JASON TAN LIWAG (head coordinator) is a scientist, actor, writer, educator, and film programmer based in Quezon City and is the founder and head of the QCinema Critics Lab. He is an alumnus of the Rotterdam Young Critics Programme, Udine Film Campus, Yamagata Film Criticism Workshop (under Chris Fujiwara), CINELAB Workshop (under Richard Bolisay), and the 2020 Ricky Lee Screenwriting Workshop. His work has been published in CNN Philippines Life, Rappler, YoungSTAR, MUBI Notebook, Little White Lies, Senses of Cinema, Sentient Art Film, Screen Slate, and Projektor, and has he written for the programs of QCinema, the Encounters Film Festival, and the Udine Far East Film Festival.

He has served as a jury member for several local and international film festivals, most notably the Taipei Golden Horse Festival and the San Diego Asian Film Festival. He has been a selection committee member for QCinema, Gawad Alternatibo, and the Encounters Film Festival UK, with a focus on narrative and experimental shorts. He is the country’s first member of FIPRESCI and GALECA, and is a two-time international voter for the Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was declared one of Attitude Magazine’s 101 LGBTQ+ Trailblazers Changing Today. Outside of cinema, he is part-time faculty at the Department of Biology, Ateneo de Manila University, where he teaches undergraduate courses in genetics, cell biology, and molecular biology.