Biography

Film critic and translator Darcy Paquet teaches in the International Film Business Academy at the Busan Asian Film School. He is the founder of the website Koreanfilm.org and the author of New Korean Cinema: Breaking the Waves (2010, Columbia University Press).

A former correspondent for Screen International and Variety, in 2013 he co-launched the Wildflower Film Awards Korea, which celebrates achievement in Korean independent filmmaking. He also works as a programme consultant for the Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy.

Over the years Darcy has done subtitle translation for a large number of Korean films, including Bong Joon Ho's Parasite (2019), Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden (2016), and Hong Sangsoo's On the Beach at Night Alone (2017). Originally from the U.S., Darcy has been living in Seoul since 1997.

Biography

Adam Piron (Kiowa/Mohawk) is a filmmaker, film programmer and co-founder of COUSIN. Co-founded with filmmakers Sky Hopinka, Adam Khalil and Alexandra Lazarowich, COUSIN was created to support Indigenous artists experimenting with and pushing the boundaries of the moving image.

He is currently the Assistant Curator for Film at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and a member of the Sundance Film Festival’s Short Film Programming Team. He is also a Short Film Programmer for AFI DOCS & AFI FEST and a Film Programmer for the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. He has also served as a Film Programmer for the LA Film Festival. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees and Programming Committee of the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, an organization devoted to building community around the moving image and the longest continuously running annual film event in North America devoted to creative non-fiction.

From 2014 to 2017, he served as a Manager for Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program. He has programmed both features and short films for Film Independent’s LA Film Festival. He has also served on competition juries and panels for film festivals such as the Palm Springs International ShortFest, Hot Springs Film Festival, Art House Convergence, imagineNATIVE Film Festival, Big Sky Documentary Film festival and Maoriland Film Festival.

His films have screened at Borscht, Indie Grits, Camera Obscura, Seattle International Film Festival, Eastern Oregon Film Festival and various other festivals and programs.

Biography

Don Groves is a Sydney-based freelance journalist who has covered the screen industries and the entertainment business for most his career. Since 2017 he has been senior writer for Australia’s Inside Film, part of the Intermedia publishing group, covering news for the daily website and twice weekly newsletter and writing features for the bi-monthly print magazine. Since 2013 he has been Australasian bureau chief for UK-based C21 Media, covering the broadcasting sectors in Australia and New Zealand: commissions, production, sales and acquisitions. He also contributes to Creative Content Australia’s Content Café blog. He spent more than 24 years with Variety newspaper as Sydney bureau chief and, for five and a half years, served in Variety’s London office as London bureau chief and chief European correspondent.

His CV also includes online film reviewer and film commentator for Showtime Networks Australia; online film reviewer for Foxtel; Australian correspondent for Deadline.com; and contributor to SBS Film. He co-wrote the book AHL: 100 Years of Entertainment, charting the history of the Greater Union cinema company (now Event Cinemas). Crossing to the ‘other side,’ earlier in his career he served as marketing manager for Hoyts Cinemas and as manager. corporate affairs, for the Southern Star group. He began his career as a copy boy with the then Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper The News in Adelaide, South Australia, where he did his cadetship. He then joined the ABC-owned TV Times magazine in Adelaide, later transferring to its Sydney office. For five years he covered showbusiness for the Sydney Sun-Herald. As a young man he worked for a year at the Brenard Press news agency at London’s Heathrow Airport, interviewing celebrities, politicians and other notables as they deplaned or departed, for the Fleet Street papers.

Biography

After his studies in France and Canada, Jérémy joined the newly-created Deauville Asian Film Festival in 1999 as programmer.

He established the festival as a key European event for Asian cinema, noted for its glamorous guests and attention to Korean and South-East Asian cinema, helping to establish new trends for Asian film in France. In 2003, Jérémy joined the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival as their Asian specialist. During his time there (2003-2011), Directors’ Fortnight has emerged as the key section in Cannes for discovering new Asian talent. And notably bringing back Philippines cinema to Cannes after nearly two decades of absence. In parallel, he was also a contributor to different publications in Asia (Movie Marketing Asia, Asia Movie Week, FilmCulture360.org) and to Cahiers du Cinéma magazine in France. And active as a curator and programmer for various film festivals and retrospectives with different organisation and museums, such as Paris Cinéma festival (2006-2011), Centre Pompidou Museum (Paris) in 2009 or National Museum of Singapore in 2011.

In late 2011, he joined France Foreign Affairs Ministry and was posted as Audiovisual attaché at the French Office in Taipei for 5 years where he led the cooperation in the field of cinema, music and television. Since 2016, he works for UniFrance, the organisation in charge of promoting French cinema throughout the world, as their representative for Japan, Korea and South-East Asia.

Biography

Zakariya Muhammed is a Malayalam film maker best known for his debut, Sudani From Nigeria. Zakariya, is a Mass Communications post graduate from Valanchery, Malappuram, who worked as an assistant professor before venturing into film making.

