International New Talent Competition
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Mag HSU（Jury President）
Mag HSU is a renowned Taiwanese writer-director known for her exploration of delicate emotions and human nature in urban life. She began her career in theater and founded Dear Studio in 2012. Her directorial debut, Dear Ex 2018, won multiple honors, including Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Feature Film at the Taipei Film Awards, as well as the New Director Award at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival. She has received multiple Golden Bell Award nominations for writing and directing, with acclaimed TV dramas such as In Time with You and Imperfect Us among her notable works.
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Bianca BALBUENA
Bianca BALBUENA is a producer and current CFO-COO of EPICMEDIA, which has produced the Cannes Film Festival Un certain regard title Viet and Nam, Silver Bear for Alfred Bauer Prize winner A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery, Berlinale Best First Feature winner Cu Li Never Cries, Venice Lion of the Future winner Engkwentro, and the first Filipino film selected to Sundance’s Midnight section, In My Mother’s Skin. She is the recipient of Asian Film Commissions Network’s Producer of the Year, and the youngest winner of the FIAPF Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
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Jessica KIANG
Jessica KIANG is a film critic, essayist and festival programmer. She has written regularly for Variety, Sight & Sound, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone since 2014. She has served on numerous festival juries, including the Toronto International Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival, IDFA, and CPH:DOX, and has twice been a mentor at the Melbourne Film Festival's Critics' Campus. Since 2022 she has been the International Programmer of the Belfast Film Festival, and the 75th Berlin Film Festival in 2025 was her first edition as a member of the Berlinale Selection Committee, with a particular focus on cinema from across Asia.
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Mason LEE
Mason LEE is a Taiwanese-American actor with a BFA in Drama from NYU. While in college, he proactively auditioned and landed a role in The Hangover Part II, marking his international debut. In 2014, he quickly learned Mandarin for Where the Wind Settles and has since embraced diverse, unconventional roles in films like Stand By Me and Suburban Birds. Known for his emotional depth and artistic ambition, he continues to impress audiences. He was twice nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Horse Awards for his performances in Who Killed Cock Robin and Limbo.
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MATSUNAGA Daishi
MATSUNAGA Daishi is a filmmaker. His highly acclaimed documentary Pyuupiru 2001-2008 (2011), in which he followed his friend and transgender artist Pyuupiru, has been screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam. His feature debut, Pieta in the Toilet (2015) was selected for the Jeonju Film Festival. In 2023, he directed the LGBTQ+ romance drama Egoist, which premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The film received significant recognition at the 16th Asian Film Awards, where MIYAZAWA Hio won Best Supporting Actor. Egoist has been distributed in the US and territories throughout Asia, and is scheduled to be released in France in 2025.
