Juries 2023
International Competition
President of the Jury
Masao TESHIMA
Director of ASMIK ACE, INC., Producer (Japan)
Born 1963 in Chiba. Teshima joined Asmik (currently Asmik Ace) in 1986, where he was long in charge of marketing for video software. He handled foreign films such as Trainspotting (96), Ghost World (01) and others. Later, he started his career as producer, and has produced Ping Pong (02), Yaji and Kita – The Midnight Pilgrims (05), Tekkonkinkreet (06), SAKURAN (07), Norwegian Wood (10), Helter Skelter (12), The Floating Castle (12), Sekigahara (17), A Long Goodbye (19), BARAGAKI UNBROKEN SAMURAI (21), Missing (22), Rohan at the Louvre (23) and others. He also oversaw theatrical distribution of films including MIND GAME (04), One Cut of the Dead (17), Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko (21) and others. He received the Producer Award at the 2018 Shindo Kaneto Awards for One Cut of the Dead.
Jury Members
Naomi AKASHI
ROBOT COMMUNICATIONS, INC., Producer (Japan)
Born in Miyagi prefecture. Producer at ROBOT COMMUNICATIONS. Akashi’s first film as producer was GACHI BOY (08). She produced Oppai Volleyball (09), LIAR x LIAR (21) and others, and developed and produced My Pretend Girlfriend (14), OH BROTHER, OH SISTER! (14), Pale Moon (14), The Dark Maidens (17), The Stand-In Thief (17), TIGER: My Life as a Cat (19) and Egoist (23), which enjoyed long runs in cinemas and will be released overseas following the release in Taiwan in April.
Patrice NEZAN
Producer (France)
Nezan has been active as a film producer for the last twenty years. His starting point was to build bridges between film directors and contemporary artists from the dance, music and visual art worlds. He believed – and still does – that confronting these different artistic grammars would nourish creative and innovative film proposals, with the willingness to research what’s beyond the words. This editorial line allowed him to collaborate with filmmakers such as Catherine Maximoff, Claudio Pazienza, Mats Grorud, Maysoon Pachachi, Jan Komasa, Jan P. Matuszynski and artists such as Alain Platel, Georges Aperghis, Clarisse Hahn, Antoine Boutet, Akram Khan, Wayne McGregor.
Japanese Film Competition
President of the Jury
Ryota NAKANO
Film Director (Japan)
Born in 1973 and raised in Kyoto. After graduating from university, Nakano enrolled in the Japan Institute of the Moving Image, where he immersed himself in filmmaking for three years. His independent feature production, Capturing Dad, won the Best Director Award at the festival in 2012, was selected for the Berlin International Film Festival and won 14 awards in Japan and abroad. In 2016, his commercial debut film, Her Love Boils Bathwater, received six awards at Japan Academy Film Prize including Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role, received 35 awards in total in Japan, and was selected as Japan’s representative for the Academy Award Foreign Language Film. In 2019, he directed his first novel-based film, A Long Goodbye, which became a long-running hit. In 2020, The Asadas received eight awards at Japan Academy Film Prize including Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and became a hit in France, marking over 250,000 attendance. He depicts families with a unique sense and perspective.
Jury Members
Misa WADA
Actress (Japan)
Born 1983 in Tokyo. Debuted with Kutsugahama onsen companion hikaeshitsu (08). Major filmography includes ANKOMAN (14), The Chrysanthemum and the Guillotine (18), Dare To Stop Us (18). Wada starred in Siblings of the Cape (18), which won the Best Picture and Audience Award of Japanese Feature Film Competition in 2018, and brought her the 34th Takasaki Film Festival Award for New Age Actress. Recently, she appeared in A Balance (20), Somebody’s Flowers (21), YAMABUKI (22) and others. Kemonote (22) will be released.
Mark SCHILLING
The Japan Times, Critic / Variety, Japan Correspondent / Udine Far East Film Festival, Japan Program Advisor (USA, Japan)
Schilling has been reviewing Japanese films for “The Japan Times” since 1989 and reporting on the Japanese film industry since 1990, presently for Variety. Since 2000 Schilling has also been a program advisor for the Udine Far East Film Festival, curating retrospectives on Nikkatsu Action films in 2005, the Shintoho studio in 2010 and Japanese SF/fantasy films in 2016. Book publications include “The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture” (97), “The Yakuza Movie Book – A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films” (03), “No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema” (07) and “Art, Cult and Commerce: Japanese Cinema Since 2000”. He also wrote the original story for and produced Convenience Story, a film directed by Satoshi Miki that opened in Japan in August, 2022.
