2016 International Nominations Council
The APSA Nominations Council is comprised of international film industry experts drawn from high profile academic institutions, film festivals and film festivals across Asia Pacific.
The Nominations Council meet in Brisbane to deliberate and determine the nominees for the 10th APSA’s feature narrative achievements for Best Feature Film, Achievement in Directing, and Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Performance by an Actor and Actress, and the prestigious APSA presented in partnership with UNESCO for outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of the cultural diversity through the medium of film.
Now in his 10th year as Council Chair, Professor Hong-Joon Kim will lead the 2016 APSA International Nominations Council comprising of a distinguished group of film professionals representing expertise across all feature narrative categories:
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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A leading figure of Malaysian new wave cinema, U-Wei Bin HajiSaari is a published art writer, essayist and newspaper columnist and was the first Malaysian director to have a film selected for the Cannes Film Festival. A native of Pahang, Malaysia, he studied filmmaking at the New York school for social research in New York City. He is an active member of the Malaysian Film Director’s organisation. His film Woman, Wife and Whore (1993), received five awards at the 11th Malaysian Film Festival, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. In 1995, The Arsonist, was invited to Un Certain Regard in Cannes Film Festival as well as Berlin, Montreal, Nantes, Fribourg, New York and Busan and was awarded Grand Prix at the Brussels Film Festival. Nantes Film Festival held a retrospective of his work in 2001. HajiSaari became a member of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy in 2013 when his film Hanyut (Almayer’s Folly), based on the novel by Joseph Conrad, saw him nominated for the APSA Best Screenplay award. Hanyut also received a Special Honour Award at the 2013 Asean International Film Festival.
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Specialist in Asia Pacific cinema, Griffith Film School
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 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. Currently Co-Director of the Iranian Film Festival Australia, she was the inaugural director of the Brisbane International Film Festival from 1991 to 2010. 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.
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 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 and Academy Film Funds. 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.
Film Critic and Researcher
Previously Head of Film Programming at Hong Kong Arts Centre (1987-1990), Programmer of Asian Cinema at Hong Kong International Film Festival (1990-1996), Research Officer at Hong Kong Film Archive (2001-2009), now guest lecturer at Chinese University of Hong Kong and independent researcher. Her publications include Xi Yuan (An Affair with Film, 2000), Meng Yu Shuo Meng (Dreamy Talks), Fei Mu – Poet Director (ed.), and Cold War and Hong Kong Cinema (ed.) among others.
View ProfileThe 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.