2025 International Nominations Council

An alumnus of the prestigious Film and TV Institute of India, Pune in 1983. Bina has been working as a Film Editor for the last thirty years. She has worked with many leading filmmakers in India and has won several State and National Awards for Editing. Some of the films she has edited are: Amma Ariyan Dir: John Abraham, Agnisakshi Dir: Shyamaprasad, Janmadinam Dir: Suma Josson, Mitr, My Friend Dir: Revathi, Dance like a Man Dir: Pamela Rooks, In Othello Dir: Roysten Abel, Daya Dir: Venu.

Bina has also worked as Director on Documentary films. Her latest film on Women in Universities The Sound of Silence has been screened at numerous National & International Film Festivals. As Executive Producer, Bina has worked on various film campaigns on tobacco use, elder care, diabetes management and palliative care. This has involved research, direction and production. Along with filmmaking Bina has also been the Artistic Director of the International Film Festival of Kerala and the International Short and Documentary Festival of Kerala since its inception. She has served on Juries at numerous festivals including Berlin, Durban, Locarno, Romania and Zanzibar. Bina regularly curates programs for film festivals in India and abroad.

Anderson Le diligently works in the global promotion of independent and world cinema as Artistic Director of the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF). In addition to his duties at HIFF, Le also serves as a program consultant for several film festivals including the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, Singapore International Film Festival and Reel Asian in Toronto. Le previously worked as the international programmer for Comcast, working in providing monthly content for Xfinity on Demand with a focus on Asian and Asian American content. In 2012, Le co-founded You Offend Me You Offend My Family, the digit content offshoot of Perfect Storm Entertainment, Fast & Furious director Justin Lin’s production company. In 2019, he co-founded EAST, a transpacific production company producing global content. Their first productions included Rom (2019), which won the New Currents Prize at Busan, and Be Water (2020), an official selection of both Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals. Their latest project Maika (2022) was an official selection at Sundance.

Delphine Garde-Mroueh has had more than 20 years in the film, art, and cultural industries in the Middle East. For over ten years she was the Head of Programme Administration & Film Services for the Dubai International Film Festival and programmed the highly regarded Arabian Nights section. Pursuing her aim to connect audiences to Arab and world cinema, champion emerging and acclaimed filmmakers and promote Arab film and talent on the international stage, she is currently collaborating on various production research and curation projects.

Kiki Fung is Programme Consultant for the Hong Kong International Film Festival and former Head Programmer for Australia’s Brisbane International Film Festival and Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival. She has guest-curated for the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (Sydney), and Hong Kong’s Film Programmes Office. She is also on the nomination committee/council of the Asian Film Awards and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and a member of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society; her recent essays were published in Wong Ain Ling’s The Cinema of Wong Kar-wai (Chinese), HKIFF Society’s Naruse Mikio, 110th Anniversary (Chinese) and the Asian Film Archive’s website (English).

Dr. Gulnara Abikeyeva is a film critic from Kazakhstan, the author of several books about films and cinema process. Her second book Cinema of Central Asia: 1990-2001 received the prestigious White Elephant Award of Guild of Film Citics of Russia as the best book about cinema of the year published in CIS. Her book Nation-Building in Kazakhstan and other Central Asian States, and How This Process is Reflected in Cinematography (2006) was awarded the national Kulager Prize in 2007. In 2013 she had three international publications: Cinema in Central Asia. Rewriting Cultural Histories (Great Britain), co-edited by Michael Rouland and Birgit Beumers, The Unknown New Wave of Central Asian Cinema (South Korea), co-edited by Kim Ji-Seok and Makhmalbaf’s Film House (Russia). She is a member of FIPRESCI, NETPAC and the APSA Academy. In 2016 she was awarded by French L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Lai Weijie is a film producer based in Singapore and Toronto, Canada. In 2010 he co-founded E&W Films, a Singapore-based film development and production company with Elizabeth Wijaya. He is the producer of POP AYE (2017), awarded at Sundance, Rotterdam, and Zurich, Taste (2021), awarded at Berlinale, Taipei, Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and Jogja-NETPAC, and Mongrel (2024), awarded the Caméra d’Or Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival. As co-producer, his credits include Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (2021), winner of the Golden Leopard at Locarno, Cu Li Never Cries (2024), winner of GWFF Best First Feature Award at Berlinale, and Viet and Nam (2024), selected in Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival. Weijie has several years of experience as a senior programmer formerly at the Singapore International Film Festival, developing its film academy and overseeing its Asian selection. He has served on the selection committee for several fund bodies.

Born in Paris, France. Since 2000, Yoshi Yatabe has been involved in film distribution and in film festivals. Since 2002, he has been a member of the Tokyo International Film Festival, where he has served as programming director for the Japanese film section and the international competition section, until March 2021. He has produced Japanese documentary films such as Aga no Kioku (2005, Makoto Sato) and Chokora! (2009, Shigeru Kobayashi) and is now advisor for Tokyo Documentary Film Festival. In March 2022, he organized a special screening in Tokyo to support Ukrainian filmmakers. He also writes critics and reports in newspapers and in web-medias.