Bille August, Jury President of the 7th Tiantan Award
Born in 1948, a Danish film director and writer, was trained as a film director at the Danish Film School in the 70’s. His directorial debut In My Life (1978), with its condensed film language and profound analysis of reality, stood out among its peers, adding a fresh touch to the spiritless film industry of Northern Europe after Ingmar Bergman. In 1982, Zappa, a children’s film, which made him known in Europe, also drew attention in Cannes. His film Pelle The Conqueror (1987) was awarded the Golden Palm at the 41th Cannes Film Festival in 1988 and won the 61th Academy Award and the Golden Globe as the Best Foreign Language Film in 1989. In 1992, he won the Golden Palm at 45th Cannes Film Festival again for The Best Intentions. In 2007, his film-Goodbye Bafana was nominated for the Golden Bear Award as the Best Motion Picture at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival. His most recent film, The Chinese Widow (2015), stars Yifei Liu and Emile Hirsch. Bille August has, so far, as a director made 19 films.
Apart from his numerous film awards, Bille August has been honoured for his work as a film director with both the Danish and the Swedish Royal Order of Chivalry and the French order Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres.
Mabel Cheung, Jury of the 7th Tiantan Award
Mabel Cheung, was born in HongKong , graduated from the University of Hong Kong, majoring in English Literature and Psychology. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Drama and Visual Arts from Bristol University, UK, and an M.F.A. Degree in Film Production from the New York University Graduate Film School. Cheung has become an award-winning director since her debut feature, The Illegal Immigrant (1985), which won her the Best Director Prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards and a Special Jury Award at the 30th Asia Pacific Film Festival. An Autumn’s Tale (1987) signaled another high point of her career, winning four Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. The Soong Sisters (1997) won three Taiwan Golden Horse Awards and six Hong Kong Film Awards. Other films she has made – City of Glass (1998), Beijing Rocks (2001), and Traces of a Dragon (2003) – have been selected by film festivals worldwide.
Cheung has also produced many popular films, including Painted Faces (1988), Now You See Love, Now You Don’t (1992), and The Moon Warriors (1993). In 2005 she directed Song of Light and Shadows, a stage musical in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Chinese cinema, which was awarded the Gold Prize for Best Performance in China. In 2010 she produced the motion picture Echoes of the Rainbow, winner of the Crystal Bear award at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival, Generation Section, as well as four Hong Kong film awards：Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best New Performer, and Best Original Film Song. Her latest directorial effort is A Tale of Three Cities, starring Jean Lau and Tang Wei. It was nominated for 5 Hong Kong Film Awards in 2016.
Paolo Del Brocco, Jury of the 7th Tiantan Award
Paolo Del Brocco, Born in Rome, Italy in 1963, he is a movie manager, journalist and university professor. Since 1991, he had been working at Rai, Italian National Television. In his long career, he worked at Rai 2, taking charge of network planning that belongs to the Broadcasting Rights Management Division. In 1999, he became the manager of Rai Fiction for Acquisition of Cinema Production and Sales Products. When Rai Cinema Spa was established in 2000, Del Brocco began to be in charge of the finance, administration and management of the new company. In 2007, he was appointed as General Director of Rai Cinema, and from 2010, he has been the CEO.
In Rai Cinema, he produced hundreds of successful movies including Caesar Must Die (Cesare deve morire, 2012) and Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare, 2016), both of which won the Golden Bears at the Berlinale. His Sacro Gra (2013) earned a Golden Lion at Venice International Film Festival. The tree of life (2011) won a Golden Palm Award. Also, Gomorra, Reality and The Wonders won the Jury Prizes at Cannes Film festival. See You in Texas won the Jury Prize at the 19th Shanghai International Film Festival. In addition, he got several prizes at Tokyo, Locarno, Toronto, EFA and many others.
Jiang Wenli, Jury of the 7th Tiantan Award
Jiang Wenli,was born in Bengbu, Anhui, is a Chinese actress. She graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 1993.
As an actress, every role Jiang played is impressive and widely appreciated by the audience. In 2002, her performance in Gua Sha Treatment brought her the nomination for the Best Actress at the 2nd Chinese Film Media Awards. In 2003, she was awarded the Outstanding Actress at the 10th Huabiao Film Awards for her role in My Bittersweet Tai-wan. She also won the Best Actress for her performance in And the Spring Comes at several film festivals and awards, including the 2nd Rome International Film Festival in 2007, the 27th Golden Rooster Awards, the 5th Chinese American Film Festival and the 3rd Asian Film Awards in 2009. In 2010, Jiang showed that she is as excellent a director as she is an actress by winning the Audience Award at the 14th Pusan International Film Festival and the Best Director at the 1st Macau International Film Festival for writing and directing her debut feature Lan. Jiang was appointed as an acting professor at The Central Academy of Drama in the same year. For her acting in Love for Life, she was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress at the 48th Golden Horse Film Festival in 2011 and the 31st Hundred Flowers Awards in 2012. In 2015, she was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress of the 52nd Golden Horse Awards for her performance in The Final Master.
