“Leaving Las Vegas” director, Mike Figgis will head the jury of the New Currents competition at the Busan International Film Festival in October.
He will be joined by: Karel Och, artistic director of the Karlovy Vary IFF; Samal Yeslyamova, the winner of the best actress award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival 2018 for “Ayka”; Malaysian actress Lee Sinje (“The Eye”); and Korean sales agent and producer Suh Youngjoo, CEO of Finecut. They will select two winning films which will each receive $30,000 prizes.
Figgis, a British film maker who previously attended the second edition of the Busan festival, with 1997 picture “One Night Stand,” also directed “Timecode” in 2000, the first real-time digital film ever made.
Iranian filmmaker, Mohsen Makhmalbaf (“Gabbeh,” “Kandahar”), Huh Moonyung, program director of the Busan Cinema Center, and Malaysian director Tan Chui Mui Love Conquers All are set as the three jury members for the Kim Jiseok Award. They will select the final two films from the Window on Asian Cinema section, awarding them $10,000 each.
The Busan runs from Thursday, Oct 3 to Saturday, Oct 12. Its accompanying Asian Film Market will be held from Oct. 5-8, 2019.