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International Jury

Barry Morrow / USA

Writer, Producer

Barry Morrow's interest in the art of storytelling began while studying children's theatre at the University of Hawaii. Later, upon graduation, he met and befriended Bill Sackter, a man who had spent forty-four years in a state institution for the mentally retarded. Barry's account of this unusual friendship resulted in the highly-acclaimed television movie, Bill, starring Mickey Rooney and Dennis Quaid. For this, his first effort, Barry received an Emmy Award for his story. Barry's other distinguished television works include The Karen Carpenter Story, the top-rated movie of its year, and the Emmy-nominated Christmas On Division Street, starring Hume Cronyn, which Barry both wrote and produced. Barry is perhaps best known for his first motion picture screenplay, which would go on to become the highest-¬grossing Oscar-winning film of its time. Rain Man, the story of the relationship between an autistic adult and his brother (played by Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise) earned Barry an Academy Award for his original story and screenplay, and Rain Man was voted Best Picture. A member of the ARC, the National Association of Social Workers, Project Turnabout, and the Autism Society of America, Barry Morrow is a lifelong advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities.

 

Shunji Iwai / Japan

Film Director

Born in 1963, in Miyagi prefecture, Japan, and graduated from Yokohama National University in 1987. In 1988, he started his career by directing music videos and music-oriented cable television programs. Through the subsequent years, he vigorously wrote and directed numerous TV dramas, video clips and commercial films, establishing a reputation for his distinctive visual style known as “Iwai Aesthetics”. In 1993, he was awarded Best Newcomer by the Japanese Director's Association, before making his debut as a feature film director with Love Letter. In 1998, Iwai directed April Story, a beautiful, loose picture often compared to the magic of a freehand sketch. In 2000, he made his appearance as an actor in a film, Shiki-Jitsu, directed by Hideaki Anno. In 2001, he brought his interactive novel, All About Lily Chou-Chou, to the big screen, which earned international acclaim and was awarded the C.I.C.A.E. Panorama Prize at the 52nd Berlin International Film Festival. Iwai served as a juror in the World Cinema category of the 24th Sundance Film Festival in 2008. In the spring of that year, he filmed one of the stories in the anthology film New York, I Love You, starring Orlando Bloom and Christina Ricci. To date, he has written 19 and directed 16 films. His most current project, Vampire, his first English language feature film, has just entered post-production, with an estimated release date in 2011.

 

Alexandra Gramatke / Germany

KurzFilmAgentur Managing Director

After finishing her studies of Slavonic and German literature Alexandra Gramatke worked as a free-lance interpreter for literature and documentary films. In 1994 she joined the "thede", a Hamburg based group of documentary filmmakers. Here she made several films, for example "Dynamo Kiev. Good Old Boys" (2000). Besides she worked as production manager, publisher and film curator. Since 2008 she has been the managing director of the KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg, a short film distributor and organizer of the annual Hamburg International Short Film Festival.

 

Yang Ik June / South Korea

Film Director

Unlike other directors, YANG did not study at a film school nor was active as assistant director for a number of years. Rather, he first got started in the field as an accomplished actor and learned the tools of the trade and gained experience on location. In 2005 his first short film 'Always Behind You’ earned him the audience award at Seoul Independent Short Film Festival as well as numerous domestic film festivals, and earned him wide attention as a director. Having endured hardship of taking multiple roles (producer, writer, director, lead actor and editor) in his first independent feature, the award-winning has been both nationally and internationally acclaimed over 60 film festivals after Pusan International Film Festival and Int'l FF Rotterdam. Having sound theatrical debut in 2009 Korea, the film has been released in Japan and is still having a nation-wide circuit.

 

Sanyo Kanda / Japan

Kodan Storyteller

Sanyo Kanda is a Hokkaido-born Kodanist, a traditional Kodan-style storyteller. In 1990, he became a disciple of Sanyo Kanda II, in 2002 he was promoted to Shinda (higher rank) and succeeded to Sanyo Kanda III. In the same year, he was followed by his acceptance of the Upcoming Talent in the Theatrical and Performing Arts by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. In 2005, as a cultural exchange ambassador, he spent a year doing activities in Italy, and he entered Ozora Higashi Mokoto Elementary School. He is currently in his 4th year as an occasional student. With an attempt to balance between works of his own creation and classical works, he is actively exchanging between different genres through Kodan storytelling. Kanda’s activities include Kodan performances in venues all over the country, writing, and appearance in TV programmes, radio and commercials.