Golden Horse Film Festival / ARC Light Films

Considered one of the major figures in shaping New Taiwan Cinema in the 80s and 90s, Peggy CHIAO is the founder of China Express Film Awards and the Taiwan Film Center. She has contributed to the script of award-winning films Actress (1992) and Beijing Bicycle (2001). CHIAO is now the head of Arc Light Films, which works with prominent figures in Chinese Cinema such as Ann Hui, Stanley Kwan, Tsai Ming-liang and Wang Xiaoshuai. Apart from many creative and administrative works, CHIAO also teaches at the Graduate school of films in Taipei National University of the Arts and serves as a juror for films festivals including Berlin, Venice, Rotterdam, Sydney, Toronto, Hong Kong, and Fukuoka. A published film scholar, CHIAO has penned more than 45 books.

China Film Association

Acclaimed Chinese director XIE Fei was the winner of the Golden Berlin Bear and Silver Berlin Bear for The Women from the Lake of Scented Souls (1993) and Black Snow (1990) respectively at the Berlin Film Festival. As the vice president of the Beijing Film Academy, he has helped nurtured the celebrated "Fifth Generation" Chinese directors. He is Vice Chairman of the Chinese Filmmakers' Association, as well as the Executive Vice Chairman of the Chinese Film Directors' Association. In 2001, XIE was invited to the panel of jury of the Berlin Film Festival.

Red Fox Film Productions

Roger GARCIA was director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival and continues to consult on film festival programs in the US and Europe. He has produced studio and independent feature films in the US and Asia and television programs in the US. His writings on cinema have been published extensively by the British Film Institute, Cahiers du Cinema, Variety, Far East Economic Review, Film Comment. His latest book is "Asia Sings!" a survey of Asian musicals.

China Film Directors’ Guild

One of the most prominent "Fifth Generation" Mainland directors, HUANG has made his name with The Black Cannon Incident in 1985, which won him the Golden Rooster Award for Best Director. His films, Surveillance (1995) and The Marriage Certificate (2001), were screened in various international film festivals to great reception, including Cannes, Berlin, New York, Tokyo, San Sebastian, Munich, San Francisco, Rotterdam, and Toronto, and were selected as one of the 10 Greatest Chinese Films in the Hong Kong International Film Festival. HUANG is also the president of the China Film Directors’ Association.

TOKYO FILMeX

Producer Shozo ICHIYAM has worked with Japanese director Takeshi Kitano and Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien, producing for the latter Good Men, Good Women (1995), Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996), and Flowers Of Shanghai (1998). ICHIYAM’s other production includes Blackboards (2000) by Samira Makhmalbaf, which won the Jury Prize in Cannes Film Festival. Ichiyama has served as a juror for various international film festivals, including Venice (Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica 2004), Locarno (Netpac Award 2006) and Rotterdam. Apart from his producing work, ICHIYAM also acts as programme director for the TOKYO FILMeX.

Tokyo International Film Festival

Kenji was graduated from Waseda University. In 1990-2007, as Film Coordinator at the Japan Foundation (JF), he has organized and managed more than seventy projects of Asian & Arab cinema, including the Indonesian Film Festival 1993, the Korean Cinema Project 2001, the Thai Film Festival 2003, and the Arab Film Festival 2007. Moved to TIFF in July, 2007. Lecturer at Waseda University and Meiji Gakuin University. Visiting Professor at the Korean National University of Arts (KNUA) in 1999. Board Member of NETPAC (Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema) since 1990. Co-Producer of the omnibus film, “Southern Winds” in 1993.

Festival De Cannes

Christian JEUNE is the Director of Film Department and Deputy Director Delegate of the Cannes International Film Festival, responsible for recommending films for Competition, Un Certain Regard, Cinefondation and the Shorts Competition. In 2006, JEUNE served as the Chairman of the jury in the Digital Lokal Competition at the Cinemanila International Festival, as well as a juror of the New Currents section at the Pusan Film Festival. JEUNE has also translated more than 100 English films into French.

Pusan International Fim Festival

As one of the founders of the Pusan Film Festival, KIM Ji-seok has been serving as the programmer for Asian cinema of the festival ever since its inception in 1996. He was a professor at the Pusan Art College and the editor of the film journal Film Language. A respected film critic and expert on Asian cinema, KIM is a member of the Busan Film Critics Association.

