JURIES

    Mike Hostench (President)

    The career of Mike Hostench (Barcelona, 1967) has always been linked to the film industry. He began his career in the distribution sector, working for companies like Virgin and Gorgon Video, which specialize in film production and distribution. Later, Hostench held the position of Co-Director of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival. He also works as a consultant for film distributors and production companies. He has written two screenplays that have premiered worldwide, authored three books on Asian and horror films, and collaborates with film magazines and websites. He speaks English, Catalan, Spanish, and basic Korean.

    Olga Shishko

    Olga Shishko is a specialist in media art, founder, director, and curator of the MediaArtLab Center for Culture and Art. She has curated numerous exhibitions and projects, including Bill Viola: Journey of the Soul (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 2021); At the End Abides the Beginning: Tintoretto’s Secret Brotherhood (San Fantin Church, Venice, 2019); and Man as a Bird: Images of Travel (Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel, Venice, 2017), among others. She is currently a professor at Ca’ Foscari University, where she focuses on researching the development of media art in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She is also working on the Mapping Diaspora project and serves as Head of the Art Department at the CIFRA platform for Media Art.

    Aditya Bhattacharya

    Aditya Bhattacharya, born in 1965, is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter, primarily known for his acclaimed feature film Raakh (1989).  He began his career in the film industry as an actor in Mandi (1983), a film by Shyam Benegal, where he played the role of Smita Patil’s boyfriend. His acting career also includes roles in Rihaee (1988) directed by Aruna Raje and Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2003) directed by Sudhir Mishra. Aditya made his directorial debut with Raakh (1989), which received three National Film Awards and the Best Debut Director Award at the Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Awards. Earlier he was a photojournalist. In 1988, he moved from Bombay to Rome, where he directed an Italian film, Senso Unico, which screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival. His film Dubai Return (2005), which he produced under the banner Destiny Pictures, premiered at IFFI Goa 2005. In 2012, he produced and directed Bombay’s Most Wanted (BMW), which was showcased at the Mumbai Film Festival. He is the son of renowned director Basu Bhattacharya and the grandson of legendary Indian filmmaker, Bimal Roy.

    Kamyar Mohsenin + Nastaran Molavi

    Born in 1971 in Tehran, Kamyar Mohsenin studied Control & Instrument Engineering at Sharif University of Technology. After working as a film critic and translator with different film magazines as well as Iranian National Film Archive publications, he started an analytical TV Program, “Film 90’s”, as a researcher and co-creator in 1996. He co-wrote his first book, “James Bond, 35 Years with a Phenomenon” in 1997. Mohsenin began his collaboration with the Farabi Cinema Foundation as a Research Executive in 1998. During his cooperation with Farabi until 2018, he was involved in the organization of such international film events as Fajr, Iranian Film Market, Children and Young Adults, Kish, Urban, etc., and the publication of “Annual Selection of Iranian Films”, “Iranian Film Market Guide” and so on. Mohsenin has been a lecturer in different courses on the history of cinema and a film critic in the International Film Guide, film magazines, papers, and TV programs. As a board member of FIFF (Fajr International Film Festival), in the course of restructuring the festival, he worked with FIFF from 2016 to 2021 as Manager of International Relations and Programming Director (the festival was closed down by the hardliners in 2021 when it was accredited as an A Film Festival by FIAPF). After leaving Farabi, with Amir Esfandiari and Mohmmad Esfandiari, he co-founded the private sector company, IRIMAGE, in late 2018.

    Nastaran Molavi

    Born in 1969 in Mashhad, Iran, Nastaran Molavi studied stage acting and directing in Niavaran Art School. She was also active as a puppeteer in Kanoon for some time. Afterwards, Molavi began her work as a film critic, working with film magazines such as Film and Art (as Editor in Chief), Soroush, Cinema Weekly, Form and Criticism, etc. As a film critic, she attended some TV programs, mainly discussing Irish and Chinese cinema. Molavi was the International Senior Programmer of Fajr International Film Festival, accredited by FIAPF as an international competitive film festival in 2021. She has been active as Board Member and PR Executive of IRIMAGE since 2018.


