International Competition Jury MUZAFFAR ALI (JURY CHAIRMAN) Filmmaker, India Muzaffar Ali is an Indian filmmaker, fashion designer, poet, artist, music lover and social worker. He belongs to the royal house of Kotwara in India. He has had a successful career as a film producer and director. He made his debut in 1978 with Gaman. It was followed by his most successful film to date, Umrao Jaan, which fetched Rekha the National Award for best actress. Ali’s other directorial credits are Aagaman and Jaanisaar, in which he also acted. Ali spearheads the international couture brand Kotwara, which he set up with his architect wife Meera Ali in 1990 to revive the traditional craft of the region of Awadh. 20 INTERNATIONAL CINEMA <strong>IFFI</strong> <strong>2017</strong>
Festival Director, Australia MAXINE WILLIAMSON Maxine has done significant work with APSA-Asia Pacific Screen Awards, where she established the rules and regulations, governance of the film competition and filmmaker network in 2007 and ran the competition for its 10 editions. Maxine became Artistic Director in 2011 and then Film Director after delivering its 10th anniversary edition in November 2016. During her time at APSA, Maxine worked with such luminary Jury Presidents as Lord David Puttnam, Asghar Fahardi, Shyam Benegal, Kim Dong-ho, Shabana Azmi and Nansun Shi. She was creative content producer on the documentary series Scene by Scene broadcast from 2007-2009 on CNN International and on ABC network during showcasing films and filmmakers of Asia Pacific to a global audience. She now consults to the APSA Academy and is Director of the Brisbane International Film Festival, the city’s premiere festival, delivering its 23rd edition this year. Maxine had previously directed the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival. Maxine is Asia Pacific Consultant for the Antalya Film Forum, Turkey - a position she has held for four years. Director and Production Designer, UK Roger Christian has had an extensive career as a production designer and film director. He won an Academy Award for set decoration on the original Star Wars, which began a long working collaboration with filmmaker George Lucas. Lucas subsequently tapped Christian to direct the second unit on Return of the Jedi and chose him to helm alongside him on Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace. It was through Lucas that Christian got his first opportunity to direct a short film that he wrote, Black Angel, which accompanied the release of The Empire Strikes Back. Christian won an Oscar nomination for art direction in Ridley Scott’s Alien. ROGER CHRISTIAN His directing credits include The Sender, nominated for Best Film by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films; Nostradamus starring Julia Ormond, Tcheky Karyo, F Murray Abraham, Rutger Hauer and Amanda Plummer; Final Cut, The HBO premier movie, starring Sam Elliot, and more. Actor, Director and Writer, Israel A well regarded Actor, Director and Writer, Tzahi Grad was born in Jerusalem. A graduate from the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio, he has participated in many plays, films and television series since 1991, gaining popularity as a widely popular actor in Israel. In addition to acting in numerous feature films, he has also directed a few theatre productions. Grad’s film The Cousin premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and bagged nominations from the Israeli Academy, and also won him the Best actor award at the Haifa international Film Festival. TZAHI GRAD His film Foul Gesture also won major nominations from the Israeli Academy and top honors at the Haifa International Film Festival. His film Giraffes also garnered 14 nominations from the Israeli Academy. Director of Photography, Russia VLADISLAV OPELYANTS Vladislav Opelyants is one of Russia’s most celebrated Directors of Photography. Born in January 1968 in Moscow, he graduated from the Department of Cinematography at the Russian State University of Cinematography (workshop of Vladimir Yusov) in 1992. He has shot over 100 commercial videos, with Coca- Cola, Pepsi and Nescafé, among others, as well as music videos for top Russian pop and rock singers like Alla Pugacheva, Zemphira and Mumy Troll. He made his wide screen debut with Garik Sukachev’s Middle Life Crisis. He worked as Director of Photography on the Nikita Mikhalkov films Burnt by the Sun, Exodus, Burnt by the Sun-2: Citadel and Sunstroke. Most recently, he shot Rezo Gigieneshvili’s Hostages, which premiered at the <strong>2017</strong> Berlin Film Festival and is also being screened in <strong>IFFI</strong> as part of the Cinema of the World section. Opelyants also shot Kirill Serebrennikov’s The Student, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. INTERNATIONAL CINEMA <strong>IFFI</strong> <strong>2017</strong> 21
Change language