Director Shin Su-won has been appointed as the dean of the CHANEL X BIFF Asian Film Academy, a premier film education 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’s 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 of the Cannes Film Festival for Madonna (2015).

She continues to demonstrate an unceasing passion for creation, having directed Hommage (2022), which depicts the lives of female Korean film directors, and winning the Best Film Award at the Florence Korea Film Fest for The Birth of Love, which is awaiting domestic release.

Shin's appointment as the first female dean of the CHANEL X BIFF Asian Film Academy is significant in that it expands the diversity of Asian cinema as she takes the helm of the program.

Director Yosep Anggi Noen, who leads the Indonesian film industry by flexibly moving between commercial and auteur cinema, has been appointed as the directing mentor. It is particularly meaningful that he has returned as a mentor to train his juniors, having been a graduate of the Asian Film Academy in 2007 and now working on the global stage. He gained attention with his feature debut, The Science of Fictions (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 subsequently won the Sonje Award at the Busan International Film Festival for his short film A Caddy Who Never Saw a Hole in One (2013) and has firmly established himself as a leading Indonesian director through a prolific body of work, including Solo, Solitude (2016), The 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, marking his second consecutive year at the center of the CHANEL X BIFF Asian Film Academy. Having left a strong impression on the global stage with the 2017 Cannes Film Festival official selection The Villainess (2017), he has risen to the ranks of Korea's top cinematographers by winning cinematography awards at the Buil Film Awards and the Grand Bell Awards. Since then, he has continued to be one of the most trusted cinematographers in the Korean film industry, working on films such as 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 heralded innovative curriculum overhaul, the program has officially kicked off with 501 emerging filmmakers from 34 countries applying for participation. The core of this reform is a complete shift from the existing focus on short film production to the creation of Proof-of-Concept short films, which lay the groundwork for Asian rookie directors to produce feature films.

Under the new curriculum, participating fellows will go through a feature screenplay development process, after which they will produce eight Proof-of-Concept short films of under five minutes each. This bold attempt is expected to serve as a practical and powerful stepping stone for emerging filmmakers to realize their future feature projects.

Graduates of the Asian Film Academy continue to prove their exceptional potential by achieving remarkable success on the world stage. Elephants in the Fog (2026) by 2008 graduate director Abinash Bikram Shah won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, and Yesterday the Eye Didn't Sleep (2026) by 2010 graduate director Rakan Mayasi 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 International Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival, respectively. Furthermore, Raging (2025), shot by 2016 graduate Teo Riozada, was selected for the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival, once again confirming that the Asian Film Academy is a cradle for fostering global film talent.

Meanwhile, the fellows finally selected for the 2026 CHANEL X BIFF Asian Film Academy will complete professional training and mentoring programs in Busan for 20 days, from September 26 (Sat) to October 15 (Thu), and produce the eight pilot short films. The eight completed films will be officially screened at the 31st Busan International Film Festival.

Reported by Kim Ji-hye | Produced by SBS Entertainment News