The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, previously Pusan International Film Festival, PIFF), held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan (also Pusan), South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festival, held from 13 to 21 September 1996, was also the first international film festival in Korea. The focus of the BIFF is introducing new films and first-time directors, especially those from Asian countries. Another notable feature is the appeal of the festival to young people, both in terms of the large youthful audience it attracts and through its efforts to develop and promote young talent. In 1999, the Pusan Promotion Plan (renamed Asian Project Market in 2011) was established to connect new directors to funding sources. The 16th BIFF in 2011 saw the festival move to a new permanent home, the Busan Cinema Center in Centum City. The Busan Cinema Center is an about USD 150 million structure designed by Austria-based architecture collective Coop Himmelblau. The about 30,000 m² Cinema Center includes a 4,000-seat outdoor theatre; four indoor screens under an LED-covered roof; media centre; archive space; and conference rooms; allowing the festival to include industry forums and educational activities.
Opening ceremony of the 20th busan international film festival with kirikiri boys 2015 10 01
History
1st Busan International Film Festival, 13–21 September 1996
Films screened: 173 films from 31 countriesOpening Film: Secrets & Lies, Mike Leigh, UK/FranceClosing Film: In Expectation, Ming Zhang, ChinaParticipating guests: 224 guests from 27 countriesTotal audience: 184,071
2nd Busan International Film Festival, 10–18 October 1997
Films screened: 163 films from 33 countriesOpening Film: Chinese Box, Wayne Wang, UK/France/USA/JapanClosing Film: Eighteen Springs, Ann Hui, Hong Kong-ChinaParticipating guests: 450 guests from 30 countriesTotal audience: 170,206
3rd Busan International Film Festival, 24 September – 1 October 1998
Films screened: 211 films from 41 countriesOpening Film: The Silence, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iran/FranceClosing Film: Kanzo sensei, Shohei Imamura, JapanParticipating guests: 659 guests from 25 countriesTotal audience: 192,547 (paid audiences: 174,870)
4th Busan International Film Festival, 14–23 October 1999
Films screened: 207 films from 53 countriesOpening Film: Peppermint Candy, Lee Chang-Dong, KoreaClosing Film: Not One Less, Zhang Yimou, ChinaParticipating guests: 555 guests from 36 countriesTotal audience: 180,914
5th Busan International Film Festival, 6–14 October 2000
7th Busan International Film Festival, 11–23 November 2002
Films screened: 226 films from 55 countriesOpening Film: The Coast Guard, Kim Ki-duk, KoreaClosing Film: Dolls, Kitano Takeshi, JapanParticipating guests: 2,002 guests from 35 countriesTotal audience: 167,349 people
8th Busan International Film Festival, 2–10 October 2003
Films screened: 243 works from 61 countriesOpening Film: Doppelganger, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, JapanClosing Film: Acacia, Park Ki-hyung, KoreaParticipating guests: 2,523 people from 44 countriesTotal audience: 165,102
9th Busan International Film Festival, 7–15 October 2004
Films screened: Total 262 films from 63 countriesOpening Film: 2046, Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong-ChinaClosing Film: The Scarlet Letter, Daniel H. Byun, KoreaParticipating guests: Total 5,638 guests from 50 countriesTotal audience: 166,164
10th Busan International Film Festival, 6–14 October 2005
Films screened: 307 films from 73 countriesOpening Film: Three Times, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, TaiwanClosing Film: Wedding Campaign, Hwang Byung-kook, KoreaParticipating guests: 6,088 from 55 countriesTotal audience: 192,970
11th Busan International Film Festival, 12–20 October 2006
Films screened: 245 films from 63 countriesOpening Film: Traces of Love, Kim Dae-seung, KoreaClosing Film: Crazy Stone, Ning Hao, China/Hong Kong-ChinaParticipating guests: 8,321 from 51 countriesTotal audience: 162,835
12th Busan International Film Festival, 4–12 October 2007
Films Screened: 271 films from 64 countries in 770 screeningsOpening Film: Assembly, Feng Xiaogang, ChinaClosing Film: Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Hideaki Anno, Masayuki, JapanParticipating guests: 7,361Total audience: 198,603
13th Busan International Film Festival, 2–10 October 2008
Films screened: 315 films from 60 countriesOpening Film: The Gift to Stalin, Rustem Abdrashev, Russia/Kazakhstan/Israel/PolandClosing Film: I Am Happy, Yoon Jong-chan, KoreaParticipating guests: 9,516Total audience: 198,818
14th Busan International Film Festival, 8–16 October 2009
Films Screened: 355 films from 70 countries. 803 screenings.Opening Film: Good Morning President, Jang Jin, KoreaClosing Film: The Message, Gao Qunshu, Chen Kuo-fu, ChinaParticipating guests: 6,400Total audience: 173,516
15th Busan International Film Festival, 7–15 October 2010
