Rithy Panh was born in Cambodia and is a film director with an international reputation. After the 1979 Khmer Rouge massacre, he left for Paris to find out the truth about it through movies and has devoted himself to honoring the sacrifices of the massacre. In 1989, his first documentary, Site 2 (1989), won an award at a leading international film festival and his first feature film, Rice People (1994), was nominated for the competition category at the Cannes Film Festival 1994. Since then, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003) and The Burnt Theatre (2005) have also entered the Cannes Film Festival, and The Missing Picture (2013), which won the Un Certain Regard Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2013, was the first Cambodian film nominated for the Academy Awards 2014. Exile (2016) and Graves Without A Name (2018) are works that explore the aftermath of the Cambodian genocide. Irradiated (2020) was honored with the Berlinale Documentary Award at the Berlin International Film Festival 2020, and his latest film, Everything Will Be Ok (2022), won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the Berlin International Film Festival 2022. In addition, director Rithy Panh won the Asian Filmmaker of the Year at the Busan International Film Festival 2013 and served as the jury president of the newly established TikTok Short Film Festival at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Born in 1978, director Tan Chui Mui made a small wooden chair at the age of five and published a children’s magazine at nine. She completed reading encyclopedias at age 12, published a column in a weekly student magazine at age 17, and won the New Currents Award and the FIPRESCI Award (Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics) at the Busan International Film Festival 2006 and received the TIGER Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival 2007 for Love Conquers All (2006) at age 27. Since then, she won the grand prize in the international competition category at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2009 for Everyday Everyday (2009), was invited to the Cinefondation Residence program organized by the Cannes Film Festival, and also served as a mentor for various local film production workshops. Moreover, she led the New Wave Movement in Malaysia by forming a Next New Wave Film (NNW Film) workshop to foster the development of young filmmakers. In addition, director Tan Chui Mui won the Jury Grand Prix of the Golden Goblet Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival 2021 for BARBARIAN INVASION (2021).

Um Hye-jung, a graduate of the 1st AFA, graduated with an MFA in film and lighting at the Korea National University of Arts and has given lectures at Jeonju University, Chung-Ang University, and Dankook University. Currently, she teaches in the film department at the Korea National University of Arts. Um Hye-jung joined director Kim Young Nam’s short film, I Can Fly To You But You... (2001), as a director of photography and was invited to the Cinéfondation section of the Cannes Film Festival 2001; and she also joined director Cho Gyu Ok in making Fingerprint (2004), which was screened at the Busan International Film Festival 2004 and the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival 2004. She won the Cinematography Award at the Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival 2004 for Fingerprint (2004). Afterwards, she was invited to the Cannes Film Festival 2004’s Critics’ Week for her short film, Home Sweet Home (2004), as a director. In feature films, she worked on Lee Soo Yeon’s omnibus feature film Modern Family E.D. 571 (2012) and later won the Technical Award at the Women in Film Korea Festival 2017 for Bluebeard (2017). In 2020, she participated in various projects, such as working as a director of photography for director Kim Jin-min’s Netflix original drama Extracurricular.