2025 Youth, Animation, Documentary International Jury
Yulia Evina Bhara is a producer and the founder of KawanKawan Media, a production company based in Jakarta, Indonesia. She has produced, among others: Solo, Solitude (Locarno FF 2016) by Yosep Anggi Noen, The Science of Fictions (Locarno FF 2019) by Yosep Anggi Noen, You and I by Fanny Chotimah (CPH: DOX FF 2020), Whether the Weather Is Fine by Carlo Francisco Manatad (Toronto FF 2021), Stone Turtle by Woo Ming Jin (Locarno FF 2022), Autobiography by Makbul Mubarak (Venice FF 2022), Tiger Stripes by Amanda Nell Eu (Cannes Critics Week 2023), Dreaming & Dying by Nelson Yeo (Locarno FF 2023), Last Shadow at First Light by Nicole Midori Woodford (San Sebastian FF 2023), 24 Hours with Gaspar by Yosep Anggi Noen (Busan FF 2023), Don’t Cry, Butterfly by Duong Dieu Linh (Venice Critics Week 2024), Tale of the Land by Loeloe Hendra (Busan FF 2024), Renoir by Chie Hayakawa (Cannes 2025) and most recently The Fox King (Toronto FF 2025) by Woo Ming Jin.
She was chosen as one of Variety International’s Impactful Women in 2023. She was invited as a jury member for Cannes Critics Week In 2023, and for the Karlovy Vary Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival in 2025.
View Profile
Akio Fujimoto
Akio Fujimoto (writer/director/editor) is a filmmaker working across Asia. His debut Passage of Life (2017) won two awards in the Asian Future section at the Tokyo IFF. His second film Along the Sea (2020) premiered at the San Sebastián IFF, and received the Oshima Prize and the Shindo Kaneto Gold Prize. His latest film Lost Land (2025), a drama centred on Rohingya refugees, won the Special Jury Prize in the Orizzonti section at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.
Drawing on personal and cultural experiences, his work blends fiction and documentary with a restrained, humanistic approach, often focusing on the lives of those at the margins.
View Profile
Nishtha Jain
Nishtha Jain is an eminent filmmaker from India best known for Farming the Revolution (2024), The Golden Thread (2022) and Gulabi Gang (2014). Jain is a member of the Academy and the winner of the prestigious Chicken & Egg Award (2020). Her films have shown widely in international film festivals and have garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards. 2024 marked her two decades in independent filmmaking. She was celebrated as Filmmaker in Focus at the Sydney Film Festival 2025, and Doc-cevennes held a retrospective of her work. FIDADOC Morocco 2025 paid a tribute to her contribution to documentary. Film fra Sør 2024 in Oslo showcased her work in the section Portrait of a Filmmaker. Nishtha served as the Jury Chair at Flahertiana Film Festival 2025. She has served as jury member at Sydney Film Festival (2025), TIDF (2024), Zurich (2014), IDSFFK (2016), Cinema Verité (2013) and IDFA (2008). She has been part of selection committees at IDFA Fund and IDFA Forum.
View ProfileThe Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.