• Ming-Jung Kuo has spent much of her career in film festival management, programming and talent support initiatives. Her work as Program Director for Taipei Film Festival (2014-2018), carried a balance of showcasing new talent and introducing narrative VR programs as well as celebrating cinema heritage. She also partnered with Produire au Sud and launched PAS Taipei in 2015 to help reinforce script development, co-production and sales strategies. Having worked as the program consultant from 2017, she joined the Singapore International Film Festival in 2019, first as the Program Director before becoming Artistic Director. Between 2019 and 2021, she was on the selection committee for the Locarno Festival Open Doors. She has also been extensively involved in the selection of projects for Taiwanese and Southeast Asian script development and regional funding schemes. She set up Island X Pictures in 2022 and is developing feature films. In 2022 she joined Directors’ Fortnight as a consultant covering Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

  • Growing up in Vietnam in the 60’s, with his parents running a movie house, he went to France and to the United States to complete his Ph.D. in physics and worked for two decades in acoustics and quantum electronics. The arrival of his son reawakened his love for cinema that led him to studying filmmaking at UCLA Extension. Witnessing his father dying and his son growing up inspired his first feature, Buffalo Boy (2004 - Youth Jury award Locarno, Vietnam entry to Oscars, Fipresci award Palm Springs). His second feature, Nuoc 2030, a speculative film about the effect of global climate change on a couple's life in South Vietnam in 2030, was the opening film of Panorama Berlinale (2014 - Sloan award Tribeca).

  • This Side Up / Arkeofilms
    Based in Manila, This Side Up is pursuing various co-productions for its upcoming full-length features as well as the development of original content for new media platforms. The Sundance-winning “Leonor Will Never Die,” a surreal action drama about a filmmaker who gets transported into one of her films, is the most recent production with Anima Studios, directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar. The project has received support from Purin Pictures, Talents Tokyo and has won major awards including Sundance, Toronto and Sitges.

    This Side Up together with Arkeofilms, pursue and shepherd stories that are fresh, courageous and compelling. We work with filmmakers and artists who want to try new ideas for cinema and bring this discipline to other forms of content. The company has produced award-winning films, series, and platforms for learning.*

  • Naman Ramachandran is International Correspondent at Variety, specialising in South and Southeast Asia and the U.K.. Naman’s work as an author includes "Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography" (Penguin), "Lights, Camera, Masala: Making Movies In Mumbai" (IBH) and chapters in "Rough Guide To Film" (Rough Guides), "Movies: From The Silent Classics Of The Silver Screen To The Digital and 3D Era" (Universe) and "Movie Star Chronicles: A Visual History of 320 of the World's Greatest Movie Stars" (Peregrine). He has previously worked with the British Film Institute, Cineuropa, HBO Asia and MTV India. He is a BAFTA member and is based in London. 

  • Kongchak Studio is a sound design & audio post-production company that opened in 2021 to bring quality sound post-production services to Cambodia & the world. With years of seasoned experience, and talented sound designers, they work at not only bridging the relation between sound and image but also making them work in harmony.

    As Cambodia's first certified Dolby Atmos mixing studio, they have the tools to enhance and perfect the cinematographic experience. They have worked on several award-winning projects such as Return to Seoul (2022), Fan Girl (2020) or Viet & Nam (2024). Since 2022 they have partnered with the Asian Project Market at the Busan International Film Festival and QCinema Project Market in 2023 by offering their services to the recipient of the Kongchak Studio Award.

  • Producing multi-awarded, critically-acclaimed Philippine based-feature films, and television content, Clever Minds, Inc., established in 2016, has established itself as one of the most prolific full-service film and TV production companies in the country.

    Clever Minds, Inc. has also forged strong partnerships with the biggest media conglomerates in the region, specializing in all aspects of video production – from TV commercials to branded content, feature films, and music videos.

    Clever Minds, Inc. provides creatively clever solutions to the market’s fast-changing needs and offers a full, wide range of production services for film and television productions worldwide.

  • Paolo Bertolin is a film programmer, writer and producer. He is a member of the selection committee of Venice International Film Festival. He has worked for several international film festivals and institutions, including Cannes' Directors' Fortnight, Locarno Open Doors, IFFRotterdam, the Doha Film Institute, Udine Far East FF, Visions du réel and Beijing IFF.
    He has production credits on Berlinale Competition entries Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories by Phan Dang Di and A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery by Lav Diaz.
    He is a member of the European Film Academy and of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards Academy.
    As of February 2024, he has been appointed Artistic Director of Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival.

  • PARK Sungho is a programmer for Busan International Film Festival, and is working to promote Southeast Asian cinema globally. Park was born in Seoul, Korea in 1977. He majored in Film Editing at the Cinematography Department at Chung-Ang University. In 2007, he joined the Busan International Film Festival and served as a program coordinator for Asian cinema and manager for the Asian Film Academy. In 2013, he moved his base to Phnom Penh. Since 2016, he has joined Cambodia-based film production company Anti-Archive as a producer. Currently he is a selection committee member for Asian Project Market and Asian Film Academy, and is also supervising Platform Busan.

  • As one of the most important film festivals in Asia, Taipei Film Festival builds closer relationships with Asian independent filmmakers and film industries through film screenings, activities, workshops and other forms of cooperation. It is a platform for connecting filmmakers, the film industry and audiences that maintains flexibility for innovation and change, preserving its potential to be a fresh and cutting-edge film festival.

  • Primrin PUARAT is from Bangkok, Thailand. She is currently a manager of Purin Pictures, a film fund that supports filmmakers in Southeast Asia. Besides her work in Purin, she is a Thai documentary filmmaker whose work has always focused on the injustice issue in Thailand. Her first short doc, 'Pae-In' (2016), led to her selection for the American Film Showcase's ASEAN Regional Short Doc Workshop in Laos. Her next short doc, ‘Mountain of Trash’ (2020), received the honorable mention award at the IF/Then Global Shorts Pitching at IDFA 2019. Her latest short doc, ‘The Cost of Freedom’ (2023), won Best International Short Documentary at Chain NYC Film Festival 2023. Primrin was one of the ten selected filmmakers to join the Doc Station, Berlinale Talents 2022. Currently, she is working on the first feature documentary project, A Journey to the Universe, which was selected to participate at 2024 American Film Showcase’s Residency in Los Angeles and 2024 Ji.Hlava New Visions Forum in Czech Republic.