His debut, Sudani from Nigeria was well recogonised and gained him various awards including National Film Award,Kerala state Film Award, and film fare Award. He made his acting debut in 2019 Malayalm film Virus. Taking his passion for film making forward, his next movie will be Halal Love Story.

Biography

Lorna TEE is a pan-Asian film producer and works for various international film festivals, and divides her time between Asia and Europe.

From 2005, she has worked with some of the more prominent film companies in Hong Kong such as Focus Films (Hong Kong), Variety (USA), and Irresistible Films (Hong Kong/ Japan). She also was involved in setting up and executive producing the first ever pan-Asian awards, the Asian Film Awards in 2007 in Hong Kong.

She is working with her production company Paperheart, producing films across Asia. In 2014, she was engaged to be Festival Director of CinemAsia Film Festival in The Netherlands. As part of the Selection Committee in Berlinale, she worked as part of a committee member to select films for Competition & Galas from 2010 to 2016. She is also the Asian representative for Back Up Media Group, a financing entity based in France. In 2016, she co-founded and has taken the role of Head of Festival Management for the International Film Festival & Awards in Macao.

TEE has served on the board of various international film festivals including Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Busan and Jakarta. She has been invited to be a jury member at Berlinale, Cannes, Locarno, London, Hong Kong, Sydney, Barcelona, Mexico, Durban, QCinema & others. She is currently an advisor to the Korean Film Council for the setting up of ARFO (ASEAN ROK Film Organisation). She has also worked as a mentor/ trainer in various international workshops such as Venice Biennale College, EAVE – Ties that Bind, SEAFIC, Golden Horse Film Festival & Awards, Tokyo Talents Campus, Taipei Film Academy and many others.

Her producing credits include The Beautiful Washing Machine, Rain Dogs, Crazy Stone, Love Story, My Mother is a Bellydancer, The Shoe Fairy, At the end of Daybreak, Lover’s Discourse, Come Rain, Come Shine and Postcards from the Zoo and Mrs K. She is currently developing a slate of series and films for international audiences.

Biography

A Malaysian filmmaker, actively in Malaysian film & tv industry since 2011. A graduate of the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, he has directed 6 films, multiple tv series episodes and more than 30 music videos ranging from Malay, English, Punjabi and Hindi language. Also being the director of first Malaysian Bollywood collaborative film as well as first Malaysian Punjabi language film.

Biography

Starting his career as an A&R Music Director, the company has moved him to Los Angeles Bureau to study Computer Graphics, which lead Yuki’s career to become a VFX Producer. After shifting his career to Movie & TV industry, Yuki has been in charge of some of the large-scale budget titles as Producer and VFX Producer which his work has received or nominated number of awards including 5 times nomination of International Emmy Award.

MR. YUKI also serve as International Alliance officer of Digicon6 Asia Award which is a largest Digital Content Award in Asia.

MR. YUKI is an author of “PROJECT SPIRIT” which is currently published in Japan. MR. YUKI is currently in the middle of feature film production which is scheduled to be release in 2021.

Biography

Wregas Bhanuteja was born in Jakarta, 20 October 1992. He graduated from Jakarta Institute of Arts in 2014 with film directing major. His first debut in international film festival was his short film "Lembusura " (2015) that compete in Berlin International Film Festival 2015. In 2016 he won Best Short Film in Semaine de la Critique, Cannes Film Festival with his short film "Prenjak/In The Year of Monkey".

His latest short film "No One is Crazy in This Town" (2019) premiered in Busan International Film Festival 2019 and compete in Sundance Film Festival 2020. Now he is working for a script for his first feature film.

Biography

Janine Stein is Editorial Director for ContentAsia's information platforms, including print and online as well as annual conference, the ContentAsia Summit. She has covered the Asian television and media business since 1989, and has worked for, among others, The Hollywood Reporter (U.S.), the South China Morning Post/Television & Entertainment Times (Hong Kong), Variety, Cable & Satellite Asia (FT Business), Television Business International (TBI, U.K.) and Electronic Media (U.S.). Prior to 1989, she covered the African television industry for five years.

Among other roles, she was TV Editor for an English-language national daily and a correspondent for industry magazine, Southern Screen & Stage, out of Johannesburg. Janine ran the Singapore chapter of Women Media Networks Asia until 2005, and currently organises women's events under the banner of ContentAsia Women.

Biography

Nandita is the co-founder of Malaysian independent film production company Apparat, which she set up in 2009 with director Dain Said, to tell stories through fiction and documentary films, in collaboration with other filmmakers & storytellers from the Asian region and beyond. Nandita draws inspiration from Southeast Asia’s rich heritage and dynamic future, with an aim to shape distinctive stories and unique characters within films that bridge the local and the global.

