Pusan announces jurors for 2010 fest

The 15th Pusan International Film Festival has announced the Korean and international jurors who will participate on its four juries. Heading the high profile New Currents section which showcases new Asian directors will be internationally renowned costume director Wada Emi. As well as her work in theatre and opera she has designed for the Zhang Yimou films Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004), received an Oscar for Akira Kurosawa's Ran (1985), and an Emmy for Julie Taymor's TV Opera Oeduoys Rex.


Selecting films alongside Wada Emi on the New Currents section is Cannes winning Indian director and screenwriter Murali Nair as well as Christoph Terhechte who writes about film and heads the International Forum of New Cinema at the Berlin International Film Festival. Also on the jury is high profile Korean actress Kim Yunjin who appeared in the American TV series Lost and Taiwanese actor YANG Kuei mei who starred in Eat Drink Man Woman (1994).

For the Flash Forward section, created last year to recognize non-Asian directors, Sundance festival director John Cooper will act as head juror. Joining him will be renowned film scholar Thomas Elsaesser, as well as film director LEE Kwang-mo who heads the Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival and arthouse film distributor Baekdu-daegan. Other directors joining the jury are Alex Popogrebsky who has won many awards including two awards for his third feature How I Ended this Summer (2010) at the Berlin International Film Festival and Sarajevo born film director and thespian Jasmila Zbanic who won the Golden Bear at Berlin.


For Pusan's documentary section 'Wide Angle' are jurors Sean Farnel, director of programming at the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival, KIM Myung-jun who is the director of the nonprofit MediAct in Seoul and the Executive at the Korean Visual Media Education Association. Also on the jury is Cambodian documentary director and screenwriter Rithy Panh. Selecting for the Sonje award for best short film is Malaysian director Woo Min Jin, Korean cinematographer Kim Myeong-joon and Remi Bonhomme, a Cannes programmer. Lastly, the jurors for the NETPAC Award for Asian films are Nestor Jardin, Festival Director at the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival and Moon Kyuan Kyu Professor of the Department of Film at Pusan National University.

The Pusan International Film Festival kicks off October 7 and runs until the 15th. The full programme will be announced September 7.

David Oxenbridge

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