Festival plans to go back to normal, slighly scaled down
BUSAN The 26th Busan International Film Festival will return nearly to how it previously operated before the pandemic.
The festival is set to be held from October 6 to 15 in Korea’s second city, Busan.
Last year, the BIFF organiser had to scale down and hold the fest without large crowd-gathering events such as the opening and closing ceremonies, outdoor greetings and open talk sessions. Each film was also screened only once at the Busan Cinema Center.
“This year we are screening all 100 per cent of our selected movies offline,” BIFF chief programme director Huh Moon-yung said during an online press conference held recently. “This is because we value offline screening. Film festivals are all about gathering to watch a film and share feelings about it with each other.”
Huh explained that all invited features will be shown in six selected theaters in Busan and will not be screened online. Only short films will be made available for online screening on platforms Youtube and Naver Series On.
He added that the offline opening ceremony will be held normally at Busan Cinema Center this year.
Concerning whether guests like filmmakers and actors will be in attendance, the program director said many will be there for onsite events.
“Even some foreign guests will
Because the COVID-19 situation in some Asian countries is not great, Asian guests from those countries cannot come.
But many will come from America and Europe,”
Chief programme director
Huh Moon-yung
come. Because the COVID-19 situation in some Asian countries is not great, Asian guests from those countries cannot come. But many will come from America and Europe,” he said. The programme director added that all Korean filmmakers will participate in the fest.
A total 223 films were invited for this year’s programme. The number of films invited decreased from 303 in 2019, but is up from last year’s 192 films.
“The number of our 2021 selection fell slightly from over 300 films that we used to screen before the pandemic,” Huh said. “But I’m confident about the quality of our lineup.”
Eleven films from 10 countries, including The Absent Director from Arvand Dashtaray and My Hometown directed by Wang Er Zhuo, will vie for the prize in this year’s New Currents competition section.
During the press conference, Huh also talked about this year’s opener, Korea buddy drama Heaven: To the Land of Happiness, directed by Im Sang-soo.
“The moment when we watched the film we knew that it is perfect for our opener. It has artistic value and can also appeal to the public. It is an ensemble film with a great director and actors,” he said.
The closing film of BIFF is Anita, a biopic film on Hong Kong star Anita Mui, directed by Leung Longman.
During its prestigious Gala Presentation, the fest organizer will screen three films – Annette, directed by Leos Carax, and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Drive My Car, both directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.
The festival organiser highlighted that Hamaguchi will have a special discussion session with
Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho during this year’s festival.
To adapt to a changing film industry, BIFF said it also established a few new programmes this year.
The On Screen programme is one of them. During this programme, three selected highly anticipated drama series from streaming platforms will be up on the big screen.
They are Hellbound, directed by Yeon Sang-ho, My Name, directed by Kim Jin-min, and Forbidden, co-directed by Anucha Boonyawatana and Josh Kim.
A day after the press conference, BIFF confirmed that its opening ceremony will be hosted by Hallyu
star Song Joong-ki and Park So-dam, who had a breakthrough year in 2019 for her role in the Academy Award-winning film Parasite.
Meanwhile, the festival organiser planned to hold a special event Wednesday night to sell its tickets 20 per cent cheaper than the normal price while streaming a special sales program on Naver’s home shopping platform for an hour.
However, due to technical difficulties, the event was canceled.
“We plan to hold this event again next week, but a detailed schedule has not been fixed yet,” a BIFF spokesperson said.