Fernando Ruiz is a cinematographer with a focus on narrative, character-driven work. Passionate about storytelling from an early age, he began making movies in his teens and earned early recognition for his work. In 2005, he studied film in London, where he continues to reside. He will be at NYAFF 2025 with his most recent project, Ravens (Mark Gill, 2024), a magical realist biopic on the life of Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase.

Artist, musician and auteur’s muse Tadanobu Asano made his screen debut at 16 and quickly rose to prominence with Shunji Iwai’s Fried Dragon Fish (1993) and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s acclaimed Maborosi (1995). Renowned for his fearless range and magnetic presence, Asano soon became the most in-demand Japanese actor, working with a who’s who of top-tier directors across Asia and Hollywood, earning cult status for his turns in boldly original works like Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer (2001), Sogo Ishii’s Electric Dragon 80,000 Volts (2001), Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s Last Life in the Universe (2003), for which he received the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival, Takeshi Kitano’s Zatoichi (2003), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Bright Future (2003), and Shinya Tsukamoto’s Vital (2004). He also earned critical opprobrium for such auteur-driven arthouse titles as Nagisa Oshima’s Gohatto (1999), Sergei Bodorov’s Best International Feature-nominated Mongol (2008), for which Asano learned Mongolian; Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Journey to the Shore (2016), for which he received the Asian Film Award for Best Actor; Martin Scorsese’s Silence (2016), Koji Fukada’s Harmonium (2017), for which he received the Asian Film Award for Best Actor; and Takeshi Kitano’s Kubi (2023). In 2024, Asano reunited with his noise-punk bandmate in Mach 1.67, Gakuryu Ishii, for Box Man, and won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the global hit series Shogun. He joins us at NYAFF 2025 with Ravens, delivering a tour-de-force performance as the film’s tormented lead.

British director Mark Gill started his artistic journey at 18 with a recording contract at Warner Music. Returning to film and photography after 15 years as a musician, he garnered acclaim as a writer-director, earning both Oscar and BAFTA nominations for the short film The Voorman Problem (2011). His Morrissey portrait England Is Mine (2017) was nominated for the Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature at the BAFTA awards and was globally released. Ravens had its Asian premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2024, and won the Audience Award upon its premiere at the Austin Film Festival.