Jury of TIDF 2008

International Feature Length Competition Jury

HUANG Ming-Chuan

Huang Ming-Chuan was born in Chiayi, a small town in the south of Taiwan. He graduated in Law at the National Taiwan University, but chose to go to the US to study lithography and fine-art painting. In New York, his interests expanded to take in cinema and photography. His inaugural project was the ground-breaking feature The Man From Island West, one of the first Taiwanese films ever to examine the plight of the island's aboriginal population. In addition to independent feature projects, Huang has made numerous documentaries on arts subjects, including biographical portraits of veteran novelists and the Avant Garde Liberation: The Huang Mingchuan Image collection.

Kazuhiro SODA

Kazuhiro Soda was born and raised in Japan and has lived in New York since 1993. Soda holds a BFA in Filmmaking from the School of Visual Arts and a BA in Religious Studies from Tokyo University. His short fiction film The Flicker competed for a Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. Among the many TV documentaries Soda has directed, Landscape Without Mother won a Telly Award in 2001. His first feature documentary CAMPAIGN (2007) was invited to about 25 film festivals around the world, and its 52-minute version was broadcast in almost 200 countries.

Michae lVETTER

Michael Vetter's outstanding visual accomplishments are influenced by experiences in the fields of pantomime, theater, architecture and art studies in the Academy of Fine Arts and Applied Art in Vienna. His work as filmmaker and cinematographer includes Features, TV Series, Video Art, Theater, Advertising, Underwater Photography and Documentaries in conflict zones in Latin America, Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, focusing on political, economical and ecological themes. His work has earned him international recognition and prizes. Since 1968 he resides in Mexico City, founding MV PRODUCTIONS and also representing the Public Austrian Television in Mexico and Latin America.

International Short Film Competition Jury

Supriyo SEN

A journalist turned independent filmmaker, Supriyo Sen has directed documentaries like Wait Until Death, The Nest, Way Back Home and Hope Dies Last in War. He has won National Award, B.F.J.A Critic's Award, BBC Award in Commonwealth Film Festival, Golden Conch in Mumbai International Film Festival. He has also received Sundance Documentary Fund, Jan Vrijman Fund from IDFA, and Asian Network of Documentary Award from Pusan International Film Festival. This year he is nominated for "Berlin Today Award" for his short film Wagah which is a part of a My Wall series promoted by Berlin Film Festival to commemorate 20th anniversary of the fall of Berlin Wall.

Stefan TOLZ

Stefan Tolz (1966) is an internationally acknowledged filmmaker, who has made documentaries for the past 20 years. He studied film directing in Munich and Georgia's capital Tbilisi and has been teaching documentary filmmaking at various European film schools. Among his feature length films is the documentary On the Edge of Time, which won the Golden Gate Award in San Francisco and the Grand Prix at TIDF in 2002. Also an experienced producer he received nominations for the International Emmy for the TV series The Search for Happiness and for the European and German Film Award for the music documentary Touch the Sound.

WU Mi-Sen

WU Mi-Sen received his BFA in filmmaking from City College, City University of New York in 1995. Wu has continued to make documentary and feature films filled with creative grandeur. Surrealistic imagination and a sense of the absurd permeate his films and keep the audience entranced yet fully aware of the film as a tricky mediator that blurs fiction and reality.

Asia Vision Award Jury

CHANG Chaowei

Critic, Documentary maker, currently Chief Producer at the CNEX Foundation, Chang's social and cultural observations can be seen in print in Taiwanese and mainland Chinese media. Chang worked as an organizer, director, screenwriter, and producer in a number of TV documentary productions, some of which focus on the modern historical and social culture of Taiwan and China, and were nominated by several international film festivals. Chang helped establish the CNEX Foundation in 2007 in an effort to promote the creation and exchange of documentary films in the Chinese-speaking world.

CHEN Kun-Hou

Born in Taichung, Chen Kun-hou has devoted his career to the film and video making industry, first as a photographer at Central Pictures, and subsequently as a film photographer, documentary and film director, TV program producer, TV series and documentary production managers. In his works, Chen seeks to establish an individual style with a touch of humanism. He is known for his clean, gentle and realistic style. His directorial work includes Growing Up, Osmanthus Alley and His Marimony. Lately, he has turned from film to TV and documentary projects, and is now the Consultant on Documentary Projects at the CNEX Foundation.

Takaki INADA

Born 1948 in Osaka, Japan. Film commentator. Began freelance career after working in publishing and advertising. Former Editor-in-chief of the hip culture magazine Studio Voice and Cinefex, a magazine introducing Hollywood motion picture visual effects. Now writes mostly about cinema in various magazines, newspapers and Websites. Has penned many novel adaptations of films. Has been serving on the pre-selection committee of Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival's International Competition since 1989. Anchored the live Japanese television broadcast of the Academy Awards.

Taiwan Award Jury

PENG Li-Hua

Education: Le diplome d'etudes approfondies Cinema Television Audiovisuel, Universite de Paris I. She has promoted the "Film Quarterly Joumnal" for Chinese Taipei Film Archive, served as the Vice Director of TV Department as well as Production & Planning Department, Central Motion Picture Corporation and Artist Director of Salon Films (Hong Kong) Ltd.. Her works Between 0 and 1, Goodbye John Lennon obtained Golden Harvest Awards, I-CONE collected by Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre G. Pompidou. She produced The Stars of Chinese Opera which received three Golden Tape Awards and Jump Boys won Golden Horse Awards for the Best Documentary.

IIana TSUR

llana Tsur studied English Literature and Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and she continued her graduate studies in the field of communication, radio and television in Boston. She began her radio career by making numerous documentary programs and hosting a daily talk show on current events in Israel. In 1990 she started her T.V. work, hosting a program on cultural affairs. As an independent filmmaker, she directed films on historical and social problems, and in 1999 initiated Docaviv, the Israeli Documentary Film Festival, of which she is the director. She also serves as a consultant and curator of many of the spotlights on Israeli best films shown in many festivals outside Israel.

ZHOU Hao

Currently 40 years old, Zhou is the director of 21st Century Film Studio. He has successively worked as a photographer for the Photography Department of Xinhua News Agency and Southern Weekly.