Director Shin Su-won has been appointed as the new dean of the CHANEL X BIFF Asian Film Academy, a premier educational program that has served as a bridge for discovering next-generation Asian filmmakers and building global networks.
Shin has been active on the world stage, winning the Canal+ Award at the Cannes Film Festival Critics' Week for her short film Circle Line (2012), receiving a Special Mention at the Berlin International Film Festival for Pluto (2013), and being invited to the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes for Madonna (2015).
She continues to demonstrate her tireless creative passion, following her film Hommage (2022), which depicts the lives of Korean female directors, with the upcoming domestic release of The Birth of Love, which won the Best Film Award at the Florence Korea Film Fest.
Shin's appointment is particularly significant as she becomes the first female dean in the history of the CHANEL X BIFF Asian Film Academy, a move expected to further expand the diversity of Asian cinema.
Director Yosep Anggi Noen, a leading figure in the Indonesian film industry who moves fluidly between commercial and auteur cinema, has been named as the directing mentor. His return as a mentor is especially meaningful, as he is an alumnus of the 2007 Asian Film Academy. He gained recognition with his feature debut Peculiar Vacation and Other Beasts (2012), which was officially selected for the Locarno Film Festival and received a Special Mention in the Dragons and Tigers Award section at the Vancouver International Film Festival. He has since solidified his position as a representative Indonesian director with works including The Caddy (2013), which won the Sonje Award at the Busan International Film Festival, as well as Solo, Solitude (2016), Science of Fictions (2019), 24 Hours with Gaspar (2023), and The Redemption of Sin (2024).
Cinematographer Park Jung-hoon has been appointed as the cinematography mentor for the second consecutive year, remaining a central pillar of the CHANEL X BIFF Asian Film Academy. After leaving a strong impression on the global stage with the 2017 Cannes Film Festival official selection The Villainess (2017), he solidified his status as one of South Korea's top cinematographers by winning cinematography awards at the Buil Film Awards and the Grand Bell Awards. He continues to be one of the most trusted cinematographers in the Korean film industry, with credits including Herstory (2018), Door Lock (2018), Voice of Silence (2020), Victory (2024), Broken (2025), the Netflix series Trigger (2025), and Donggung (2026).
As the 2026 CHANEL X BIFF Asian Film Academy marks its 20th anniversary with a promised overhaul of its curriculum, it has signaled a fresh start with 501 emerging filmmakers from 34 countries applying for the program. The core of this change is a shift away from the traditional focus on short film production toward the creation of "Proof-of-Concept" short films, designed to lay the groundwork for Asian directors to produce feature-length films.
Under the new curriculum, participating fellows will undergo a feature screenplay development process, which they will then use to produce eight pilot short films, each under five minutes in length. This bold approach is expected to provide a practical and powerful stepping stone for emerging filmmakers to realize their future feature projects.
Alumni of the Asian Film Academy continue to prove their exceptional potential by achieving outstanding results on the world stage. Director Abinash Bikram Shah, a 2008 graduate, saw his film Elephants in the Fog (2026) win the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, while 2010 graduate Lakan Mayashi's film Yesterday the Eye Didn't Sleep (2026) was also officially invited to the same section.
Scorching (2026) and Our Secret: Tian Tian DE Mi Mi (2026), both shot by 2023 graduate Becky Baihui Chen, were officially invited to the Berlin and Cannes Film Festivals, respectively. Furthermore, Raging (2025), shot by 2016 graduate Teo Lozada, was selected for the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival, once again confirming that the Asian Film Academy is a global cradle for nurturing film talent.
Meanwhile, the fellows selected for the 2026 CHANEL X BIFF Asian Film Academy will complete their professional training and mentoring program in Busan for 20 days, from September 26 (Saturday) to October 15 (Thursday), during which they will produce their pilot short films. The eight completed films will be officially screened at the 31st Busan International Film Festival.
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