    Yun Suik

    Yun Suik (Seoul, 1985) is a director, screenwriter and editor who graduated in Digital Arts from the Seoul Institute of Arts. Yun Suik made his film debut with Groggy Summer (2013), presented at the Jeonju Film Festival. His second film, Heavy Snow (2023), was also screened at the Jeonju Festival and the Hamburg Festival.

    Esteban Andueza (President)

    Esteban Andueza is a cultural manager, translator, art curator, and promoter of artistic projects. He lived in China for 12 years, where he worked as a freelancer and also for prestigious institutions such as the Iberia Center for Contemporary Art and the Instituto Cervantes in Beijing. His work focuses on promoting cultural exchanges between Spain and China. Additionally, he collaborates with Antoni Muntadas, assisting in the projects the artist develops on the Asian continent.

    Anastasia Stravinsky

    Anastasia Stravinsky (Moscow, 1993) is a curator, art critic and art director at CIFRA, a multipurpose digital art platform that combines streaming, a marketplace, and education. She has been a member of the scientific secretariat of the Centre for Studies in Russian Art since 2020 (CSAR) and a member of the International Association of Art Critics since 2017 (AICA-Russia). She holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Art (RUDN) and a master’s degree in History and Dialogue of Cultures (Université Grenoble Alpes). She is presently studying a double PhD program in History of Art (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice). Since 2012 she has worked as a curator in museums and art galleries (NCCA, Gallery Park, ROSIZO, CSAR, CFZ, etc.) and has held more than 70 exhibitions, festivals and concerts. In 2014, as the great-niece of composer Igor Stravinsky, she founded and directed the Stravinsky Family Fund, where she curated and staged exhibitions, festivals and events dedicated to the Stravinsky family.


    Batbayar Chogsom

    Batbayar Chogsom was born in 1974 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and immigrated to Switzerland at the age of 26. After completing a basic journalism program, he graduated with a Bachelor of Social Sciences from the University of Zurich in 2012. He then went on to work as an archivist in the historical graphics and photographs collections at the Zurich National Museum. His film Out of Paradise (2018) was awarded Best Film at the Shanghai International Film Festival, and his most recent work, White Flag (2023), was selected for the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

    Adriano Calero

    Adriano Calero works as a cultural manager, graduated in Humanities and Film Direction. As a film critic, he specializes in Asian cinema. He publishes his texts in Las Furias Magazine, Transit: cine, and other media such as the +1 UIC Magazine. He is the creator, editor, and broadcaster of the Podcast Empanada Cultural, which broadcasts on Radio Fabra and Radio Desvern. He is also linked to Asian culture through martial arts, as a qualified instructor of Kali Filipino and Kuk Sool Won (traditional Korean MMAA).

    Yoko Yamanaka

    Born in 1997 in Nagano, Japan, Yamanaka Yoko taught herself filmmaking after dropping out of Nihon University’s Film Department. Her debut feature Amiko (2017) won the Audience Award at Pia Film Festival 2017, and the following year, at the age of 20, Yamanaka became the youngest ever feature film director to be invited to the Berlin International Film Festival. Yamanaka’s sophomore feature Desert of Namibia (2024) was selected as part of the Directors’ Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI International Critics’ Award.

    Rosa Vergés (Presidenta)

    Born in Barcelona in 1955, Rosa Vergés is a director and screenwriter of film and television. After studying Art History at the University of Barcelona, she decided to expand her studies at the University of La Sorbonne in Paris. With her first film, Boom Boom (1990), she won the Goya Award for Best New Direction, the Sant Jordi Award and Fotogramas de Plata. She has also been vice-president of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain and member of the National Council of Culture and Arts.


    Javier Martín-Domínguez

    Javier Martín-Domínguez has worked as a journalist in the press, radio and television. He was an international correspondent, with Radio Nacional and Televisión Española in the United States for ten years, and with La Vanguardia in Tokyo. He has received the Premio Cirilo Rodríguez for international journalism. His coverage included three U.S. presidential campaigns, Reagan’s visits to Moscow, Gorbachev’s visit to Washington, the funeral of Hirohito, and the coronation of Akihito. He is the author of the biographies of Paul Bowles and the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. He directed the Seville European Film Festival for 4 years and has been a jury member at the festivals of Moscow, Sarajevo and Documenta Madrid and at the Asian Film Festival in Barcelona.

