2019 International Nominations Council

Hong-Joon Kim was Festival Director of the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival and Commissioner of the Korean Film Council from 2000-2005. He is the Artistic Director of the Chungmuro International Musical Film Festival. 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.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin Film Festival, and independent film curator, based in Mumbai, India. 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. She has been India/Asia Curator/Consultant to the Toronto, Locarno, Busan, British Film Institute (BFI London), Dubai, IFFI-Goa, Kerala, Mumbai and Colombo film festivals. She has been Mentor to screenwriters and critics at film labs worldwide, including Asia Pacific Screen Lab (Australia). A senior journalist, she freelances for Variety, Screen International and Sight & Sound. She has written for/edited 17 books, mainly on cinema.

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.

Maxine Williamson has worked in the industry for 23 years. Influential in commencing APSA as Associate Producer (2007) and Film Director, finishing after its 10th edition in mid-2017. Director of Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival, 2014-2016 and Co-Director 23rd Brisbane International Film Festival, 2017. Associate Producer on Asia Pacific (AP) filmmaker documentary series Scene by Scene for CNN. AP Consultant for Turkey’s; Antalya Film Forum for last 5 years, AP Ambassador WMC, and Board Member of the Selection Committee Sabanci Foundation Short Film Competition. Ambassador, Mongolian Film Institute and Altan Khalis International Film Festival. Artistic Advisor touring exhibition FRAME: How Asia Pacific Feminist Filmmakers and Artists are Confronting Inequality. NETPAC and APN member. Prior to AP work, Maxine worked in quality, arthouse exhibition/distribution sector for 10-years.

Delphine Garde-Mroueh has had more than 12 years in the film, art and cultural industries in the United Arab Emirates. For ten years she was the Head of Programme Administration & Film Services for the Dubai International Film Festival, and programmed the highly-regarded Arabian Nights section. Her aim is to connect audiences to Arab and world cinema, champion emerging and acclaimed filmmakers and promote Arab film and talent on the international stage.

Kiki Fung is Programmer for the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF). She was previously Head Programmer for the Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) and Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival (BAPFF), and Industry Consultant for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA). She has guest-curated for the Brisbane Festival and Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and was Film Program Manager for the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Before moving to Australia in 2010, she served at the Hong Kong Film Archive for seven years in areas of publication editing, management and program co-ordination. She is a member of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) and a committee member of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society; her recent essays published in Wong Ain Ling’s The Cinema of Wong Kar-wai and HKIFF Society’s Naruse Mikio, 110th Anniversary.