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PIFF Names Korean Cinema Award Recipients

Martial Knaebel, Terawaki Ken Named for Contributions

Busan, Korea — PIFF named Martial Knaebel, director at Fribourg International Film Festival, Switzerland, and Terawaki Ken, ex general-director at Japan Cultural Affairs Department, the winners of this year's Korean Cinema Award. PIFF presents the award to the individuals who have made outstanding contributions in promoting Korean cinema to the world film community.

Martial Knaebel

Knaebel was born in France, and studied Chemistry at Metz University. After completing the studies, he worked with E-Changer, a Switzerland based non-profit organization, until 1990. Knaebel began to be involved in the film industry in 1986 as he collaborated with the Fribourg International Film Festival then. He has been in the position of the director since 1992. Fribourg International Film Festival is one of the four largest film feasts in Switzerland and it has mainly introduced films made in the third world and Asian films.

In addition, he is one of the founding members of the Trigon Film Foundation (1988), and has distributed many Asian, Latin American and African films in Switzerland. Knaebel contributed his expertise to the work with Direction of Development and Cooperation at the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He established Sud-Est Funds with the support from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has helped production and post-production of the third world films.

Knaebel has introduced many Korean shorts and documentary films to the Festival since he took the position of director at Fribourg International Film Festival. In 1993 he organized a special section showcasing the works by Korean director LEE Jang-ho, and made a special program introducing Korean documentaries at the Festival.

Terawaki Ken

Ken was born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1952. He started to make comments on films from his high school years, and his comments frequently appeared in the contributors' column of a film magazine, titled Kinema Junpo. He has been an active film critic since 1975 after completing Faculty of Law program at University of Tokyo. He published 4 film reviews, and his book on Korean films is scheduled to be published in 2007. He teaches students film studies at the institute in Department of Cinema, Nihon College of Art and has worked for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology since 1975. He has facilitated cultural exchange, particularly the exchange of films between Japan and Korea as a high-ranking government official at Cultural Affairs Department, Agency for Cultural Affairs from 2002 to 2006.

As ex-director-general at Cultural Affairs Department, he has introduced about 40 Korean films to Japan by holding 'Korean Independence Film Festival' every year in Tokyo. He has worked closely with Korean government to promote cultural exchange in film industry through 'Walking Together:Cross-Cultural Currents Between the Children of Korea and Japan' in Korea, 2005 and Diversity in Japanese Cinema from 2004.

For further information, contact Yoo-Jin Lee at 82-51-746-8495.

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