    José Félix Collazos

    José Félix Collazos is a filmmaker born in Bilbao. After completing his studies in Architecture, he moved to New York, where he studied screenwriting at Hunter College and directing at the Millennium Center. There, he began independently shooting his first short films in Super 8 and 16 mm. In 1993, he shot Muy negro, his first work in 35 mm, which was presented at numerous national and international festivals. His next work, Nocturno, was selected to open the Chicago Film Festival and participated in various international festivals such as Montreal, San Sebastián, and Saint Petersburg. It also won the Silver Horse at the Larissa New Filmmakers Festival in Greece. He has also worked as an art director, a radio scriptwriter, and has collaborated with the San Sebastián International Film Festival.


    Laura Mazza

    Born in Venice and graduating in Foreign Literatures from the University of Padua, she has worked for 30 years in film production on many international movies and in several countries, including, China (Marco Polo, directed by Giuliano Montaldo, a series for RAI TV) in Russia (OCIE CIORNIE, alias Black Eyes, directed by Nikita Michalkov, starring Marcello Mastroianni) in Tunisia (PYRATES, directed by Roman Polanski, starring Walter Matthau) and on Italian movies (UN SACCO BELLO and ME AND MY SISTER, directed and starring by Carlo Verdone, THE SKY IS FALLING, directed by Andrea and Antonio Frazzi, starring Isabella Rossellini and Jeroun Crabbé). With her company Viva Cinematografica, she produced Jonathan of the Bears, directed by Enzo G. Castellari, starring Franco Nero and Free Fight, a short movie awarded in Berlin and in numerous festivals and which won a David di Donatello in 2005.


    Natalia Díaz

    Natalia Diaz Peñalver (Barcelona, 1967) is the director and co-founder of the Korean culture blog “Korea in Barcelona”. Created in 2017, it reports on all activities related to Korean culture that take place in Barcelona and Catalonia, with special emphasis on South Korean cinematography. She also publishes cultural articles and interviews with film directors, actors, and writers. On a personal level, she is passionate about Asian cinema and participates as an accredited press reporter in several film festivals.

    Nomuunzul Turmunkh (Presidenta)

    Nomuunzul Turmunkh is a producer and screenwriter from Mongolia. She studied Business Administration and later Media Production at the American Intercontinental University in London. She has worked on several acclaimed films, such as The Sales Girl, White Blessing, and Silent City Driver, earning multiple international awards. Additionally, she is a member of NETPAC and serves on the Mongolian National Film Council. Her dedication to cinema has led her to participate at prestigious festivals, including the Busan International Film Festival, the Adelaide International Film Festival, and the Far East Film Festival.


    Sandra Mur Puyuelo

    Sandra Mur Puyuelo (Huesca, 1986) has a Master’s degree in Specialized Communication and a PhD in Linguistic, Literary, and Cultural Studies. She has specialized in the Eurasian space, Russia, and Central Asia. She collaborates with distributors in this geographical area and film festivals as an intercultural interlocutor and mediator.


    Claudia Luque

    Claudia Luque is a curator, cultural manager, and researcher specializing in Contemporary Art and Visual Culture. Her work explores the relationships between image and autobiographical writing from a gender perspective, questioning and reinterpreting notions of identity and memory. She graduated in Communication and Cultural Industries from the University of Barcelona, holds a Master’s in Comparative Studies of Literature, Art, and Thought (UPF), and a Master’s in Contemporary Art History and Visual Culture (MNCARS, UAM, UCM).


    Alexis Racionero

    Alexis Racionero Ragué is a writer and traveler. He holds a PhD in Art History, a degree in Geography and History, and is a specialist in Eastern philosophy, counterculture, and the hero’s journey. He is a founding professor at the ESCAC film school. A Gestalt therapist and generative coach, he is also a yoga and meditation teacher. Racionero contributes to La Vanguardia and El Mundo Deportivo. He has directed documentaries such as Rubbersoul, el viaje hippie a la India o Railway to Heaven, un tránsito de Beijing a Lhasa. He is the author of several books, including Darshan, filosofía oriental para la vida cotidiana, El viaje del héroe, Ecotopía, La mirada de oriente and Mushin, zen y sabiduría samurái para la vida cotidiana.


