Film fans flocked to this year’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF)

[Financial News] This year’s 31st BIFF, which has established itself as “a film festival representing Asia,” is drawing an even warmer response from moviegoers at home and abroad than in previous years.
As of the fifth day of the 31st BIFF, which opened on the 6th, more than 50,000 people had attended program events, including Open Talk, outdoor stage greetings and Aju Damdam at the Busan Cinema Center’s outdoor venue, as well as Cine Class and Actors’ House.
That figure surpassed the final attendance for last year’s program events in just five days.
With the Tuesday opening—introduced for the first time this year—and five screenings a day from Thursday through Sunday, mainly at large-capacity theaters, the festival has expanded viewing opportunities. Audiences have continued to flock to the theaters and the Busan Cinema Center’s outdoor venue every day.
The opening ceremony, hosted solely by actor Kim Min-ha and again directed by Min Kyu-dong, drew a large number of film figures from Korea and abroad, including this year’s Asia Filmmaker of the Year award recipient Michelle Yeoh, Korean Cinema Award recipient Kim Dong-ho, former chair of BIFF, and Camellia Award recipient director Ann Hui, as well as Alfonso Cuarón, Isabelle Huppert, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Zhou Xun, Fan Bingbing and Hirokazu Kore-eda.
Director Kim Jong-kwan and actors Kim Min-ha, Ju Jong-hyeok, Han Sun-hwa, Jang Ryul, Sim Eun-kyung, Jeon So-young and Kim Dong-hwi from the opening film “To Each Other, Day and Night,” along with director Lee Chang-dong and actors Sol Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon, Cho Yeo-jeong and Jo In-sung from “Possible Love,” as well as directors Im Kwon-taek, Jeong Ji-young, Bae Chang-ho, Lee Myung-se and Na Hong-jin, attended the red carpet and opening ceremony.

The first week also featured opportunities to have in-depth conversations about film with world-renowned filmmakers. Director Alfonso Cuarón, visiting Korea for the first time, met with audiences at a special IMAX screening of “Gravity” and a master class. Actor and director Maggie Gyllenhaal took part in a special talk on Marilyn Monroe.
Charlotte Gainsbourg took part in a special talk on “Melancholia” and a Cine Class, while Camellia Award recipient director Ann Hui reflected on her films and life. Master classes with directors Na Hong-jin, Lav Diaz, Rintaro and Bertrand Mandico, as well as Actors’ House sessions with actors Kim Go-eun, Kim Min-ha, Ryu Seung-ryong, Shin Min-a and Ju Ji-hoon, also brought audiences into conversations about filmmaking and acting.
In the competition section, now in its second year, 12 of the 13 films are being presented as world or international premieres. Competition photo calls, where directors and actors greet audiences in person, are also being held ahead of the films’ first screenings. Once the screening of director Yosep Anggi Noen’s “Names Engraved in the Sea” wraps up on the 11th, all 13 competing films will have been shown to audiences.
The festival’s community-participation programs are also meeting audiences throughout Busan. Community BIFF, which began on the 8th with Nampo-dong as its main hub, has staged a variety of screenings and events where audiences choose the films and programs themselves and take part. Neighborhood BIFF is expanding the festival across Busan, as well as to Yangsan in South Gyeongsang Province and Seoul. Forum BIFF, held during the same period, discussed the rapidly changing film landscape through eight sessions covering the industry, AI and creation, institutions and policy, and local communities and the environment, under the theme “Discussing the Possibilities of Contemporary Cinema.”
The Asia Contents & Film Market (ACFM), which opened on the 10th, is hosting 64 programs across seven sections—The A, Asia Project Market (APM), Busan Story Market (BSM), InnoAsia, Producer Hub, Doc Square and Platform Busan—with about 1,200 companies from 58 countries and around 3,000 industry professionals taking part.
Thailand is participating in the guest country program, introduced for the first time this year. The Asia Project Market is presenting 30 projects from 20 countries, selected from a record 604 submissions from 48 countries, to investment, production and distribution professionals from around the world. Expanding its scope from IP to investment and distribution, international co-productions, AI and new media, ACFM will continue to serve as a business hub for Asia’s content industry through the 13th.
The meeting of films and audiences will continue in the second half of the festival. Aju Damdam sessions featuring directors and actors from “Vision – Korea” and directors Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Attane of “Jim Queen” will be followed by “Aju Damdam Scene Stealers: Those Who Stole the Scene,” featuring Kim Guk-hee, Kim Jae-cheol, Gong Min-jeung, Park Ji-yeon, Im Seong-jae and Kim Jun-han.
The closing ceremony will be held on the festival’s final day, the 15th, with actor Im Si-wan as the sole host. The ten-day festival will conclude with the announcement of the winners of the second Busan Awards and a closing screening of the Grand Prize-winning film.
[email protected] Byeon Ok-hwan Reporter