Focus on Asia & Workshop

Carlos CuarónCarlos Cuarón was born in Mexico City and studied English Literature there at the UNAM. His first screenplay, Solo con Tu Pareja ("Love in the Time of Hysteria"), directed by his brother Alfonso Cuarón, won a Mexican Ariel Award for Best Original Story. In 2001, Carlos received Oscar and BAFTA nominations for Best Original Screenplay for the breakout hit Y Tu Mamá También. The wildly successful film won the Best Original Screenplay Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and was a box office success. In 2002, Carlos penned El Misterio de Trinidad, directed by José Luis García Agraz, garnering more Ariel nominations.

In addition to features, Carlos has written and directed eight short films. He is an accomplished playwright and short story author.

Rudo y Cursi marked Carlos’s feature directorial debut. The film, reuniting Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed internationally.

Christina Choe Screenwriter/director Christina began by making documentaries and received the prestigious New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship grant in 2002. Her script “Guess Who’s Coming For Kimchee” won the New Writers Award for Best Feature Screenplay from the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment in 2007. She is currently working on a feature script about the future of food.

Pen-ek RatanaruangPen-ek was born in Bangkok and studied Art History at the Pratt Institute in NYC. In Thailand he directed TV commercials as Head of Art at the Leo Burnett Agency. He debuted as feature film director in 1997 and his films have been screened and awarded in festivals around the world, "NYMPH", his latest work, had its world premiere in Cannes 2009.

Masashi MatuokaHe entered Nagoya's technical school, HAL, in 2005 and began learning computer graphics. In April 2008, he started on his graduate work, and in August he completed this film.

Shoh KataokaShoh was born in Sapporo. He was selected for this festival's STOP! Global Warming Competition for two consecutive years (2008 & 2009) and received the Audience Award last year. His four short films won awards in various international film festivals in 2009. He creates films in a wide range of genres.

Po-Chou ChiPo Chou Chi comes from Taiwan and studied fine art at University and majored in oil painting. As a matter of fact, he is picky about the results of his work, especially in aesthetics and lighting. Since he was a postgraduate student, he found himself really keen on animation. Therefore, he made up his mind and decided to towards his goal.

Xuan JiangJiang graduated from the Beijing Broadcasting Institute and began work in television production at News Corporation China. Eager to create stories of her own, Jiang entered the MFA program for Film Directing at the California Institute of the Arts in 2004 where she wrote and directed her thesis film, "August 15th."