Pieter-Rim de Kroon
Dutch Director and Producer
Pieter-Rim de Kroon started as a cameraman for the cinema newsreels and graduated from the Dutch Film Academy in 1981. Pieter-Rim is a highly acclaimed filmmaker of feature documentaries on cultural, environmental, and scientific subjects. Pieter-Rim's films have tremendous visual impact and an eye for detail and owe much to his self-developed radical observational approach. The fragile relation between man and nature is a key subject in his films. Over the years, Pieter-Rim's films received over 140 international awards. He is currently preparing a feature documentary Cloud Busting, an ode to the cloud as a chaotic and poetic phenomenon and its relation with climate change.
Tan Pin Pin
Singaporean Documentary Filmmaker
Tan Pin Pin is an award-winning Singaporean film director and producer who has spent the past two decades chronicling her country's history, memory, and representation in thoughtful and self-reflexive works. Titles include Singapore GaGa [2005], Invisible City [2007], To Singapore, with Love [2013], and In Time to Come [2017]. They have screened theatrically in Singapore and at the Berlinale, Forum Film Dokumenter, Hot Docs, Busan, Visions du Réel, SXSW, and the Flaherty Seminar. She has had retrospectives at RIDM, Dok Leipzig, and Liberation Docfest, Dhaka. Tan has won awards from Cinéma du Réel, Dubai International Film Festival, and Taiwan International Documentary Festival. She has mentored at JIFFEST, DMZ, Busan, and Asiadoc and juried at festivals. She was a board member of the National Archives of Singapore and the Singapore International Film Festival and a founding member of filmcommunitysg, an advocacy group for independent filmmakers. In 2018, she was one of two Singaporeans to be invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, USA.
Liu Hongyan
Head of Documentary Division II, Film Television Drama and Documentary Center, China Media Group
Latest representative works: Works Undertaken as the Chief Director and Producer include: The Story of China’s Grand Canal, Meet the Chinese Characters, World Heritage Excursion, We Brand: World Heritage in China, Testing Times 2020, Wuhan: My Anti-Epidemic Diary, The Lop Desert Experience, Big Data Era, Take China Relish Life III, Chinese Life Style, etc. Works Undertaken as the Producer include: Tongues of China, The Adventures of Rabbits, Blue Realm, The Profile of Traditional Chinese Music, National Treasure Under Fire, Hermit Master, etc.
Main Awards: Dare to Ask the Sky won the first prize for the social education feature film at the China Radio and Television News Awards in 2003; Broken Wings won the Best Documentary Award in the Gender Affairs Unit of the AIBD (The Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development) TV Festival in 2007; Bird's Nest-The Place Where Dream Begins won the "Golden Panda" Award of Asian Production in Social Category at the Sichuan TV Festival in 2009; The Director of the Migrant Workers won the TV Documentary Award at the 2013 China Radio, Film and Television Awards (the 23rd "Starlight Award"). Besides, she was the winner of the Outstanding Series Awards in 2015, 2017 and 2018 under the license of the National Radio and Television Administration, the winner of the "Golden Panda" Jury Special Award in Social Category at the 13th Sichuan TV Festival and the first Top Ten Directors of China Media Group in 2020. In 2022, her work Meet the Chinese Characters was nominated for the Best TV Documentary Award at the 31st China Golden Eagle TV Art Festival.
Lucinda Axelsson
British Producer and Commissioning Editor, Current Creative Director of Oxford Science Films, Former BBC Documentary Commissioning Editor and Executive Producer of Natural History Unit
Lucinda is a Creative Director at Oxford Scientific Films and an ex-BBC Specialist Factual Commissioning Editor and Natural History Unit Executive Producer with over 30 years of experience making world-class, innovative, and award-winning factual television across multiple series and many different genres. Lucinda is a highly creative programme maker, storyteller and business winner specializing in Natural History and Science making shows for multiple broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, PBS, Discovery Channel, Netflix and Animal Planet.
Her work varies from the primetime Emmy-nominated Secrets of the Elephants to the Natural History meets drama series Serengeti. Her popular factual series Hidden Lives of Our Pets has five daytime Emmy nominations, and her pioneering animal soap Meerkat Manor broke new ground in creating character-driven stories. She has also created returnable science formats and Blue Chip NH landmarks. Lucinda has been at the forefront of pushing boundaries and creating exciting new ways to tell stories. As a producer and also as a commissioning editor, she has created highly successful new formats and series, many of which have gone on to multiple subsequent series, always with a focus on innovation.
