MINGMING YANG

"Girls Alway Happy" film director

Born in Beijing in 1987, graduate of the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts. Her debut, a short film "Female Directors," was deemed one of the most interesting independent Chinese films of 2012 and went to be screened at numerous festivals. She worked with Yang Chao as the editor of his "Crosscurrent."

LEON LE

"Song Lang" film director

Born in 1977 in Saigon, he grew up in Vietnam until the age of 13 when he moved with his family to Southern California. After college he pursued his dream of stage performance and moved to New York City to begin a career in Musical Theater. After establishing himself as an accomplished actor, dancer and singer, including Broadway performances, he started to act in TV series and films, also in Vietnam. In the meantime he also pursued career as a photographer.

Leon Le is a self taught filmmaker, his short films "Dawn" (2012) and "Talking To My Mother" (2014) has gained him attentions at the film festival circuit. "Song Lang" is his debut feature film.

DEREK CHIU

"No. 1 Chung Ying Street" film director

Born in Hong Kong in 1961, he studied foreign languages and literature at National Taiwan University. After returning to Hong Kong, he gained experience working in television. In 1992, he directed his first film, "Pink Bomb," then often collaborated with Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai shooting three films for their Milkyway Image film company. More recently, he served as a producer on the highly successful "Mad World," directed by Wong Chun. Derek Chiu is currently an associate professor at School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong. 

NAM RON

"Crossroads: One Two Jaga" film director

Nam Ron (alias of Shahili Bin Abdan) was born in 1969 in Kangar, Malaysia. He graduated from the Department of Theatre in the National Arts Academy in 1994, and has since worked in theatre, television and film as a director, writer and actor. His reputation was launched by the play MISI (co-written with Faisal Tehrani), followed by many successful stage performances. He has worked with most reknowned Malaysian filmmakers such as Dain Said, Yasmin Ahmad, James Lee, Tan Chui Mui, acting in main, supporting roles not mentioning many cameo appearances. His directorial debut, "Gedebe" was a loose adaptation of "Julius Caesar" set in the underground Malaysian music scene. In his film works Nam Ron skillfully combines genres cinema with sharp social commentary.

BRONT PALARAE

"Crossroads: One Two Jaga" film producer

"Folklore: Toyol" and "Dukun" actor

Producer and CEO of Pixel Play Entertainment. He debuted as an actor in 2000. Since then he became one of the leading figures in Malaysian film industry, working as an actor, film director, screenwriter and producer. He starred in Pen-ek Ratanaruanga's "Headshot", Dain Said's "Bunohan", Joko Anwar's "Satan's Slaves" and many other films. He currently works on his sole directorial debut. 

CHAN TAI-LEE

"Tomorrow is Another Day" film director

Born in 1981 in Hong Kong, he graduated from the department of cinema and television at the Hong Kong Baptist University and then completed MA degree from Visual Culture Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Already during his masters studies he wrote a script for "Ip Man" (2008), which was a huge success and turned into a franchise, two of the sequels are also written by Chan Tai-lee. He remains a Pegasus Motion Pictures Limited principle script writer. In his directorial debut, "Tomorrow is Another Day", he gathered most oustanding actors, including Teresa Mo and Ray Lui, cult 90s Hong Kong movie stars. Currently Chan is preparing a script for "Big Brother", action film starring Donnie Yen, and the Ip Man universum spin-off, "Master Z", with special appearances from Michelle Yeoh and Tony Jaa.

DAIN SAID

"Dukun" film director

Born in Kuala Lumpur, director ans screenwriter. After graduating from the film department at the University of Westminister in London, Said made commercials and worked for TV. In 2006, he shot his feature debut "Dukun" in Malaysia, but its premiere was put on hold. "Bunohan," whose distribution was not restricted, became one of the biggest box office hits in Malaysia in 2011, and was the country’s official Oscars entry.

KIKI FUNG

Programmer for the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF). She was previously Head Programmer for the Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) and Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival (BAPFF), and Industry Consultant for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA). She has guest-curated for the Brisbane Festival and Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Before moving to Australia in 2010, she served at the Hong Kong Film Archive for 7 years in areas of publication editing, management and program co-ordination, during which she assisted in editing a number of publications on Hong Kong Cinema. She is a committee member of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, her recent essays published in Wong Ain Ling’s "The Cinema of Wong Kar-wai" and HKIFF Society’s "Naruse Mikio, 110th Anniversary".