Song Il-gon’s Always will open the festival with a screening in the new Busan Cinema Center The reinvention of Busan
South Korea’s new-look Busan International Film Festival (Oct 6-14) has slimmed down its programme, beefed up its prize money and whipped up a potent blend of films, forums and fanfare for its 16th edition. Jean Noh reports
of charismatic festival head Kim Dong- ho will be closely scrutinised. For 15 years Kim has been indelibly linked to the festival and his successor, Lee Yong- kwan, admits cheerfully he may face some flak from the Korean press (see p4). But Lee says he and his team are ready. Additionally, the festival has joined
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the rest of Busan in using the Romani- sation of the city’s name, which starts with a ‘B’ instead of a ‘P’. And the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) is now called the Asian Project Market (APM). “This is the year that we have to be the most prepared and the most care-
n 2 Screen International October 2011
he first edition of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) following the retirement
ful,” says BIFF deputy director Jay Jeon. Kim is now honorary festival director
and still travels as a representative of the festival, where he has been intro- ducing Lee Yong-kwan around the cir- cuit. Not surprisingly, with his renowned networking skills and experi- ence, Kim’s hopes of being left alone to pursue a quiet life of painting and film- making have had to be postponed. Kim has left BIFF in a healthy state.
The festival moves this year to a dedi- cated, stunning venue, designed by Aus- trian architects Coop Himmelblau. The 16th edition has garnered more
sponsorship than ever before and man- aged to keep down the number of its selections — a Herculean feat of disci- pline for this festival of discovery
‘This year is the year we have to be the most prepared and
the most careful’ Jay Jeon, BIFF
whose globe-trotting programmers are now branching out farther than ever. Since being criticised for having too
many films in its line-up, the 2010 festi- val saw a reduction in its selection from 355 films to 308, and this year there are 307 films from 70 countries. Of those, 89 titles are world premieres and 46 are international debuts. As last year, all the New Currents
(Asian) and Flash Forward (non-Asian) competition titles are world and inter- national premieres. Flash Forward has also received an increase in prize money to $30,000, equal to that offered to New Currents and more competitive with rival festivals’ cash prizes. Harvesting the fruits of their develop- ment and support programmes, BIFF’s
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