King Wai Cheung
Film Director and Screenwriter, HKSAR, China
Cheung produced multiple documentaries, feature and short films, such as the documentary KJ:Music and Life (Best Documentary, Best Editing, Best Sound Effect at the Golden Horse Awards, currently the only winning documentary of the kind, and Best New Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards); The feature film Somewhere Beyond the Mist (shortlisted in the competition of Busan Film Festival, and nominated the Best Screenwriter, Best New Actor and Best Supporting Actress of the Hong Kong Film Awards). In recent years, two scripts with vastly different styles were written: In the Name of Love and Sleeping with the Wolf, both of which were selected as the top ten scripts in the Hong Kong Film Development Fund, and both received financial support. They are currently preparing for the feature film Madman's Diary, which has been awarded the Script Development Fund at the Busan Film Festival and will be funded by the Passion of Fire project, which will be supervised by Tung-Shing Yee and funded by the Hong Kong Film Development Fund.
Zhang Yaxin
Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of the School of Television, Communication University of China
Professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Television, Communication University of China; Visiting Professor of Communication Studies, Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas (Paris 2), France; Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Film Studies, Macau University of Science and Technology; Senior Consultant and Project Evaluation Expert of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee; Executive Vice President of The Chinese Society for Folk Film & TV Arts Promotion;
Executive Vice President of the Private Film and Television Commission of the China Television Artists Association;
Vice Chairman of China Film and Television Industry Promotion and Investment Committee of China Film Association;
Vice Chairman of the China Web Series Production and Broadcasting Cooperation Promotion Committee; Chairman of the Jury Committee of the Documentary Competition of the Beijing International Film Festival; Member of the Selection Committee of the Tiantan Award of the Beijing International Film Festival; Final judge of the Golden Kapok Award Competition, China (Guangzhou) International Documentary Film Festival;
Kazuo Hara
Japanese Documentary Director, Cinematographer
Kazuo Hara is a Japanese documentary film director. After setting up Shisso Productions, inc. with Sachiko Kobayashi, he made his 1972 debut work Goodbye CP about a group of individuals with cerebral palsy. His documentary works often depict people who push against the boundaries of propriety and obedience in Japanese society. In 1987, his feature documentary The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On which won the award for Best Director at the 12th Hochi Film Award and at the 9th Yokohama Film Festival. That film also earned him the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award. In 1994, his documentary film about the famous Japanese writer Mitsuharu Inoue, A Dedicated Life, won the Best Film at the 19th Hochi Film Award. In 2017 he released the documentary Sennan Asbestos Disaster which received the 2017 Audience Award at the Tokyo Filmex International Film Festival and the 2017 BIFF Mecenat Award at the Busan International Film Festival. Mimamata Mandala (2020) is his latest work, which is nominated Best Documentary at the Shanghai International Film Festival.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
French Photographer, Director
Yann Arthus-Bertrand has always had a passion for the animal world and the natural environment. When he was 30 he carried out a study on the behaviour of a family of lions in the Masai Mara reserve in Kenya. For the first Rio Conference in 1992, Yann decided to prepare a big work for the year 2000 on the state of the planet: it is The Earth From Above. This book encountered a great success and over 3 million copies were sold and was translated into 24 languages. In 2005, Yann then created the GoodPlanet foundation to raise public awareness of environmental issues. In 2006, Yann started the series From Above, and he undertook the production of the feature film, Home. In 2012, Yann began Human, a feature film composed of interviews with people from all conditions in 45 countries. In 2017, Yann and the GoodPlanet foundation will open a place dedicated to humanism and ecology in Paris. In 2020 was released Woman, a feature film co-directed with Anastasia Mikova. A worldwide project giving a voice to 2000 women across 50 different countries. His latest film Legacy was broadcasted in 2021. He is now working on his next feature films : France, a love story and Refugees.
Kim Longinotto
British Director, Producer, Cinematographer
Kim Longinotto is a British documentary film maker, producer, cinematographer, well known for making films that highlight the plight of female victims of oppression or discrimination. Longinotto has made more than 20 films, usually featuring inspiring women and girls at their core. Her documentary work Shinjuku Boys (1995) was judged Outstanding Documentary at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Divorce Iranian Style (1998) won the Grand Prize for Best Documentary San Francisco International Film Festival and the Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival. In 2002, The Day I Will Never Forget was awarded the Amnesty International DOEN Award at IDFA and Best Doc UK Spotlight at Hot Docs. Sisters in Law (2005) won the Prix Art et Essai and Special Mention Europa Cinemas at the Cannes film festival in 2005. Shooting the Mafia (2019) was her latest work, which tells a story of a Italian female photographer Letizia Battaglia spending her career documenting the life and crimes of the Mafia. The film is was nominated Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award of International Competition at Brussels International Film Festival.
Zhang Tongdao
Professor, Head of Documentary Center, BNU,Documentary Filmmaker
Zhang is the professor of School of Arts and Communication, Beijing Normal University (BNU), Head of Documentary Center, BNU, and a documentary filmmaker. He served as a jury member to China Golden Eagle TV Art Festival, Shanghai International TV Festival, Sichuan International TV Festival, GZDOC, and Qatar Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival. He is renowned by academic works like Real Landscapes: A Study on Directors of Global Documentary Films, A Pluralistic and Interdependent Documentary Space, China in the Kino-Eye, and The World in the Kino-Eye, he published The Study Report on China ’ s Documentary Development for 12 nine consecutive years. He also made Kids Kingdom (2009), The Post-00s (2017), documentary films, and TV documentary series like Secrets in Growing up (2010), China in the Kino-Eye (2013), Once Upon a Time in Bussière’s Garden (2015), etc.