    Kei Matsushima

    Graduated from the Faculty of Culture, Communication and Society at Waseda University, with a master’s degree in Spanish as a Second Language from the Complutense University of Madrid and a PhD in Translation and Intercultural Studies from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Throughout his professional career, he has been involved in cultural management and teaching at different public institutions to raise awareness of various aspects of Japan to the international public. Currently, apart from teaching subjects related to Japanese politics and international relations in the Degree in East Asian Studies and the Master’s Degree in Global East Asian Studies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, he is the director of the Japanese Studies Office at the same university (https://webs.uab.cat/oficinasakura/es/), organizing Japanese language courses and cultural and academic activities.

    Sandra Sotelo (Presidenta)

    Journalist and news correspondent at ABS-CBN Corporation. A teacher, freelance journalist, and active member of the Filipino community, Sandra Sotelo Aboy understands the value of news and believes in applying transversality in the journalistic activity she carries out. To manage her time, she jumped into the world of digital commerce with a 24/7 business project that allows her to dedicate herself to the promotion of her country’s culture and projects such as Contracorona which was screened at the AFFBCN 2023.


    Louise Wu

    Louise Wu is a writer, director, producer and multidisciplinary filmmaker from Beijing, China. She recently got her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dramatic Writing and minored in the Business of Entertainment, Media and Technology at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Often with emotional openness, her creative works explore themes such as the intricacies of interpersonal connections, the modern and urban living conditions, as well as the poetic vulnerability embedded in our shared human experience. Her professional work experience includes screenwriting, film development and distribution, as well as international cultural engagement. She is currently finishing her short film Love Complex while working as a Localization Specialist and Scriptwriter in the North American and Asian entertainment industry.


    Álvaro González

    Graduated in Screenwriting and Dramatic Writing from the Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya (ESCAC), Álvaro González collaborates with the distribution company Brigante Films (2017 – 2018). This is the company responsible for the distribution in physical and digital formats of Psycho Raman (Anurag Kashyap, 2016 – India) and Confession of Murder (Jung Byung-gil, 2012 – South Korea). He is also content a creator targeting the film dissemination of the Asian continent, under the name Atlas Del Cine Asiático. (TikTok/IG: atlasdelcineasiatico).

    Jimena Tercero

    Jimena Tercero (Madrid, 1998) is a multidisciplinary artist who investigates the relationship between the limits of identity and the human body through video, photo, performance and painting. She deals with concepts such as memory, tangible topics and play. She directed various shorts films such as Εγώ, Paranoid or Private (2022) exhibited at the Aspa Contemporary Gallery in Madrid, as well as her latest performance Me, myself and I (2023) at Teatros del Canal in Madrid. In addition, she directed documentaries like You are also here for the Artforchange-La Caixa project about Asperger syndrome.

    Belén Abad

    Belén Abad, based in Buenos Aires, holds a degree in Film Direction from the University of Cinema in Buenos Aires. After studying acting techniques and methodologies, she taught practical classes in Actor Direction at the same university from 2014 to 2018. She is currently working as a casting director and producer at Casting Club, a casting agency in Buenos Aires and Mexico City specialized in the search and formulation of casts for both advertising and fiction projects.

    Martina Garcia Casillas (President)
    Adriana Villayandre Vidal
    Alex Cotet Bonamusa
    Alicia Crespo Hidalgo
    Álvaro Pardo Martorell
    Angel Luis Valverde Blanco de Cordova
    Ariadna Martínez
    Ariel Merindano Claverol
    Carla Cortada Rusiñol
    Duna Marcet Terraza

    Fernanda Antonia Martínez Andaluz
    Guillem Beorlegui Rech
    Guillem Pérez Coca
    Henedina Muñoz Pinto
    Hug Banqué Majó
    Ignacio Garriga Bravo
    Isabella Palmieri
    Jiayue Lyu
    Jordi Pujadas Pons
    Juan David Arboleda Córdoba

    Laura Martín
    Lola Celma
    Lucía Barrasa Vicente
    Mar Gálvez Rodríguez
    Matthew O’Malley
    Nicolás Bellostas
    Oscar Garcia Pinazo

    Pol Satoca Barberán
    Richard Sudario Berrocal
    Rubén Anaya Zahinos
    Sergi Sun Zhenpeng
    Sergio Campos Mulet
    Victor Garcia Guerrero
    Wang Liao
    Xuran Shang