2015 International Nominations Council
Professor, Department of Film, School of Film, TV and Multimedia, Korea National University of Arts. Hong-Joon Kim was Festival Director of the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival and Commissioner of the Korean Film Council from 2000-2005. His published books include I, a Filmmaker: Kim Hong-Joon’s Film Notes and Two Or Three Things You Want To Know About Movies. Hong-Joon Kim is an award-winning director, and screenwriter of films including Jungle Story and La Vie En Rose. He hosted and co-wrote the television series Korean Classical Cinema Special.
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Film critic, Film Researcher, Artistic Director
Dr. Gulnara Abikeyeva is an award-winning Kazakh author, film critic and film researcher. Currently a professor of film history and theory at Turan University in Almaty, Gulnara was formerly the artistic director of the International Film Festival Eurasia in Almaty, and has launched five cinema magazines. In 2001-2002 she was a Fulbright scholar at Bowdoin College, read lectures in Pittsburgh University and made presentations in Harvard, Yale, Tafts Universities in the US. She is the author of 10 books about cinema, mostly about Kazakhstan and Central Asian countries. As a member of FIPRESCI and NETPAC, she has been a jury member at several international film festivals.
Co-Director, Iranian Film Festival Australia
Anne Démy-Geroe is Co-Director of the Iranian Film Festival Australia and teaches Asian Pacific cinema at Griffith Film School. She has just completed a PhD on Iranian cinema at the University of Queensland, is a board member 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. This year she chalked up her 15th 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.
Film Critic, Journalist
Igor is a highly-regarded journalist, film critic and festival programming consultant. Since 1993 Igor has reported from the Cannes International Film Festival for the largest Russian radio station Europa Plus, and Russian press. He was a FIPRESCI jury member at Cannes in 2010 and a Programming Director of VOICES Festival in Vologda in Russia from 2010 to 2013. Igor has been an Artist Director of the festival Message To Man in St Petersburg in 2012, a programmer to international film festival Black Night in Tallinn in Estonia and an advisor to the countries of the former Soviet Union for Director’s Fortnight in Cannes.
Film Critic, Film Curator, Film Festival Consultant
Meenakshi Shedde is South Asia Consultant to the Berlin Film Festival, and Consultant to the Dubai International Film Festival, based in Mumbai, India. She has been India/Asia Curator/Consultant to the Toronto, Locarno, Busan, World Cinema Amsterdam, International Film Festival of India (IFFI-Goa), Kerala and Mumbai Film Festivals. A journalist for 30 years and winner of India’s National Award for Best Film Critic, she has been on the jury of 20 international film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Karlovy Vary and Taipei. Meenakshi has mentored filmmakers, screenwriters and critics at various festivals around the world and has written for 12 books.
Film Editor
Mary collaborated with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer for more than 25 years editing and co-composing music, from being assistant to his then-editor Cécile Décugis to editing Rohmer’s films from Winter’s Tale (1991) to his last feature The Romance Of Astrea and Celadon (2007). In the past decade Mary has worked with independent filmmakers and producers in France, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Turkey, Australia and Canada, editing, associate-producing and coaching narrative drama and documentaries. She has also edited short films and coached animation and experimental projects. Mary continues her own filmmaking as well as guest-lectures and participates in juries, workshops, symposiums, universities and film schools.
Film Director, Asia Pacific Screen Awards and the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival
Since the inception of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2007, Maxine has been instrumental in establishing the APSA brand, building the awards competition, and industry and filmmaker networks. Maxine’s 11 years in the exhibition and distribution of independent, art house and foreign language cinema equipped her well to establish and maintain the integrity and governance of the APSA Awards Competition. A NETPAC and APN (Asia-Pacific Producers’ Network) member, she has also been a creative producer on the APSA documentary series Scene by Scene, promoting the films and filmmakers of the Asia Pacific, broadcast on CNN International from 2007 – 2009 and on ABC network in 2010 – 2011.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.