Busan International Film Festival

Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, previously Pusan International Film Festival, PIFF Korean: 부산국제영화제, Hanja: 釜山國際映畵祭), 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 September 13 to September 21, 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.

New Currents Awards

Joint winner: “Pascha” Dir: AHN Seonkyoung (Korea)

Joint winner: “Remote Control” Dir: Byamba SAKHYA (Mongolia/Germany)

Special Mention: “Transit” (pictured) Dir: Hannah ESPIA (Philippines)

Sonje (Short Film) Awards

Winner (Asia): “A Lady Caddy Who Never Saw a Hole in One” Dir: Yosep ANGGI NOEN (Indonesia)

Winner (Korea): “In the Summer” Dir: SON TaeDir: gyum (Korea)

Special Mention: “Temporary” Dir: Behzad AZADI (Iran)

Special Mention: “Sprout” Dir: YOON GaDir: eun (Korea)

BIFF Mecenat Award (Documentaries)

Winner (Asia): “Jalanan” (aka “Streetside”) Dir: Daniel ZIV (Indonesia)

Winner (Korea): “Non fiction Diary” Dir: JUNG Yoonsuk (Korea)

Special Mention: “Gureombi — The Wind is Blowing” Dir: CHO Sung-bong (Korea)

Busan Bank Award (Audience Award)

Winner: “Home” Dir: Maximilian HULT (Sweden/Iceland)

KNN Movie Award (Audience Award)

Winner: “10 Minutes” Dir: LEE Yong-seung (Korea)

FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Award

Winner: “10 Minutes” Dir: LEE Yong-seung (Korea)

NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award

Winner: “Shuttlecock” Dir: LEE Yubin (Korea)

Busan Cinephile Award

Winner: “Father’s Garden –The Love of My Parents” Dir: Peter LIECHTI (Switzerland)

Citizen Reviewers’ Award

Joint winner: “Han Gong-ju” Dir: ju Dir: LEE Su-jin (Korea)

Joint winner: “Shuttlecock” Dir: LEE Yubin (Korea)

CGV Movie Collage Award

Winner: “Han Gong-ju Dir: LEE Sujin (Korea)

BUSAN — Local South Korean film “Pascha” and Mongolian-German co-production “Remote Control” shared the top prize at the 18th edition of the Busan International Film Festival.

The films, by Ahn Seonkyoung and Byamba Sakhya respectively, were named as winners of the festival’s New Currents prize for young film-makers. They were joined by “Transit” a Filipino film about migrant workers in Israel, which had long been the critics’ favorite, but which in the end earned a ‘special mention.’

The festival closed on Saturday evening with a pageant in perfect crisp weather at the two year old Busan Cinema Center and the screening of “The Dinner” by local director Kim Dong-hyun.

[...]

In a final communique the festival claimed the successful discovery and introduction of several lesser-known directors, especially those from Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

“Remote Control” (pictured) is the debut feature of Mongolia’s Sakhya, who has an extensive track record of writing, editing, lensing and line producing the works of other Mongolian film-makers. The picture blurs the border between reality and fantasy and tells the story of an alienated youngster who believes he can connect with a woman in another apartment block by using a TV remote control.

“Pascha” is the second film by Ahn and tells the story of a 40-something woman and her 17 year old lover, their cat and the hostility they suffer from conventional society. The jury described it as an “intimate and highly original expression of an unusual love story.”

The New Currents jury included Iranian director Rakhshan Banietemad, Japanese director Aoyama Shinji, Cannes’ Critics Week selector Charles Tesson and Variety’s head critic Scott Foundas.

Away from the heat of the competition the festival put on a massive 71-title retrospective of the works of prolific Korean director Im Kwon-taek. Im duly responded by using Busan as the platform for announcing his 102nd feature production.

New Currents Award:

- End of Winter (Kim Daehwan | Korea)

- 13 (Hooman Seyedi | Iran)

‘Asian Cinema 100’ is an ambitious special program of the Busan International Film Festival that conveys the history and aesthetics of Asian films and shows Asian cinematographic history in a new light. ‘Asian Cinema 100’ ranks top 100 Asian films of all time and it was completed with the help from directors, critics, film scholars, and journalists from various countries. 73 film professionals participated in the project with a total of 113 films (including joint rankings) and 106 directors were listed in the ‘Asian Cinema Directors 100.’ Preparing for the ‘Asian Cinema 100’ special program exposed the reality of Asian cinema which requires substantial attention and study, reconfirming the role and responsibilities of the Busan International Film Festival to draw a map of Asian films distinct from the western-centered frame. BIFF seeks to shed new light on preservation and restoration of Asian cinema. Including the internationally acclaimed works, it is important to discover hidden masterpieces and talented directors in Asian film history. It will be meaningful to highlight the necessity of preservation and restoration which remain insufficient for the legacy of Asian films. ‘Asian Cinema 100’ which will be updated every 5 years, is expected to focus more attention and studies on Asian films. Among the selections, top 10 films (including the joint rankings) will screen at the festival, and a special publication by 29 film professionals who participated in the project will be available to enrich the program.

The 2015 Busan International Film Festival's (BIFF) Vision Awards stayed close at home, with prizes going to world premiere pieces by noted emerging South Korean filmmakers.

O Muel took home two trophies for Eyelids, the CGV arthouse award (distribution and screening opportunities via CJ Entertainment) and Directors Guild of Korea award (about $5,000). He shared the latter prize with another Korean film, The Boys Who Cried Wolf, by Kim Jin-hwang. O is well known for his award-winning Jiseul, which premiered at Busan in 2012 and won the grand jury prize at Sundance.

Busan citizen critics handed the citizen critics' award (about $10,000) to Alone by Park Hong-min. This is the second time Park is taking home the honor since 2011 for Fish, which, since debuting at Busan, was invited to compete at Rotterdam and Vancouver Film Festivals.

The Busan Cinephile Award, another prize given by a non-professional jury, went to The Other Side by Roberto Minervini (Italy, France). Local film students are responsible for choosing the winner of the $5,000 cash award.

The big $20,000 prize for promoting independent cinema, the daemyung culture wave award, was awarded to Overman by Seo Eunyoung (Korea), while Communication & Lies by Lee Seung-won (Korea) picked up the NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) awar,d aimed at expanding the distribution and screening of Asian films.

The FIPRESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique) award for experimental films went to Immortal by Hadi Mohaghegh (Iran).

Bacon wrote:

Het festival is dit jaar letterlijk in het water gevallen.

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Ahead of its closing ceremony this evening, the 22nd Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) announced its awards today which included top honors in their signature New Currents competition for the Korean film After My Death from Kim Eui-seok and the Iranian feature Blockage by Mohsen Gharaei.

The New Currents jury, headed by Hong-Joon Kim with Nansun Shi, Jun Kunimura, Labina Mitevska and Nashen Moodley, unanimously awarded Savage as “a strikingly accomplished and riveting first film, exhibiting a mastery of genre cinema, with multi-dimensional characters and thrilling action sequences.”

They also unanimously awarded Clean Up, saying they had been “completely engaged and impressed” with the film, finding it “original, surprising and deeply emotional, with detailed characterisation, perfect control and masterful psychological development.”