Zhao Qi
Chinese Director, Producer
Zhao Qi is documentary director and producer,the first Chinese who won the Emmy Award, IDFA Joris Ivens Award,Sundance and APSA. He serverd as producer of Last Train Home(2009)which was the winner of Best Documentary in Emmy Award 2012 and the winner of Joris Ivens Award in IDFA 2009. His filmography also includes China Heavyweight(2012,producer)and Fallen City(2011, director).In 2018, Zhao serverd as the chief director of Encounter Fancy Life, a TV Mini Series documentary, won the 19th China Annual Reality Show and 2018 China's Top 10 Most Influencial Documentary Award. The Invisible Shore is his latest work, telling the story of Guo Chuan,China's first professional navigator, and was recently shown at BIFF 2020 and DOC NYC 2021.
Janet Han Vissering
SVP, Development & Production of Nat Geo Wild
As SVP of Development & Production of Nat Geo Wild, Janet Han Vissering is responsible for supervisoring more than 200 hours of programmes per year which are broadcasting in 366 countries and 330 million families in 34 languages. She is in charge of the premium content production on natural history and wildlife. The content is primarily broadcast on Nat Geo Global Network and the SVOD platforms, including Nat Geo channel, Nat Geo Wildlife channel and Disney +, She also manage the wildlife program development team, cooperating with top international independent producers, distributors, creative agencies and strategic broadcast partners to produce the most representative series, special programmes and activities, etc.
Kevin Macdonald
British Director, Scriptwriter, Producer
Kevin Macdonald has been a filmmaker since the early 1990s, directing both documentaries and fiction films. His documentary ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER won the 72nd Academy Awards in 1999. TOUCHING THE VOID (2003) won multiple international awards including the 57th BAFTA Awards for Best British Film of the year. His first feature film THE LAST KIND OF SCOTLAND (2006) won many awards including the 79th Academy Awards for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role and the 61th BAFTA for Best British Film of the year. More recently he has made the documentary WHITNEY (2018) which premiered at Cannes and has just finished the feature film PRISONER 760 which will be released shortly. Kevin Macdonald is currently working on LIFE IN A DAY 2020, a crowd-sourced documentary and a sequel to his film LIFE IN A DAY (2010).
Liang Bibo
Documentary director
Liang Bibo is a documentary director, senior journalist, professor of Zhejiang University of Media and Communications, and postgraduate tutor of Beijing Film Academy. He has engaged in the documentary industry for around 30 years, and has produced more than 200 episodes of documentary series, 3 feature documentaries and 1 feature fiction for CCTV and other mainstream media platforms. He has won the China Golden Eagle TV Art Awards and other nation-level prizes, alongside with 6 international prizes including the Special Award of Cinéma du Réel Film Festival. He is entitled as National Outstanding Individual in Culture by the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee. He is also in the National May 1st Labor Medalist, and is one of the Top 100 TV Artists. He used to be a visiting scholar in the United States, and has served as a judge of various international film festivals for 11 times.
Marco Alessi
Producer, Dugong Films Founder
Marco Alessi started his career as a screenwriter for both cinema and TV. In 2010 he set up Dugong Films, a Rome based production company committed to the development of cinema beyond genres and boundaries. Among his credits as a producer are Stefano Savona ’ s Tahrir: Liberation Square (premiered at Locarno 2011, winner of a David di Donatello Award), the short Waiting for the Rise by Lavorato and Agostino (winner of Orizzonti Award in Venice 2011); The Challenge by Yuri Ancarani (winner of Cine+ Special Jury Prize at Locarno, 2016); Adriano Valerio ’ s short film Mon amour, mon ami (Venice, Toronto 2017, Awarded at Palm Spring Festival). In 2018 he produced Samouni Road by Stefano Savona, which was selected at the Directors’ Fortnight and won L’Oeil d’Or for Best Documentary in Cannes 2018. In 2019 the documentary Tony Driver premiered in Venice Critic ’ s Week International Competition and at Nyon Vision Du Reel.
Mark Jonathan Harris
Documentary Filmmaker & Distinguished Professor
Mark Jonathan Harris is an Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and Distinguished Professor in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. Among the many documentaries he has written, produced and/or directed are The Redwoods(1968), which won an Oscar for Best Short Documentary ; The Long Way Home(1997), Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary ; and Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, (2000) which won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary in 2000 and was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry. Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives (2003), a documentary that he wrote on slavery in America, was nominated for an Emmy for a Nonfiction Special and Harris was nominated for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming. His latest feature documentary, Foster (2019), which he wrote and directed, aired on HBO in May, 2019. The Writers Guild of America nominated it for Best Documentary Screenplay.