Apparat has emerged as a boutique independent film production company the produces bold and game-changing films in Malaysia, that are also able to cross-over into international festivals, sales and distribution. Apparat’s first fiction feature, ‘Bunohan’ (2011) was Malaysia’s 2nd official submission for the Foreign Language Oscar 2013. Apparat’s films have been invited to screen at Toronto, Locarno Piazza Grande, Rotterdam, London BFI, Jogja Netpac Asian Film Festival, Sitges, Singapore IFF, Bucheon, Udine and many others. Our films have been picked up by Universal Pictures, HBO Asia and Netflix. Our films are invited for screenings every year at community-organized events in Malaysia.

Nandita has been selected to participate in international programs including Locarno Open Doors Producers Lab, EAVE Ties That Bind and Crossing Borders, and has presented projects at international markets and forums such as Hong Kong’s HAF, Focus Asia Genre Market in Udine, Bucheon NAFF IT Project Market, Singapore’s SAFF and Docedge Calcutta. Since 2019, Nandita has been teaching a 14-week course on Producing for Film at Sunway University. She also serves as an Industry Advisor to the Malaysia Multimedia University’s film campus in Iskandar, Johor.
Nandita received an MSc. in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where she was a Chevening Fellow, and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Georgia, USA. Nandita is currently co-writing two horror feature scripts slated for production in 2020.

Biography

With his fragile style, translucent figure, unchanging physical appearance and his uncategorisable, kaleidoscopic personality, the french singer Shake, born in Malaysia, is back for the greater pleasure of all. He made it big in the mid-1970s with a launch to stardom worthy of a fairy-tale. He was singled out in a Malaysian bar by a couple of girls who were so charmed by his voice that they sent him a one-way plane ticket to France. Spotted by Orlando, Shake stimulated French popular music with the eclecticism, open-mindedness and a breath of fresh air that had often been sorely lacking.

And success came pretty quickly. Shake is someone who, unlike other renowned vocalists of the time, their renditions artificially confined and beefed up in a studio, has a naturally sonorous and supple voice, as incomparable as it is resonant. And as a secret fan of rock and roll, he also has a powerful voice that can match the best rock frontmen.

But the epoch was marked by romanticism and the Malaysian singer created a music that is infinitely personal, comes straight at you and tells the story of a beating heart.

A whole string of catchy hits with a few memorable nuggets such as You know I love you which, after his appearance on the Rendez vous du dimanche talk show hosted by Michel Drucker, sold 40 000 units in one day. Other hits include “Quand on ne peut pas avoir la fille qu’on aime” (When you cant have the girl you love), “Je chante cette chanson pour toi” (Im singing this song for you), “Rien n’est plus beau que l’amour” (Nothing is more beautiful than love), “La fille que j’attendais” (The girl I was waiting for), “Soleil aide-moi” (Help me, Sun), “L’étranger au paradis” (The foreigner in heaven), “Elle s’en va” (Shes going away), “Avec elle” (With her) and, naturally, “Let me be your number one”.

These are real pearls whose nostalgia never goes stale and which were not only successful in French-speaking countries but also in Holland, Italy, Germany, Spain and in Asia where he was granted the title of Dato (Sir) and knighted by the Sultan of Johor for having represented and introduced Malaysia to a European public.

Bruce Lee was the first asian actor to make it internationally in the entertainment business, and Shake was the first singer in 1976 to also make it internationally. And he was also awarded the prestigious Chevalier des arts et des lettres et du mérite medal for having promoted French language and culture in Asia.

In any event, Shake is open to many influences and capable of deserting the beaten paths of variety and working happily elsewhere backtracking if he feels like it. And so having spent 15 years in Europe, he stepped onto the American stage and collaborated with producers / artists such as Michael Sembello (who wrote and interpreted one of the songs in Flashdance and has worked with many internationally-famous artists including Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson). He’s also given memorable concert performances like the one for Valentines Day in 1998.

Yet, as a true traveller, singing his life as he lives it, head in the clouds and always elsewhere (which made Dalida say of him He comes from distant shores but his talent was worth the journey), Shake is now back in France.

From amused poses to accepted pauses in his career, the ex-singer of the 70s, with 60 million records sold has become an icon without ever taking himself too seriously. He has always been driven by an artistic ambition and inspiration so rare in the music industry these days that one can only hold him in admiration.

And so it was that recently he made a winning comeback with his show at L’Alhambra and in Palavas in 2011, released his album “Chameleon” in Malay in 2012, “Voyageur” in 2015, and more recently performed at the Grand Rex in 2016.

Biography

Diffan Sina Norman is a Kuala Lumpur–born, LA-based artist, filmmaker, and writer. His work has been featured at the Sundance Film Festival and SXSW. His short film Kekasih, which premiered at Sundance in 2014, was made possible with a grant from the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia.

More recently, his script Sitora the Weretiger was a recipient of a FINAS Feature Film Development Grant. His newest short, Benevolent Ba, premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival.