Janice Chua is the Vice President of Imagine International. She manages the development and production of local language content in Asia. Prior to that, she was Vice President of Development and Production Asia at Ivanhoe Pictures, where she developed and packaged Chinese-language projects for China and also served as one of the producers on Crazy Rich Asians. Born and raised in Singapore, Janice started her career in China as an international film sales manager. She then became Director of International at Beijing Galloping Horse, where she oversaw international business and co-productions such as John Woo’s The Crossing.

Aizzah Fatima (Writer/Producer) writes the often untold and remarkable stories of immigrants, women, and people of color. She is the recipient of the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art grant with Brooklyn Children's Theatre, and has written the book for the musical The Ten Year Test which is the first children’s musical to feature Muslim protagonists in the US. She co-produced the horror feature film titled Horror Time which is executive produced by James Franco. Her TV pilot Muslim Girls DTF: Discuss Their Faith is the winner of the 2020 Roddenberry Impact Award, and the winner of the 2020 Yes, And...Laughter Lab with Comedy Central and 3Arts. She is a MFA graduate of Emerson College in Film & TV Writing.

Janine Gutierrez is best known for her roles in the television drama series “Villa Quintana” (2013), "Legally Blind" (2017), and “Dragon Lady” (2020). She made a name for herself on the big screen with films like Dagsin and Lila, both released in 2016. She has won such acting awards as the Best Actress trophy at the 43rd Gawad Urian for The Girl and the Gun (Babae at Baril), the 2020 NYAFF Opening Film. NYAFF will be screening her latest film, the critically acclaimed "lockdown romance" Here and There (Dito at Doon).

Legendary filmmaker Ann Hui will be the recipient of the Variety Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award. One of the most critically acclaimed Hong Kong New Wave filmmakers, she has created work of great sensitivity, focusing on themes of cultural displacement, family conflict, and female perspectives over the course of her four-decade career. In her honor, NYAFF will be showcasing her early masterwork, The Story of Woo Viet, starring Chow Yun-fat and now celebrating its 40th anniversary, and Boat People, a work of searing political resonance. We will also be screening Man Lim Chung’s insightful, delightful portrait of the inimitable Hui, Keep Rolling.

Born in Liaoning province, northeastern China, but raised in Hong Kong, director, producer, and screenwriter Ann Hui made her feature debut with The Secret in 1979, which was nominated for the Golden Horse Award (GHA) for Best Feature Film. She went on to create such indelible titles as The Story of Woo Viet (1981), Boat People (1982), Song of the Exile (1990), Ordinary Heroes (1999), The Way We Are (2008), Night and Fog (2009), A Simple Life (2011), The Golden Era (2014), Our Time Will Come (2017) and Love After Love (2020).

Hui has won numerous awards for her films, including the GHA for Best Director three times (1999, 2011, 2014) and Best Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards six times (1983, 1996, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018). In 2020, she became the first female director to be honored with the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival. Hui served as the president of the Hong Kong Film Director’s Guild from 2004 to 2006. In 2007, she was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Catherine Jiang, 16, was born and raised in New Jersey. She made her acting debut in “A Different Sun”(2018) as the lead role of Ling, and went on to play Rosie in “Snakehead”(2021). Catherine has also done multiple commercials over the years for companies such as Coca Cola, Spectrum TV, and more.

Born in Kobe, Japan, Oudai Kojima lived in New York City for 10 years before returning to Japan. After studying architecture at Tokyo University, he changed direction to filmmaking. He served as an assistant director to Tomokazu Yamada before going freelance and starting to direct full time. While directing numerous music videos, commercials and short films, he started work on his first feature film, Joint, in 2019. The film premiered at the 2021 Osaka Asian Film Festival and is scheduled for release in Japan in autumn 2021.

Gordon Lam Ka Tung, one of today’s most versatile and prolific actors in the Hong Kong cinema, will receive the VARIETY STAR ASIA AWARD during NYAFF, which is showcasing an unprecedented four of his most recent films. Lam stars in Soi Cheang’s electrifying Limbo, a brutal thriller about the hunt for a serial killer, and Chan Kin Long’s gritty cross-border drug-runner bromance Hand Rolled Cigarette, makes a mandatory cameo in All U Need Is Love, in which many of Hong Kong’s movie stars are stuck in one hotel during the COVID pandemic, and serves as a producer on Ricky Ko’s Time, about three retired assassins who decide to get back in the game.

Gordon Lam Ka Tung was already a household name, having starred in over 60 TV series, when he caught the eye of director Andrew Lau and was cast in Love of a Dream (2001), followed by Infernal Affairs I & III (2002, 2003). In 2004, Lam starred in Johnnie To’s Yesterday Once More, which marked the beginning of a long-standing collaboration that has led to Election I & II (2005, 2006), Exiled (2006), Mad Detective (2007), Triangle (2007), Sparrow (2008), and Vengeance (2009). Lam’s other notable credits include Ip Man (2008), Cold War (2012), Firestorm (2013), and Trivisa (2016), for which he received the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor, among other honors. NYAFF will present four of Lam’s 2021 films: he stars in Soi Cheang’s Limbo and Chan Kin Long’s Hand Rolled Cigarette, makes a mandatory cameo in All U Need Is Love, and serves as producer on Ricky Ko’s Time.

Evan Jackson Leong (aka Evan Leong) is a director and documentary filmmaker, best known for his documentary Linsanity, about Jeremy Lin, which made its world premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. He also directed the documentary 1040: Christianity in the New Asia (2010), and the documentary short BLT Genesis (2002), which tracks the behind-the-scenes making of and trajectory of Justin Lin's film Better Luck Tomorrow. His first narrative feature is Snakehead, screening in NYAFF’s Asian American Forum.

Evan Jackson Leong is a sixth-generation Chinese American native of San Francisco. Leong has worked with his mentor, director Justin Lin, on Better Luck Tomorrow, which screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, and The Fast & The Furious. He also served as co-producer of Lin’s Finishing the Game: The Search for the new Bruce Lee, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Leong directed two half-hour, nationally broadcast films: Him Mark Lai: The People’s Historian and Forging a Feature: The Journey of Better Luck Tomorrow. His feature-length documentaries include 1040: _Christianity in New Asia and Linsanity, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Snakehead _is his narrative directing and writing debut.

Kenny Leu is an up-and-coming actor & renowned martial artist, quickly becoming one of the leading Asian American performers in the industry. The only son of hardworking immigrants in California's Bay Area, Kenny excelled in academics and sports. He attended UC Berkeley, majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Chinese. It was at Berkeley that Kenny began a distinguished career as a martial artist: he was invited to compete all over the world, and was selected to join the United States Wushu team, eventually winning the Pan-American Wushu Championship in Mexico (2012). After graduating, Kenny worked in Silicon Valley, co-founding two venture-backed tech startups that paid off, allowing him to transition fully into film and television. Kenny's breakout lead role will be in the independent feature A Shot Through the Wall by Aimee Long. He plays a young Asian-American cop who is responsible for accidentally shooting and killing an innocent Black man, through a wall. The film tackles a topic that is dangerously relevant in 2020, and it is Kenny's "quiet tumult [that] roots the film". Early reviews glow: "... compelling [in] the way indie filmmaking can be at its best." (Awards Daily). The film is an official selection at Bentonville Film Festival, Whistler Film Festival, with more to come. Kenny and the film earned a nomination for Best Actor & Best Narrative Feature at Beaufort Film Festival. With a leading man's looks but a character actor's talent, Kenny's unique presence is paired with a natural charisma and relatability that transcends the screen, regardless of genre or medium. In addition to his on-camera talents, he continues to train extensively in martial arts.

Aimee was raised in Paris, Beijing and San Francisco; after studying mathematics, she decided to dedicate herself to directing films by attending the UCLA film school. In 2016 she founded the production company Kings Road Pictures with the aim of developing and producing feature films with a socially useful message. After directing several short films, A Shot Through the Wall(2020) is Aimee Long's first feature film.

Thomas Pang is a stage and screen actor of Filipino and Chinese descent. Having studied Acting in both East and West, Pang brings his cross-cultural experience to performances and productions that spotlight Asian people caught between identities. He feels very lucky to be in the profession and seeks to contribute to the growth of contemporary Southeast Asian performance. Thomas was nominated Best Actor at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards in 2016 and 2017, and won the Best Actor award in 2018. Tiong Bahru Social Club is his first lead role in a feature film. He is currently in his second year at the Yale School of Drama.

Salena Qureshi (Maryam) Film: Americanish, Draupadi Unleashed, All These Small Moments, Friends and Romans. TV: Recurring roles on “The Society” (Netflix) and “Madam Secretary” (CBS). Also seen on “Prodigal Son” (FOX), “Bull” (CBS), “Tommy” (CBS), “The Brave” (NBC), “The Path” (Hulu), and “Girls” (HBO). Off Broadway: Superhero (Second Stage) Theater: Evita (Mistress, Maine State).

Michael Rosenberg is the President of Film Movement, a North American distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films. Following a long career in music distribution at Koch Entertainment, Michael started Koch Vision in 1999, and later was EVP at Koch Lorber Films. After serving as President of Entertainment One Films US, Michael became President of Film Movement in 2014. The New York-based distributor has released titles by such noted directors as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Andrzej Wajda, Melanie Lauren, Stanley Kwan, Takeshi Kitano, John Woo, Shunji Iwai, King Hu, Eric Rohmer, Arturo Ripstein, Sergio Corbucci, Ettore Scola and Luchino Visconti, as well as the Oscar-nominated films _Corpus Christi and Theeb._

Paul Seetachitt (Producer) is a Thai-American aerospace-engineer-turned-filmmaker. He earned a degree in rocket science from UCLA and was employed by TRW/Northrop Grumman, where he created instruction sheets for building satellites. In his spare time, he taught scuba diving and swing dancing and co-created Western Australia’s first food guide, titled, PAUL EATS PERTH.

Devon is an actor, singer, songwriter and producer from Boston. As a child, she realized the transcendent power of the creative arts.

Her professionalism, talent, and versatile looks gained her numerous appearances in campaigns and commercials for well-known brands.

Within 4 months of her music career, she wrote the title song "Green Dragon" for Martin Scorsese's film, Revenge of the Green Dragons, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. She also performed her original songs and played a supporting role in Dead Reckoning, a film starring KJ Apa and directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak.

She has roles in TV & FILM such as The Heat, Ted, and Top Gear. She recently landed a recurring role in Defending Jacob, an Apple Original TV series starring Chris Evans. She is in three new feature films: Dead Reckoning, Snakehead, and Honest Thief.

Currently based in NYC, Devon is living her dream acting and writing music for movies as she prepares to headline her 1st music festival this September. She is also a co-founder, writer, singer, and producer for SHe music project. Additionally, she recently accomplished her longtime goal of writing and directing her first short film "Air.” It is in post production and will be submitted to film festivals upon completion. She is eagerly waiting to share her upcoming films and debut album with her fans and the rest of the world.

Devon’s drive and passion for creating work that emotionally connects people led her to many successful projects and will continue to be the driving force for future endeavors.

Roy Wol (Producer) is a third culture kid (TCK) and a p.g.a. marked filmmaker with a visual disability. He is a 2-time IFP, and an EAVE Producers lab fellow (Luxembourg). He is the president of _Studio Autonomous, _an IP development and production company with a multidisciplinary think tank. Wol’s latest feature film “The Garden Left Behind” won at SXSW, and was named as one of the top 40 best LGBTQ films of all-times by Rotten Tomatoes editorial. As a natural bridger by birth, Wol has dedicated his work into elevating underrepresented communities, advocating for inclusion of artificial intelligence, and creating social impact through bridging intersectional experiences.

Jade is a veteran actor, writer, director. She received awards from Disney/ABC Writing Fellowship, Jerome Foundation, Film/Video Arts, Ms. Foundation. She was BlueCat Screenplay Semi-finalist, a PEN USA Rosenthal Emerging Voices Writing Fellowship Finalist. Her plays have had selected readings at the Santa Clara Experimental Festival, Nuyorican Poets Cafe Emerging Playwrights Series and Urban Stages Emerging Playwrights Series. She is a published financial journalist and an award-winning documentary filmmaker with films as official selections in the IFP Market, Anthology Film Archives Emerging Filmmaker Series and the inaugural Sundance Producers Conference. Her play “Darwin’s Arch” was commissioned by 2G, CAATA, Howlround as part of “Inflections,” a series about the current rise of Asian American hate crimes and life. She currently has three original television series in development.

In acting, Jade plays the lead in Sundance/Humanitas pedigree film, THE MOTEL and currently recurs on three network primetime series. She has workshopped plays by Alexa Jung, Mia Chung, Susan Soon He Stanton, Leah Nanako Winkler, Teresa Huang, Mashuq Deen, Play On Shakespeare, EST, The Old Globe, Arena Stage, New Dramatists, NYTW, NYS&F and Page 73/Yale and was a Best Actress Nominee at the Edinburgh Festival for her role as Medea. She has appeared on Off-Broadway and Regional national and international theatre stages. Upcoming appearances include one of the leads in the indie film SNAKEHEAD (2021), a Guest Star in Comedy Central’s “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens” (8/25/2021) and a major recurring role in Ava DuVernay-Roberto Pantino’s “DMZ” with Rosario Dawson and Benjamin Bratt on HBO Max (winter 2021-22).

The Daniel A. Craft Award for Excellence in Action Cinema will go to the filmmakers Yoon Jae-Keun (director), and Billy Acumen, Lee So young and Kim Hyun-suk (producers) of the ultra-fast-paced Spiritwalker, in which an amnesiac with the crackerjack skills of a highly trained intelligence operative switches bodies every 12 hours. Told with incredible visual panache and dazzling stunt work, the rousing film marks the emergence of a brilliant talent in the action-film space.

A South Korean screenwriter and director, Yoon Jae-Keun graduated from the Vancouver Film School (VFS), and started his filmmaking career as a screenwriter. He penned the scripts for Springtime (2004) and Hello, Schoolgirl (2008), before making his feature directing debut with the dramatic thriller Heartbeat in 2010. Spiritwalker (2021) is his second feature film.

Perry Yung is an American actor and musician from Oakland, CA. He plays Father Jun in Cinemax's Warrior, produced by Justin Lin, Shannon Lee (Bruce Lee's daughter), and Jonathan Tropper (Banshee show creator). He was fan favorite Ping Wu on Steven Soderbergh's The Knick and has guest-starred on Gotham, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods... to name a few. Principal roles in films include Boogie, Condemned, Jade Pendant, John Wick: Chapter 2, and A Father's Son starring Tzi Ma and Ronnie Chieng. Perry is a member of La Mama Theater's Great Jones Repertory Company of New York City and a traditionally trained Japanese shakuhachi flute craftsman.

Iman Zawahry (Director/Writer/Producer) is one of the first hijabi American-Muslim filmmakers in the nation. She has worked on numerous films that have played at over 100 venues worldwide. She is the recipient of the coveted Princess Grace Award and a Lincoln Center New York Film Festival Artist Academy Fellow. Iman also collaborated with the non-profit Islamic Scholarship Fund to create the first ever American Muslim film grant where she currently serves as director. Iman works to amplify the underrepresented female voice. She wrote and directed her debut feature film Americanish with a majority female crew which won the audience award at world premiere festival CAAMFest. She currently is a professor of film production at the University of Florida.