Born in Salta, Argentina, Lucrecia Martel is a director and screenwriter. Her films, including her debut film La Ciénaga (The Swamp, 2001), La Mujer Sin Cabeza (The Headless Woman, 2008) and Zama (2017) are all considered major works of contemporary cinema. Nuestra Tierra (Landmarks, 2025) is her fifth film and the first non-fiction work. Her other works include art installations, television series and short films, including the art installation El Pasaje (The Passage, 2021) and the short film AI (2019). Retrospectives of her work have been presented at institutions including Harvard, Lincoln Center and Centre Pompidou, often accompanied by masterclasses on sound and narrative that have since been published. In 2023, she was awarded honorary doctorates by three universities, including the University of Buenos Aires.

Chin Han is a Los Angeles-based Singaporean actor and producer with a career spanning over two decades across Asia and Hollywood. After gaining international recognition in The Dark Knight (2008), he has appeared in films including Contagion (2011) and Skyscraper (2018). He currently plays the sorcerer Shang Tsung in Warner Bros.’ Mortal Kombat franchise, returning in the sequel to be released in May 2026. On television, his shows include The Blacklist (2013-2023), and he is one of the leads in the upcoming season of the Netflix series Avatar: The Last Airbender (2026). Named one of CNNgo’s 25 Greatest Asian Actors of All Time, he was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in 2018.

Lim Giong is a musician who rose to prominence in the 1990s with Taiwanese-language rock songs, before becoming a DJ and event organiser. His foray into film music composition began with Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996), during which he forged a close mentor-mentee relationship with director Hou Hsiao-Hsien and has since embarked on a sustained exploration of the dialogue between sound and image. He has also contributed to soundtracks for experimental media, short films and advertisements. His collaborations span a wide range of disciplines, including dance, virtual reality and fashion. In his DJ sets and live performances, he frequently uses abstract electronic textures to blend experimental and ambient soundscapes, evoking a dream-like state that reflects the illusory nature of life.

Nicholas Saputra is a Jakarta-based Indonesian actor and producer. He began acting in 2002 playing notable roles in Indonesian cinema, including Ada Apa dengan Cinta? (2002) and Gie (2005). He has also been in films in countries such as Malaysia, Philippines and Japan. He produces documentary and feature films, and is involved in production company Talamedia, which is committed to presenting impactful storytelling and contributing to the cultural richness of Indonesian cinema. In addition to his cinematic endeavors, he is recognised for his advocacy work in sustainability and environmental conservation, being appointed UNICEF Indonesia’s second national ambassador in 2019.

Yason Banal is an artist working with various forms, concerns and intersections among seemingly divergent systems, mechanisms and nuances around crucial times. He obtained a BA in Film at the University of the Philippines, Diliman and an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths. His works have been exhibited in spaces including ALT Philippines (2020-2021); Asian Film Archive Singapore, 47 Canal New York (2019) and Venice Architecture Biennale (2018). His new interconnected works currently on show include sculpture, video and painting. He has been a guest curator and programmer at spaces including the Tate Modern, UPFI Film Center and ICA London. He is currently Director of the University of the Philippines Film Institute, where he is also an associate professor and resident artist.

A leading director and trailblazer in the Vietnamese film industry, Phan Dang Di’s films have been screened at festivals including Cannes, Berlinale, Venice, Hong Kong and Busan. He won the Semaine de la Critique and ACID awards at Cannes for his debut feature Bi, Don’t Be Afraid (2010). His film Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories (2015) was in competition for the Berlinale’s Golden Bear. In 2019, Di wrote and directed He Serves Fish She Eats Flowers – an episode belonging to the miniseries Food Lore for HBO Asia. Di is now president of Autumn Meeting, an annual international cinema event in Vietnam, and has been a partner of Danang Asian Film Festival since 2023.

Tan Pin Pin is a Singapore artist and filmmaker who has been making self-reflexive works about memory, history and representation. She is known for groundbreaking films about Singapore including Singapore GaGa (2005), Invisible City (2007), To Singapore, with Love (2013), In Time to Come (2017) and a public art installation, walk walk (2023). Her works have screened at festivals including Berlinale, SXSW, Busan, Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Cinema du Reel  and Hot Docs. Retrospectives of her work have been presented at Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM), Dok Leipzig, Liberation Docfest and the Flaherty Seminar. She has been a board member of the National Archives of Singapore, Singapore International Film Festival and The Substation. She is a founding member of filmcommunitysg, an advocacy group for independent filmmakers.

Born in Tokyo, Japan, he has been the festival director of Image Forum Festival since 2001 and the programmer of Theater Image Forum in Shibuya since 2005.

He has also been a guest programmer and curator for many film and media art festivals in and outside Japan, including Transmediale in Berlin, Bozar in Brussels, Arkipel International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival in Jakarta and Seoul New Media Festival. He is also an advisor for collection of film and video for Asian Culture Center in Kwangju, South Korea. He has served as jury for many international film and art festivals such as Hong Kong International Film Festival, Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Rotterdam and Tampere Film Festival.

Amarsanaa Battulga is a film critic and programmer from Mongolia. He has served on juries at the Locarno Film Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, the Golden Ger International Film Festival, the Kharkhorum International Film Festival and the Beyond the Blue Sky International Queer Film Festival. As a pre-selector and programmer, he’s worked with Glasgow Shorts, True/False, Cambridge, Berlin NewGen, the Chinese Film Festival Hamburg and the Ulaanbaatar International Film Festival. His writing has appeared in publications including Die Welt, Cineuropa, photogénie and Documentary, in English, Chinese, Mongolian, German and Dutch. He is a FIPRESCI member, Berlinale Talent Press alumnus, voter for the 83rd Annual Golden Globes (2026) and PhD researcher at Nanjing University.

Nguyên Lê is a film critic, writer and translator with bylines in publications based in the US, UK, Korea and Vietnam, with an emphasis on highlighting Asian elements and underrepresented perspectives in cinema. He has worked on the English subtitles for high-profile Vietnamese titles, including Detective Kien: The Headless Horror (2025) and the series Hellbound Village (2023 to present), and the Vietnamese subtitles for films including Better Man (2024) and Perfect Days (2023). Since 2023, he has been the Vietnamese cinema consultant for the annual Far East Film Festival held in Udine, Italy. Nguyên was also a jury member at the 12th QCinema IFF (Asian Next Wave) and the 3rd Da Nang Asian Film Festival (Critics’ Jury Award).

Dr Rwita Dutta is a professor, film critic and editor. Editor of the international journal FilmBuff (www.filmbuff.org.in), she has visited many film festivals worldwide as a juror, including Cannes, Busan, Kiev, Cairo, Kerala, Osian’s Cinefan, Nepal, Aswan and Aurangabad. She also curated a programme of Indian films for Zubrofka International Film Festival in 2016. She has also delivered lectures in countries including Istanbul, Almaty, Poland, China, Brazil, Germany and Romania. She teaches Political Science in Maharaja Manindra Chandra College, a graduate college under Calcutta University. She is currently editing a book on Indian regional cinema and working on a doctoral thesis titled “City and Cinema.”