Busan Festival Doubles Down on Discovery Function
Fest evolves along with revived global demand for Korean content
Asia’s biggest and most important annual film festival, Busan, follows less than a month after the European and North American events in Venice, Toronto, Telluride and San Sebastian that traditionally launch awards season and grab English-language premieres.
Now back to normal operations after two years of interruptions, Busan is doubling down on its role as the epicenter of discovery in Asia. The festival runs Oct. 5-14 at seven cinema complexes, including the spectacular, purpose-built Busan Cinema Center.
The 2022 edition involves the launch of a second competition section; the expansion of the TV series sidebar that was launched in 2021; and expansion of the showcase for Korean commercial movies. In its industry-facing section, the Asian Contents & Film Market (Oct. 8-11), Busan is reviving its Asian Cinema Fund project and production support system. And it is launching a story market that formalizes negotiations around the sale of raw IP.
“This year’s BIFF will be held at full capacity without social distancing and 100% seating available,” organizers said. “All events and parties, including opening and closing ceremonies, are preparing for normal operations. Invitation to overseas guests, accreditation for festival/market badges and ticketing will progress as in the pre-pandemic years.”
The only element missing from the previous array of festival and market functions appears to be the Asian Film Awards, which is jointly operated by the Busan, Tokyo and Hong Kong festivals. It was hosted in Busan in hybrid form in both 2020 and 2021, but it has no confirmed date for 2022.
Compared with European countries and the U.S., South Korea was late to accept COVID as endemic. The country’s cinemas returned to normal at the beginning of May, but hazmat controls, health declarations and post-arrival testing were maintained at airports through July.
The moves to restore Busan’s festival and market routines come as South Korea finally learns to live with COVID and the mid-september Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving holiday, turned out not to be a superspreader event.
By Sept. 16 new infections had fallen to below 60,000 per day and the number of critically ill patients nationwide hovered around 500.
The upgrading of the festival’s Kim Jiseok Award into a new, programmed section gives Busan two competitions.
The New Currents section, intended as a primary source of Asian discovery and open to first and second features, remains in place unchanged. This year it showcases 10 films — all world premieres — mostly from East and South Asia.
The Jiseok competition — six world premieres and two international premieres — will provide two winners with cash prizes of $10,000 each. It consists of new selected works from established Asian filmmakers with three or more feature films. The differences between the two sections are a question of degree, not fundamental.
Indeed, far more Asian directors who have established meaningful international careers are showcased in the non-competitive Window on Asian Cinema section. They include Indonesia’s Kamila Andini (with “Before Now & Then” aka “Nana”); Iran’s Ali Abbasi (“Holy Spider” fresh from Cannes); India’s Rima Das (“Tora’s Husband”); French-cambodian director Davy Chou (“Return to Seoul”); Hayakawa Chie (Japan’s Oscar entry “Plan 75”); China’s Li Ruijun (Berlin competition film “Return to Dust”); and Fukada Koji with recent Venice competition title “Love Life.”
Taken together with the Icons section (housing the latest works from Park Chan-wook, Hong Sang-soo, Brillante Mendoza and Kore-eda Hirokazu) and the three subsections of Korean Cinema Today, Busan makes a strong claim to be the most wide-ranging and comprehensive assembly of Asian festival films currently available.
Busan’s industry section underlines the value of perseverance and the enduring strength of Korean content. Having been a loose, hotel-based event in its early years, Busan’s film rights market was formalized in 2006 — just as an earlier Korean Wave began to lose its novelty value for overseas film distributors. Company sales booths and market screenings have been a constant, though modest, component.
“With the expectation that there will be an increase in the number of international participants due to the high demand and popularity of K-contents, such as ‘Parasite’ and ‘Squid Game,’ the ACFM is gathering much excitement with the official launch of the Busan Story Market,” organizers said.