The 18th Busan International Film Festival has selected this year’s jury members for the New Currents competition section for Asian films. The New Currents section introduces the works of up-and-coming directors who are leading the way for Asian cinema and the jury members will select 2 films, each of which will be awarded USD 30,000.
August 28 - 2013
At the helm of this year’s search for Asia’s hottest new directors are 5 jury members that include Iran’s Rakhshan Banietemad who will serve as jury head. Rakhshan Banietemad has won numerous awards throughout her career for films such as, Nargess(1991) and The Blue Veiled(1995). As a representative Iranian female director, Banietemad visited Busan in 2006 for the festival’s 11th edition, with Mainline(2006).
Joining Banietemad on the New Currents board of jurors is former editor-in-chief of Cahiers du cinéma and current artistic director of Critic’s Week at the Cannes Film Festival, Charles Tesson; chief film critic for Variety, Scott Foundas; multi-talented film and stage director, writer, and composer Aoyama Shinji; and director Chung Ji-young, whose controversial films Unbowed(2011) and National Security(2012) were previously screened at the Busan International Film Festival.
The New Currents jury of 5 led by Rakhshan Banietemad will be in Busan come October, for a meticulous assessment of the 12 high-quality films selected for this year’s competition and a discovery of the Asian cinema potential.
New Currents Jury Members
Born in Tehran in 1954, Rakhshan Banietemad studied film directing at the University of Dramatic Arts in Iran. Following her graduation, she gained experience producing TV documentaries and in 1987, she directed her first feature film Off the Limits(1987), which was a critical success. In 1991 she became the first woman recipient of the Best Director Award at the Tehran Fajr International Film Festival for Nargess(1991). Under the Skin of the City(2000) garnered major awards at the Moscow, Seattle, Turin, and Karlovy Vary film festivals. Mainline(2006), which was invited to the 2006 Busan International Film Festival received the Achievement in Directing Award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
Since the late 1970’s Charles Tesson has been writing for the French film magazine, Cahiers du cinéma, where he was also editor-in-chief from 1998 to 2003. In 2011, he was named the artistic director of the Cannes Film Festival’s Critic’s Week, where he has consistently introduced up-and-coming directors to Cannes. Tesson is also a professor at the University of Paris III, teaching cinema history and aesthetics. A prolific author of books and essays on the subject of cinema, Tesson’s published works on directors include Satyajit Ray(1992), Luis Buñuel(1995), and Akira Kurosawa(2008). He has also authored books such as Photogénie de la Série B(1997) and Théâtre et cinéma(2007). Tesson co-wrote the Cahiers du cinéma special issue, Made in Hong Kong(1984), with Olivier Assayas and continues to contribute to an academic dialogue in the field of Asian cinema.
Film critic Scott Foundas was the editor-in-chief for L.A. Weekly from 2003 to 2009. A two-time finalist for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ AltWeekly Award in the category of Arts Criticism, Foundas was named Critic of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club in 2010. From 2010 to 2012, he also served as associate program director for the Film Society of the Lincoln Center. Foundas is currently the chief film critic for Variety and a special consultant to the Cannes Film Festival.
Born in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1964, Aoyama Shinji has directed numerous films, including his first feature film Helpless(1996), An Obsession(1997), and Lakeside Murder Case(2004). From his rich filmography, Eureka(2000) won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 53rd Cannes Film Festival and Tokyo Park (2011) won the Golden Leopard at the 64th Locarno International Film Festival. Aoyama has distinguished himself in the realm of film as well as in the fields of literature, theater, and music. In 2001, Aoyama received the honorable Mishima Yukio Prize awarded to budding writers of exceptional work, for the novelization of his film Eureka(2000). Aoyama occasionally composes original scores for his films and has ventured into theater, having directed David Mamet´s Glengarry Glen Ross and a part of August Strindberg?s Creditors.
Chung Ji-young entered the film industry as assistant director to Kim Soo-yong and debuted in 1982 with Mist Whispers Like a Woman. Chung has been active as a director as well as participated in the movement to reform the Promotion of the Motion Pictures Industry Act and is an active screen quota advocate. Recently, Unbowed(2011) and National Security(2012) were invited to consecutive editions of the Busan International Film Festival and went on to receive both commercial and critical success. His major films include North Korean Partisan in South Korea(1990), Beyond the Mountain(1991), White Badge(1992), and Life and Death of the Hollywood Kid(1994).
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