2019 Youth, Animation, Documentary International Jury

Garin Nugroho was inducted into the Academy in 2007 for Opera Jawa, which was nominated for Best Feature Film. The Mirror Never Lies (Laut Bercermin) produced by Nugroho and  Nadine Chandrawinata won the APSA Best Children’s Feature film in 2012.

His most recent film Memories of My Body (Kucumbu Tubuh Indahku) won the APSA Cultural Diversity Award under the patronage of UNESCO at the 2018 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Born in Jogjakarta, Indonesia on 1961 and completed his studies in 1985 at the film academy in Jakarta. Nugroho’s debut film LOVE IS A SLICE OF BREAD (1991) was selected as the Best Young Director at the Asia Pacific International Film Festival. LETTER FOR AN ANGEL (1994) won Best Film at the Taormina Film Festival and the Tokyo International Film Festival. His film LEAF ON A PILLOW (1998) won the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 1998 and screening at CANNES Film Festival 1998. Since then, his name skyrocketed and spread to various international film festivals. In celebration of 250 years of Mozart (2006), he was selected as one of the six ‘innovative directors’ world to make the film. The result, Opera Jawa, was based on the Ramayana and produced by Simon Fields and was premiered in Venice 2006.

Diana El Jeiroudi is a Berlin-based award-winning Syrian film director, producer and co-founder of Syria’s DOX BOX International Documentary Film Festival. She was the first Syrian to be a juror at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014, and in 2017 was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2002, El Jeiroudi helped launched a film production company and her first film as director was The Pot (2005), which premiered in the prestigious Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in Japan and screened in more than 60 countries. She later directed Dolls: A Woman from Damascus and Morning Fears, Night Chants; and Return to Homs.

As a producer, El Jeiroudi worked on Return to Homs for Oscar^®-nominated director Talal Derki, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2014, she was nominated for the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Documentary Feature Film as a producer of Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait that told the story of the Syrian civil war through footage filmed on mobile phones and handheld cameras. The film premiered in the Special Screenings section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and later won awards at both London, Torino and Yamagata film festivals. El Jeiroudi is a member of the APSA Academy as well as the Deutsche Filmakademie.

Zareh Nalbandian has been managing, developing and producing large-scale screen projects for over 25 years. He has collaborated with iconic directors, producers and artists on some of the most successful feature films of our time. Since leading Animal Logic’s expansion into feature film visual effects in 1996 and feature animation in 2006, they have become a world leader in the fields of film development, animation, visual effects and production.

He was Executive Producer on Academy Award^®-winning Happy Feet, The LEGO® Movie and its sequels, Walking with Dinosaurs and Peter Rabbit as well as Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, which was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2010 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Other films he has been involved with include The Matrix, Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby. In 2010, he won the Byron Kennedy Award from the Australian Film Institute.

Nalbandian is committed to building a successful, globally competitive digital production industry in Australia. He enjoys strong personal relationships with key US Studio Executives and leading Directors and Producers, in addition to the continued day-to day management of the company. He guides the development of an exciting slate of feature film properties and continues to push the boundaries of digital storytelling. Nalbandian is a member of the APSA Academy.