16th Busan International Film Festival, 6–14 October 2011
Films Screened: 307 films from 70 countriesOpening Film: Always, Song Il-gon, South KoreaClosing Film: Chronicle of My Mother, Masato Harada, JapanParticipating guests: 11,268, including the press 2,440Total audience: 196,177
17th Busan International Film Festival, 4–13 October 2012
Films Screened: 304 films from 75 countriesOpening Film: Cold War, Longman Leung, Sunny Luk, Hong KongClosing Film: Television, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, BangladeshParticipating guests: 11,519, including the press 2,357Total audience: 221,002
18th Busan International Film Festival, 3–12 October 2013
Films Screened: 299 films from 70 countriesOpening Film: Vara: A Blessing, Khyentse Norbu, BhutanClosing Film: The Dinner, Kim Dong-hyun, KoreaParticipating guests: 9,991, including the press 2,262Total audience: 217,865
19th Busan International Film Festival, 2–11 October 2014
Films Screened: 312 from 79 countriesOpening Film: Paradise in Service, Doze Niu, TaiwanClosing Film: Gangster Payday, Lee Po-cheung, Hong KongParticipating guests: 10,173, including the press 2,291Total audience: 226,473
20th Busan International Film Festival, 1–10 October 2015
Films Screened: 302 from 75 countriesOpening Film: Zubaan, Mozez Singh, IndiaClosing Film: Mountain Cry, Larry Yang, China/United StatesParticipating guests: 9,685, including the press 2,325Total audience: 227,377
Official program sections
The Busan International Film Festival is organised in various sections:
Gala Presentation: Gala Presentation screens new master cineastes, the year's most-talked-about films, and world/international premieres.
A Window on Asian Cinema: A showcase of brand new and/or representative films by the talented Asian filmmakers with their diverse points of view and style.
New Currents: The only international competition section featuring the first or the second feature films by the future leading directors of Asian cinema.
Korean Cinema Today: Selected Korean feature films are shown in two sub-sections, Panorama and Vision. These two sub-sections recognise the current production trend of Korean cinema and anticipate its future.
Korean Cinema Retrospective: Revisiting the history of Korean cinema by spotlighting films of a certain notable director or films with a significant theme.
World Cinema: Presentation of new works by world-renowned filmmakers along with the year's best films that help understanding the recent trends in world cinema.
Wide Angle: A section dedicated to showing outstanding short films, animation, documentaries, and experimental films presenting different and distinct vision via broader cinematic viewpoints.
Open Cinema: A unique outdoor screening venue where a collection of new films, combining both art and mass popularity, are shown along with internationally acclaimed works.
Flash Forward: Flash Forward is set to discover yet-surfaced cineastes and create buzz among the young film generation. This section is an eclectic collection of first or second films of up-and-coming filmmakers from non-Asian countries.
Midnight Passion: Midnight Passion presents films of diverse genres selected for entertainment value from all over the world to meet the audience at night.
Special Programs in Focus: A retrospective and special showcase of films of a certain notable director or genre.
Official divisions
Asian Film Market: Launched in 2006 as a comprehensive marketplace for the array of industry events at the Busan International Film Festival, the Asian Film Market laid down its cornerstone as the new hub of the Asian film industry, organisations and institutes participating from around the world.
Asian Project Market (former PPP: Pusan Promotion Plan) is a pre-market where promising filmmakers and producers can meet with potential co-producers and financiers and, in turn, investors and co-producers can find a diverse selection of the latest (Asian) projects of top quality. As a dynamic project market focused in Asian cinema, APM has brought together viable programmes and projects to entice and meet participating film professionals from all over the world for last 11 years.
Asian Cinema Fund: The Asian Cinema Fund is a funding program to help activate more independent film productions and to set up a stable production environment. It supports projects in various stages and categories, from script development and post-production to documentary films to discover hidden jewels from future talents. ACF also aims to be a cornerstone in the foundation of a pan-Asian network by providing a meeting place for Asian filmmakers. The 900 million won (approximately 900,000USD) Asian Cinema Fund will be used to provide support to seven projects in script development, five post-productions, and thirteen documentary films.
The Script Development Fund is aimed at helping screenwriters complete their scripts. It will offer an opportunity to make for a more creative and fine-tuned project.
