Ichiyama Shozo

Born in 1963, Ichiyama joined Shochiku as the producer for films such as Nowhere Man (1991) by Naoto Takenaka and three films by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Good Men, Good Women (1995), Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996) and Flowers of Shanghai (1998). In 1998, Ichiyama joined Office Kitano and produced Samira Makhmalbaf's Blackboards (2000), Delbaran (2001) by Abofazl Jalili, and four films by Jia Zhanke, Platform (2000), Unknown Pleasures (2002), The World (2004) and 24 City (2008). Apart from his activity as producer, he is the program director of Tokyo Filmex, which focuses on new Asian talents.

Elisabeth Lequeret

Elisabeth Lequeret is a journalist and a film critic for Radio France Internationale and Cahiers du Cinéma . She is also the French consultant and programmer for the Berlin International Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Pen-ek Ratanaruang

Pen-ek was born in Bangkok. He spent nine formative years in New York City, where he studied at the Pratt Institute, majoring in Art History. He made his debut film in 1997 with Fun Bar Karaoke , which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. His second film, 6ixtynin9 , premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 1999, while his third, Mon-rak Transistor , premiered at the Director's Fortnight in Cannes 2002. In addition to his latest film, Ploy (2007), he has directed Last Life in the Universe (2003) and Invisible Waves (2006). His dream is to play for Arsenal in the English Premiere League or be a magician.