It  was announced in late June that esteemed Chinese director JIA Zhangke will serve as Dean for the eighth edition of the Busan International Film Festival’s (BIFF) Asian Film Academy (AFA). AFA is a competitive, intensive educational program offered by BIFF to young and aspiring Asian filmmaking talent.

 

JIA’s involvement in the 2012 AFA is somewhat of a return to BIFF for the now lauded director. His first feature film, <Xiao Wu> (1997), screened at BIFF in 1998 and won a New Currents Award on its way to other international festival honors. Assisted by BIFF’s Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP, currently the Asian Project Market), his second feature film, <Platform> (2000), also achieved success on the festival circuit. He followed with the features <Unknown Pleasures> (2002), <The World> (2004) and <Still Life> (2006), which was awarded top honors at the 2006 Venice International Film Festival. His 2008 feature <24 City> competed for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. JIA has also directed a number of short films and documentaries.

 

Rounding out the faculty of BIFF’s 2012 AFA, Director of the Busan Film Commission OH Seok-geun (South Korea) will serve as Deputy Dean, Iranian filmmaker and screenwriter Parviz SHAHBAZI will function at Directing Mentor and acclaimed cinematographer WATANABE Makoto (Japan) will act as Cinematography Mentor.

 

JIA’s deanship will place him among elite company; former AFA Deans include IM Kwon-taek (South Korea), Kryzysztof ZANUSSI (Poland), Abbas KIAROSTAMI (Iran), HOU Hsaio-hsien (Taiwan) and KUROSAWA Kiyoshi (Japan).

 

The 17th edition of BIFF is scheduled for October 4 -13; AFA will be held September 27 - October 14, 2012.