The Post-Production Fund is made possible through the enthusiastic support of Korean post-production companies and the Korean Film Council. With this fund, the director is invited to Korea to work on sound and DI with Korean post-production houses. It will help the director complete his or her film in 35mm. With the Post-Production Fund, top-notch technicians from Korean companies will help the project along to a higher level of quality. Furthermore, this fund is expected to be the basis for an Asian network of filmmaking technology.
The Asian Network of Documentary Fund was initiated in 2002 and sponsored by six universities and corporations in the Busan region. As a part of the Busan International Film Festival, and holds master classes and clinics to stabilise the environment for documentary productions. It is becoming an important ground for establishing a network for Asian documentaries by helping selected documentaries to be presented at many different showcases from various regions around the world. The Asian Cinema Fund helps Asian filmmakers realise their visions. It is designed to offer essential and tangible contributions in taking Asian cinema to the next level.
Asian Film Academy (AFA) is an educational program where prospective filmmakers and established directors from Asia gather to deliberate and prepare for the future of Asian cinema. Fellows of AFA will share the vision of Asian cinema with prominent filmmakers through its 17 days of program.
Busan Cinema Forum (BCF) is an academic event for filmmakers and scholars, launched on 10 October 2011. It aims to enhance the knowledge and support of the film industry and film aesthetics.
Awards
A number of awards are handed out each year, including:
New Currents Award
The New Currents Award is given to best feature films selected from works of new Asian Directors in the New Currents section.
Flash Forward Award
Newly created in 2009, the USD 30,000 award is given to the best film among those screened in the competing section, Flash Forward.
Sonje Award
A KRW 20,000,000 (US$17,000) award given to the Korean and Asian director of the best short film (1996, 1997, 2008–present).
BIFF Mecenat Award
A KRW 10,000,000 (US$8,500) award given to the best Korean and Asian (from 2008) documentary film directors.
Actor & Actress of the Year Award
Newly created in 2014, Actor & Actress of the Year is the award to focus on first time actor and an actress in an independent Korean film among the New Currents and Korean Cinema Today Vision section. One top Korean actor and actress select one actor and one actress, will be awarded at the closing ceremony. Winners will be awarded 5,000,000 KRW (approx. 5,000 USD) each.
FIPRESCI Award
Given by the International Federation of Film Critics from the entries in the New Currents section.
NETPAC Award
Awarded to the best Korean film from either New Currents and Korean Cinema Today sections
Busan Cinephile Award
This award is given to the best world documentary film presented in the Wide Angle Documentary Showcase. The winner is awarded 5,000,000KRW (approx. 5,000 USD). The jury consists of college students, including 70 students from the cinema-related departments of 7 universities in Busan region.
DGK Award
DGK Award goes to two most outstanding Korean films from Korean Cinema Today-Vision section with grant of KRW 5,000,000(approx. USD 5,000) for each winner, which is sponsored by MEGABOX.
Daemyung Culture Wave Award
Newly created in 2014, it is co-sponsored by Daemyung Holdings to expand the opportunity of the Korean independent films, it is established to award the film from the Korean Cinema Today-Vision and New Currents with prized of 20,000,000 KRW (approx. 20,000 USD) and distribution support.
CGV Movie Collage Award
This award was newly created in 2011 in collaboration with CJ CGV Arthouse to shed new light on the Korean Cinema Today Vision section. The award aims to provide independent films, indie films, new films, and low budget films with distribution and screening opportunities.
KNN Award (Audience Award)
Awarded by the KNN Foundation to a film from the New Currents section selected by audiences with a $20,000 award for the director.
Busan Bank Award (Audience Award)
Created in 2013, this award is given to the film that is most highly rated by festival audiences. Approximately 10 films from the Flash Forward section are selected beforehand to participate in this competition. A total of 20,000 USD is granted by the BNK Busan Bank. 10,000 USD is awarded to the director and the other half is used to support the distribution of the film in Korea.
Citizen Critics’ Award
Citizen critics from the Busan Cinematheque choose the best film from those screened in the Korean Cinema Today-Vision section and its director is granted the award. The winner is awarded 10,000,000 KRW (approx. 10,000 USD) with the purpose of assisting in their next production.
Vision-Director's Award
Newly created in 2016, this award is given to two promising directors of newly produced independent films in the Korean Cinema Today-Vision section, who have shown the most outstanding production skills. The winner gets a cash prize reward of 5,000 USD sponsored by MEGABOX.
Korean Cinema Award
Given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in promoting Korean Cinema to the World Film Community.
Asian Filmmaker of the Year
Given to an Asian filmmaker with the most outstanding activity in improving and developing Asian Film Industry and Culture.
