These should not straightforward occasions for movie festivals, with lots of the world’s largest buffeted by political and monetary headwinds, and South Korea’s highly-regarded Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has not been proof against the present instability.
Following last summer’s management turmoil, throughout which lots of the pageant’s founders and high executives stop, BIFF put interim leaders in place and achieved a stage of stability for its October 2023 version. Earlier this 12 months, Park Kwang-su, a veteran filmmaker with lengthy ties to the pageant, was appointed as chairman. Ellen Y.D. Kim, additionally an trade veteran who has beforehand labored at BIFF and Bucheon Worldwide Implausible Movie Pageant, was appointed as head of BIFF’s trade platform, Asian Contents & Movie Market (ACFM).
However the recruitment course of for a everlasting pageant director didn’t yield the specified outcomes. With time working out for this 12 months’s version, former BIFF senior programmer Pak Dosin stepped in as co-deputy director, overseeing movie choice and occasion planning, alongside Kang Seung-ah, who’s chargeable for company operations and finances administration.
On the identical time, BIFF has been hit by a giant discount in its public funding, because the Korean authorities slashed funding for the movie trade and festivals by 50% final 12 months. Regardless of this, the pageant says it has managed to extend the variety of screenings by 8% to 224 this 12 months.
“We had an enormous lower to this 12 months’s finances, however we did obtain further monetary assist from Busan Metropolis Authorities and tried our greatest to safe extra non-public sponsorship,” Pak Dosin explains. “We managed to seek out about ten further sponsors this 12 months. We additionally determined to not maintain the discussion board occasion on our personal this 12 months to save lots of finances.”
BIFF’s fundamental sponsor is Chanel, which elevated its contribution this 12 months, whereas different main sponsors embrace BNK Busan Financial institution, luxurious automotive model Genesis and clear power big KHNP. Rather than the educational discussion board that BIFF normally holds, the pageant has lined up a extra business-oriented programme with trade companions together with Netflix, native studio CJ ENM and firms concerned within the VFX and services facet of the enterprise.
“Business folks from large corporations corresponding to Disney, Netflix and Amazon come to Busan for the pageant and we predict this can be a good alternative for us to attach them to Korean and Asian filmmakers, particularly proficient newcomers,” says Pak. “We’re keen to work with them in the event that they’re thinking about discovering new skills and potential content material from Asia and Korea.”
Netflix has a big presence on the pageant this 12 months. Along with internet hosting the Inventive Asia Discussion board on October 6, the streamer is behind BIFF’s opening night time movie, Rebellion, co-written and produced by Park Chan-wook, which marks the primary time a streaming title that won’t be receiving a theatrical launch has been chosen to open the pageant. Netflix can be launching three sequence chosen for BIFF’s On Display screen part and has a number of titles nominated for this 12 months’s Asia Contents Awards & International OTT Awards.
However Pak says this isn’t a sign that Busan is lowering its assist for unbiased cinema and the theatrical ecosystem. “We launched the On Display screen part in 2021 as we thought drama sequence on streaming platforms are an extension of movies and it might be an important alternative for audiences to see these dramas on a giant display,” Pak says. “We’ve additionally screened a couple of movies which can be solely accessible on streaming providers, however these are a tiny portion of the entire number of movies.”
Certainly, BIFF’s line-up this 12 months, as with earlier editions, covers a variety of unbiased and arthouse cinema from Asia, Europe and different areas, together with titles from this 12 months’s Berlin, Cannes, Venice and different festivals, in addition to discoveries in its New Currents competitors for Asian newcomers, and world premieres within the Jiseok competitors for extra established Asian administrators.
Gala screenings this 12 months embrace Cannes Greatest Director winner Grand Tour, a part of a Particular Program on director Miguel Gomes; Jia Zhangke’s Caught By The Tides; Patricia Mazuy’s Visiting Hours; and two movies from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, this 12 months’s Asian Filmmaker of the Yr – Cloud and his French-language remake of his personal Serpent’s Path.
Different Particular Applications embrace ‘In Reminiscence of Lee Solar-kyun’, that includes works of the late actor who died by suicide final 12 months, and ‘Teen Spirit, Teen Film’, screening current Asian coming-of-age movies together with Tiger Stripes, Metropolis Of Wind, My Sunshine and Happyend.
BIFF additionally has a number of robust applications of Korean cinema – each mainstream and indie – and over its 29-year historical past has been the primary platform for locating these works. Nonetheless, now that Korean content material has gone international and far more accessible, the pageant additionally performs a task in unearthing different Asian cinematic hotspots, with Southeast Asia at the moment probably the most vibrant.
“Busan has well positioned itself as a platform for locating movies from the quick growing Southeast Asian market,” says Derek Lui of Australia-based gross sales agent Odin’s Eye Leisure, a long-time BIFF attendee. “With its give attention to Indonesian movies final 12 months, it’s changing into a hub to showcase, not solely Korean and starry Asian business movies, but additionally the thrilling new wave of Southeast Asian cinema.”
Spirit World
Southeast Asia is represented at BIFF this 12 months with titles together with Brillante Mendoza’s Motherland in Jiseok and two entries in New Currents – Story Of The Land, from Indonesia’s Loeloe Hendra, and MA – Cry Of Silence, from Myanmar’s The Maw Naing. The closing movie, Eric Khoo’s Spirit World, hails from a Singaporean filmmaker, however is a world effort with co-producers in France and Japan and starring French actress Catherine Deneuve.
BIFF additionally has a agency dedication to European cinema and is that this 12 months screening greater than 60 European titles, together with eight from Gomes as a part of the Particular Program; a number of within the Icons and World Cinema sections, together with Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Subsequent Door and Magnus Von Horn’s The Lady With The Needle; and 11 titles within the Flash Ahead competitors, together with two Europe-Africa co-productions – Mo Harawe’s The Village Subsequent To Paradise and Rungano Nyoni’s On Changing into A Guinea Fowl.
In the meantime, BIFF’s trade platform, the Asian Contents and Film Market (ACFM), is beginning to entice a rising variety of European gross sales brokers. In years passed by, European sellers would solely attend the market once they had movies in BIFF choice, however now a rising quantity journey to Busan regardless. “We’re principally specializing in pre-sales this 12 months, together with our large monster movie Kraken,” says Nicolai Korsgaard of Denmark’s Belief Nordisk. “ACFM covers a great portion of the Asian consumers and for us is a really efficient and environment friendly market (see more on ACFM in this separate article).
Whereas BIFF is extra targeted on Asia and Europe, the pageant doesn’t ignore US cinema, normally screening round 10-12 titles at every version. This 12 months, US titles embrace Sean Barker’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anora; Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan’s Ghostlight; and Jesse Eisenberg’s A Actual Ache, whereas Alex Garland’s Civil Struggle will display within the open air Open Cinema part.
As for BIFF’s on-going administration woes, Pak says the pageant hopes to have this resolved by subsequent 12 months’s thirtieth anniversary version. “After final 12 months’s version, we shaped a particular committee and held an open recruitment for a pageant director twice, however issues didn’t work out. We’ll do it once more proper after this 12 months’s pageant and I’m positive we’ll have a brand new pageant director by early subsequent 12 months.”
