971. She worked as assistant director for various directors include Costa-Gavras, Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmush from 1974 to 1986. Chocolat, her first feature, was made in 1987 and presented at Cannes the following year. In 1996, Nenette et Boni was awarded the Pardo d’oro at the Locarno Film Festival. She has also directed: Beau travail (1999), Trouble Every Day (2000), and the short film Vers Nancy for Ten Minutes Older. Her film, Beau travail (1999) was presented at the 4th PIFF

Eduardo Antin QUINTIN

Born in Buenos Aires in 1951, Eduardo Antin has done many various works including math teacher and football referee before being a film critic. He is one of co-founders of El Amati/Cine, one of the most enduring magazines of its type in Latin America. He is currently the director of the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival.

HONG Sangsoo

Studied Film at California College of Arts and Crafts(BFA) and Art Institute of Chicago(MFA). His debut work The day a Pig Fell into the Well (1996) received universal praises from critics and international awards at both Vancouver (Dragon & Tiger Award) and Rotterdam (Best Picture Award). His third feature Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000) was invited to the 53rd Cannes and Tokyo International Film Festival (Special Jury Award). Other films include The Power of Kangwon Province (1998) and the latest feature, Turning Gate (2002).

CHOI Doo-young

Born in 1962, Choi Doo-young graduated from The Korean Academy of Film Arts and received the MFA in Filmmaking at Chung Ang University. He was in charge of color correction for big hits such as Christmas in August (1998), Shiri (1999) and Joint Security Area (2000). He worked as producer and cinematographer for the short films, The memories of Ashes and Tuning in Silence. He is teaching filmmaking in School of Film and Multi Media at the Korean National University of Arts and currently working on feature film O-Gu as producer and cinematographer.

HONG Hyung sook

Born in 1962, Hong Hyeng-sook began her film career as a documentary filmmaker in 1987, producing such labor-issue oriented work as Battle Line and 54 Days of that Summer. She received the Best Documentary Award at the 1ST Seoul Documentary Film and Video Festival with her Doomealee, A New School is Opening. Her next time, On-Line: an Inside View of Korean Independent Film, a documentary on the anguish and self-reflective nature of Korean Independent filmmakers, was invited to both Berlin and Amsterdam Film Festival. The recipient of Woonpa Award at the 3rd PIFF with her Reclaiming Our Names.

KIM Kyung-wook

Born in 1963. Kim Kyung-wook graduated from Yonsei University majored in Sociology and received Master’s degree of Cinema/Theater from Dongguk University. While she was in graduate school, she started to work for program management at Pan Cinema. She also received Ph.D. in cinema at Chung Ang University in 2000. She is the author of Fantasy of the Blockbuster, Narcissism in Contemporary Korean Cinema and currently working as a film critic as well as a film professor at Sejong University.