Mi Kwan Lock, Jury of the 12th edition of Festival du Film Merveilleux

Mi Kwan Lock, Jury of the 12th edition of Festival du Film Merveilleux

That of the juror is not just another experience that an artist may have but it is a real engagement with others and oneself. At the first experience as a juror, any person, even the most cinematically experienced can find themselves slightly bewildered. To our friend and juror Mi Kwan Lock, this is impossible to happen. Before we tell about her wonderful person, we would like to emphasize just the juror’s job that she has often performed. In fact, Mi Kwan Lock was the host at the 2015 Shanghai Film Festival (France), a jury member at the 3rd Lagunes Film Festival (Ivory Coast), jury president at the Cinemator Film Festival in Carros (France) in 2015, then a judge at the Future Drifter 2021 screenwriting competition, and most recently, Mi Kwan was a jury member at the Fantasy Film Festival 2022 (Paris, France). Following these experiences she also served on the jury of our event: the 12th Festival Du Film Merveilleux.

Mi Kwan Lock is also and above all an actress, director, screenwriter and producer. You may also have guessed from the other people chosen, our jury is hardly inspired by one profession. Indeed, the star of this writing was critically acclaimed as an actress for “A Korean In Paris“, even receiving an endorsement from Variety, the world-famous magazine.  Prior to this success, our juror also witnessed poverty first hand in Madagascar, consequently acquiring a truly unique sensitivity. With passion and hard work, she managed to win more and more roles, from films to TV commercials, building a small network of contacts. After an initial groundwork, Mi Kwan Lock began to get noticed. As the female lead in 6 feature films, she is noticed at film festivals such as the Busan International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival, Fespaco and the Pan African Film festival of Los Angeles.

Despite her French background, her Chinese origins are always there ready to insert an additional nuance. “Mooncake,” directed by Francois Yang, allowed her to reconnect with her Chinese roots while working on her role for example. This film won the Air Canada award for best short film at the 2014 Toronto Reel Asian Film festival and won best film at the 2015 Paris Shanghai Film Festival-where she was the host.

As a director, however, she made her debut with her short film “Red Karma”, the story of a man who goes to a store to receive a mysterious package. The film won the “Best Cinematography” award at the Independent Cinema Showcase 2019 (Los Angeles) and “Best French short film” at the Hollywood Art & Film Festival 2019 (Los Angeles). This audiovisual product also gave us a taste of our juror’s skills as a director and screenwriter, who produces a short-lived but very talented mystery thriller. She has since directed the mini-doc “Food is life” and two music videos for rapper Bizzair, “Bougie” and “Aladdin.“

Do you think that’s all there is to it? Absolutely not. Every one of our jurors, has a rich experience in more than just film happenings.

Mi Kwan Lock also has a television background. She was noted for her supporting role in “Importantissime” for Canal+, appears in “Cypher” for Roku and plays the lead in ”Tahiti Saigon Story” for TV5 Monde. From this account obviously does not come out the portrait of our juror because she is so talented that something we have to let you discover for yourself. We can tell you in conclusion that beyond France and Madagascar, she also got noticed in America. In fact, she lived in Los Angeles for three years, where she won the “UP(st)ART Artist of the Year” Award 2018.

We’ll be able to see her on the big screen soon, alongside Daniel Auteuil (one of the most famous French actors) in “Le nouveau jouet” directed by James Huth, as well as in two TV commercials this coming fall.

Besides her art, she’s very involved in humanitarian, to help homeless, children or protect animals & nature. When time allows it, she cooks for homeless and goes on distribution tours with the association MIAA (Paris, France) or the Burrito Project (Los Angeles).

We are overjoyed to have Mi Kwan on board with us in this experience. The Festival du Merveilleux, now in its twelfth year, thanks her with affection for being a wonderful person and artist. 

Visit MI Kwan website : www.mikwanlock.com