Radu Jude, Jury of the 7th Tiantan Award
Radu Jude, born on 28th of March 1977, in Bucharest Romania, has graduated from Media University of Bucharest (Film Directing Department)，in 2003. He directed several award-winning short films, among them, The Tube with a Hat (2006), is the most successful Romanian short film ever, and Alexandra (2007) was selected in over 30 film festivals, including Oberhausen in Germany where he won the Grand Prix.
The Happiest Girl in the World (2009) is his feature film debut. By the time of its release in Romanian theaters, it had already received the CICAE Prize at Berlin International Film Festival and the FIPRESCI Prize at Sofia International Film Festival, etc. Everybody in Our Family (2012) won six Gopo Awards ('Best Feature Film', 'Best Director', 'Best Screenplay', 'Best Actor in a Leading Role', 'Best Actor in a Supporting Role' and 'Best Actress in a Supporting Role'). Aferim! (2015) won the Silver Bear award as 'Best Director' at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, 'Best Cinematography' at the 6th Beijing International Film Festival and twelve Gopo Awards including 'Best Feature Film' and 'Best Director'. His most recent feature, Scarred Hearts (2016), won the 'Jury Prize' at Locarno International Film Festival 2016.
Rob Minkofff, Jury of the 7th Tiantan Award
Rob Minkofff was born on August 11th, 1962, in Palo Alto, California. Rob began his career at the Walt Disney Studios in the animation department as a character designer, animator, story artist and screenwriter working on such seminal films as The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Rob made his feature directorial debut with Disney's Academy Award winning The Lion King, featuring the songs of Elton John and Tim Rice, and the voice talents of James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane.
After leaving Disney, Rob left to explore the world of Live-Action with Columbia Pictures' Stuart Little and its sequel, Stuart Little 2, starring Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie and Michael J. Fox. In 2007 Rob traveled to China to direct the martial arts epic The Forbidden Kingdom, co-starring Chinese superstars Jackie Chan & Jet Li. The film opened as the #1 film in both China and the US and is still considered as one of the most successful China co-productions in history. Rob's most recent release is the 3D, CGI, Mr. Peabody & Sherman for Dreamworks Animation. Based on Jay Ward’s classic TV series, the film stars Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Stanley Tucci and Stephen Colbert.
Rob is currently working with Huayi Brothers Media on an all-new animated feature entitled Blazing Warrior, based on Mel Brooks’ classic, Blazing Saddles. The film stars Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Cera, and Ricky Gervais. Rob is also developing two co-productions in partnership with China's Le Vision Pictures. Silkworms is an action comedy about the first case of industrial espionage in history. Wolf Totem is a fantasy reimagining of the seminal 2004 novel by Jiang Rong.
Jean Reno, Jury of the 7th Tiantan Award
Jean Reno born on July 30th, 1948 in Casablanca, Morocco, is a French actor from Spanish parents. His family immigrated to France when Jean Reno was 12 years old. Jean started learning drama acting and theater performance at the age of seventeen, and began to perform in drama and television programs in 1970s.
From 1980s, Jean started to participate in many films. In 1988, he starred in Luc Besson’s well-acclaimed film Le Grand Bleu, which introduced him to a larger audience and gave him the nomination for the prestigious César Awards. Jean attained success in the United States after starring as a hitman in the American feature film Léon (1994), and since then he has enjoyed considerable success in many other Hollywood films. Léon also gave him a second nomination for the César Awards. The movie became a cult film in the U.S. and made Jean an international star. In 1996, he co-starred in the Hollywood film Mission Impossible. In 2000, he starred in the film Les Rivières Pourpres and in 2006, he co-starred in the film The Da Vinci Code. In recent years, he also starred in films like Comme un chef Avis (2012), De Mistra (2014), Days and Nights (2014) and Hector and The Search for Happiness (2014).
Jean Reno also received the highest awards in France, including “Officer de la Legion d’Honneur”, “Chevalier dans l’ordre du Merite National” and finally “Chevalier Des Arts et des Lettres”, which are the highest awards that French citizens can receive.