Deepa Mehta to be head of judges for the New Currents Award of 26th BIFF

연합뉴스 / 2021-08-26 18:10:40

▲ This photo, provided by BIFF, shows the judges for the New Currents Award of 26th BIFF (from the left) direcotor Deepa Mehta,Cristina Nord, the head of the Berlinale Forum, directorJang Joon-hwan and director Jeong Jae-eun. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- This year's 26th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has confirmed four jury members for New Currents, which is a competition section for new Asian films.

New Currents is a main BIFF section that introduces the first or second full-length films of emerging directors, who will lead the future of Asian cinema.
The four judges will select top 2 films to award a prize of USD 30,000 respectively.

Deepa Mehta, an international master director born in India, was appointed as head of the jury.

Mehta, who appeared on the global cinema scene when she received the Camera d'Or Special Distinction at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991 with her first full-length film "Sam & Me" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (currently Best International Feature Film) in 2007 with "Water" (2005).

She is actively engaged in various fields, such as participating in the production of "Leila" (2019), a Netflix Original Series.

The judges also include Cristina Nord, the head of the Berlinale Forum; Jang Joon-hwan, who took over the domestic and international film festivals with "Save the Green Planet!" (2003), and received the Daejong Film Awards (the Grand Bell Awards) for Best Director, and the Blue Dragon Awards for Best Feature in 2018 with the film "1987: When the Day Comes" (2017); and director Jeong Jae-eun, who made an impressive first appearance in the Korean film society with her debut production "Take Care of My Cat" (2001), and is currently expanding her horizons to documentaries and exhibitions fields.

The 26th BIFF will be held for ten days from October 6th (Wed) to October 15th (Fri). The two recipients of the New Currents Awards will be announced at the closing ceremony.

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