Creative Artists Agency China

Veteran producer Peter LOEHR has been involved in film production in China since the 1990s with the establishment of Imar Film Co., Ltd., China's first independent film company. He has since founded Ming Productions, which produces large scale Asian-theme films in 2002 and Dragon Studios, the first management and production services company in China, in 2004. LOEHR has produced nine feature films in China, including Shower (1999) and Quitting (2001), both equally well-received in various international film festivals. In 2005, LOEHR became Managing Director of Creative Artists Agency in China.

La Biennale di Venezia

Born in Rome, Marco Müeller was educated as anthropologist and orientalist (in Italy and in China respectively). Since 1977 he worked as a film critic and historian (on Asian cinema and other subjects) and is author of TV-documentaries about cinema. After he created the mammoth festival "Electric Shadows" in Turin (1981), he directed Pesaro (Italy), Rotterdam (Nerherlands) and Locarno (Switzerland) film festivals. Marco Müeller is also known as Inventor of film funds (Hubert Bals Fund in Rotterdam, Fondazione Montecinemaverità in Locarno/Lugano, Fondazione Officina Cinema Sud Est in Bologna). Since 1997 he has been a producer for the new production company he has initiated (Fabrica Cinema, Downtown Pictures, Riforma Film, OneArt) with a filmography of 16 features (which has won him an Oscar, five awards in Cannes, three in Venice and two in Berlin). Since 2001 he started teaching again, he now holds the chair of Production Design at Mario Botta's Academy of Architecture (Mendrisio, Switzerland). From 2004 he is the director of the Venice Film Festival.

Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers

Known as the "Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema", NG See-yuen has been hailed as one of the most innovative producers / directors in the region. In recent years, Ng served as the President of Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild, and is currently its Honorary Permanent President. He was the Chairman of Hong Kong Film Awards Association (1995-2000), and is now the Chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, a member of Hong Kong Film Services Advisory Committee and a member of Commission on Strategic Development.

KOFIC Korean Academy of Film Arts

PARK Ki-yong's first film, MOTEL ACTUS, had won the New Currents Award at the 2nd Pusan International Film Festival and a Jury Award at the Fribourg International Film Festival. Four years later, he returns with his second film, CAMEL(S), which is a black and white digital film, with a mostly static camera. In 2003 he also directed a short film called “Digital Search”.

Film Critic / Programmer

Tony RAYNS is a London-based film-maker, critic and festival programmer with a special interest in East Asian cinemas. He is a contributing editor of SIGHT & SOUND and also writes for other leading film magazines, including Cahiers Du Cinema, Film Comment and Cinemascope. He programmed East Asian film for the Vancouver International Film Festival from 1989 to 2006, and remains an adviser on the Dragons & Tigers section of the programme; he also programmes for London Film Festival and has been an advisor to Pusan International Film Festival since its inception. His publications include books on Fassbinder, Chinese, Japanese and Korean cinema; his own films include the documentaries New Chinese Cinema and The Jang Sun-woo Variations. He was awarded the 2004 Kawakita Prize for services to Japanese cinema.

Bangkok Post

Kong RITHDEE is the film critic of The Bangkok Post, Thailand's leading English-language newspaper. He's also involved with The Thai Film Foundation to promote independent Thai films at home and abroad.

Critic and curator

Winner of the National Award for Best Film Critic, Meenakshi SHEDDE was on the FIPRESCI International Critics' Jury of the Cannes, Berlin and Venice festivals, and the Asian Film Award Jury of the Hong Kong film festival 2007. She is also a key advisor on Indian cinema to the Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, London and Pusan film festivals. She contributes to Variety, Cahiers du Cinema, Film Comment, Sight and Sound, Cinemaya and rouge.com.au. She has directed the short film 'Looking for Amitabh' and line-produced five documentaries for Arte/independent directors worldwide, including Uli Gaulke's 'Leinwandfieber' (Comrades in Dreams), nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2007.

Forum, Berlinale

Christoph TERCHECTE was appointed director of the Directors’ Forum section in the Berlin International Film Festival in 2001. He has been a member of the selection committee of the International Forum of New Cinema since 1997. Prior to his work with the Berlin Film Festival, TERCHECTE was a film journalist and editor at the Berlin city magazine Tip. He was also involved in the film selection and editorial work of the European Low Budget Film Forum in Hamburg until 1990.

Hong Kong International Film Festival

Jacob WONG is a curator of the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the director of the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF). He is also a delegate of the Berlin International Film Festival and the Locarno International Film Festival. He pens a film column for The Hong Kong Economic Journal and Ming Pao.