The Asian Film Academy (AFA), an annual initiative co-sponsored by the Pusan International Film Festival, Dongseo University, and the Korean Academy of Film Arts (a division of KOFIC), has selected 24 students to participate in its 2007 program.
The students were selected from a field of 117 candidates from 17 countries, meaning that roughly one in five applicants were accepted. Slightly raised standards for eligibility meant that there were fewer applications than last year, but the overall level of achievement among the applicants was considerable. The candidates included professors of film studies and directors who had won awards or already made their feature-length debut.
This year boasted applications from Nepal and Mongolia for the first time, as well as self-taught filmmakers from regions that lack strong film education systems such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan.
The 24 selected students come from 15 different countries. Among the participants are Mr. Hiroki TANIGUCHI (31, Japan) who majored in Chinese History and studied Korean language at Yonsei University in Korea; and Ms. Sun Boon Luang KOH (30, Singapore), who is the leader of an independent filmmaking community in Singapore known as the "Lucky 7 Project".
Selected students will study under the tutelage of Iranian director Mohsen MAKHMALBAF and other world-class filmmakers from Asia. The group will produce two collaborative short films which will be screened at PIFF on October 11.
The 2007 edition of the Asian Film Academy takes place from September 27 to October 13 in Seoul and Pusan.
Darcy Paquet (KOFIC)
