SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL 2007

Mabel Cheung graduated from the University of Hong Kong, majoring in English Literature and Psychology. She holds an Advanced Diploma in Drama and Visual Arts from Bristol University, UK, and an M.F.A. in Film Production from the New York University Graduate Film School. Cheung has become an award-winning director in Hong Kong since her debut feature, The Illegal Immigrant (1985), which won her the Best Director Prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards and a Special Jury Award at the 30th Asia Pacific Film Festival. An Autumn’s Tale (1987) signaled another high point of her career, winning four Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. The Soong Sisters (1997) won three Taiwan Golden Horse Awards and six Hong Kong Film Awards. Other films she has made - City of Glass (1998), Beijing Rocks (2001), and Traces of A Dragon (2003) – have been selected by film festivals worldwide. Cheung has also produced many popular films, including Painted Faces (1998), Now You See Love, How You Don’t (1992), and The Moon Warriors (1993). Her latest production was Song of Light and Shadows (2005), a stage musical in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Chinese cinema.

Coleman Hough wrote the screenplay for Full Frontal (2002) directed by Steven Soderbergh. Bubble (2005) is her second collaboration with Soderbergh. Between writing Full Frontal and Bubble, she wrote a script for HBO about the life of Katharine Graham, which is scheduled for production in '08. Coleman currently lives in Los Angeles where she teaches screenwriting at USC in the professional writing program. She most recently adapted her short play, The Diagnosis, into a screenplay which she will direct this summer.

Born in 1942 in Amsterdam, Peter van Bueren studied political and social sciences and since 1964, writes about cinema in several newspapers and magazines. For many years he was the editor of the film page of the Dutch daily De Volkskrant. He left this newspaper in 2002 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Film Festival Rotterdam for building a bridge between independent films and filmmakers and the big audience. Since then he works freelance and reports about festivals in the Dutch film magazine Skrien. He is advisor for several film festivals and works as a viewer for the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. He is a co-founder of the Circle of Dutch Filmcritics. His favorite soccer club Ajax.

Born in 1966 in Tokyo, Takashima made his debut with the NHK Television drama, Jun-chan no Oenka. He has starred in a variety of films, commercials, musicals, plays and TV drama such as Hideyoshi, Musashi, Batsukare, Hotel, Kochira Hon Ikegami Sho, etc. He will appear two new Japanese films to be screened in this fall.