2019 APSA Selection Panel

Dr Anne Démy-Geroe teaches Asian Pacific cinema at Griffith Film School and holds a PhD on Iranian cinema from the University of Queensland, is a Vice President of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) and a member of the Nominations Council for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.  She was the inaugural director of the Brisbane International Film Festival from 1991 to 2010 and a founding Co-Director of the Iranian Film Festival Australia till 2018.  This year she chalked up her 17th year at the Fajr Film Festival in Tehran, twice as a jury member. Anne is interested in both the aesthetics and politics of Asian cinema.

Ifa Isfansyah was born in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 1979. He graduated from the Television Department of Indonesian Institute of Art Jogjakarta.  He was selected by the Asian Film Academy Busan in 2006 and got a scholarship to attend the Im Kwon Taek College of Film & Performing Arts, Republic of Korea. He directed films including The Dancer (2011) and was awarded Best Director and Best Picture at the Indonesian Film Festival. Since then he has produced Siti (Eddie Cahyono, Telluride 2015), Turah (Wicaksono Wisnu LEGOWO, Indonesian Official Entry for Academy Awards 2018), The Seen and Unseen (Kamila Andini, Grandprix Berlinale Generation Kplus 2018) and Memories of My Body (Garin Nugroho, Venice Orizzonti 2018).  He co-produced The Seen and Unseen (2017). The Seen and Unseen also won Best Youth Feature Film at the 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Awards and Memories of My Body won Cultural Diversity Award under the patronage of UNESCO at the 2018 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

James Nolen is a film curator at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne. Over the last 12 years James has programmed a wide range of film screenings and events at ACMI focussing on programs for younger audiences, on art and design and Australian film. He has also presented film seasons from the Asia-Pacific region including a Focus on Wendy Hughes and a celebration of Hong Kong actress Linda Lin Dai.

Ann Marie Fleming is an Asian-Canadian independent filmmaker, writer, and artist. Born in Japan to Chinese and Australian parents, Fleming creates work that addresses themes of family, identity, history, and memory. Her acclaimed short films include: You Take Care Now (1989), New Shoes (1990) Blue Skies (2002) I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors (2010), Big Trees (2013) and Question Period (2019). Ann Marie adapted her award-winning 2003 animated documentary The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam into an Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel in 2007.  Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming (2016) was named Best Animated Feature Film at the 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Mr. Avid runs Rocketsheep, an indie animation studio. Aside from animation, he also directs live action productions & is a veteran of the Philippine advertising scene. His 1st feature film, Saving Sally (2016) won the jury prize at the following; Brussels Fantastic Festival, Portugal’s Fantasporto and Seoul International Animation Festival. It was also nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Deborah Szapiro has an impressive track record for producing award winning animation for cinema and television. Her work has been screened extensively by broadcasters and film festivals worldwide. Awards to films include two AFI Awards, Dendy, ATOM and IF Awards, BANFF Television Award for Best Animated Series and the Gordon Bruce Award for Humour, among others. In her curatorial practice she has curated numerous animation film festival programs and events locally and internationally and was Festival Director for the Japanime Film Festivals and Co-director of the Sydney International Animation Festival. Deborah also lectures in animation at the University of Technology Sydney.

Alexander Behse is an award-winning creative producer whose eclectic body of work has resonated across the wider Pacific. From high-end documentaries to celebrated prime-time series Behse’s drive for risk-taking treatments, engaging subjects and his eye for talent have made him one of the most innovative and prolific young producers of indigenous, factual and adventure programming in the region today. Alexander produced Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web which received a Special Mention in the Best Documentary Feature Film category at APSA 2017.

Iranian/Australian filmmaker Faramarz K-Rahber has specialized in producing and directing documentary films since graduating from Griffith Film School in 2000. Nominated for an AFI award for Best Direction in Documentary for his debut film ‘Fahimeh’s Story’, he subsequently received worldwide acclaim for ‘Donkey in Lahore’ which screened at Tribeca Film Festival and IDFA in Amsterdam. During the course of his career he has won a number of awards for his films, which tend to theme around cultural identity and diversity. Faramarz is an associate of Emmy International and a member of AACTA and ASC.

Maeng Soojin is a film critic and programmer of Seoul Eco Film Festival. She received a PhD from the Department of Theater and Film, Dongguk University. She previously worked as a member the executive committee for the Seoul Independent Film Festival, a member of the steering committee for the Association of Korean Independent Film & Video, a staff critic for the weekly film magazine Movie Week, and the programmer of Jeonju International Film Festival, DMZ Docs and EBS International Documentary Festival. She wrote several books on Korean independent films including Truth or Fake: Documentaries on the Border and Issues of Korean Short Films.