Busan International Film Festival 2016 | Line Up

In its 21st edition, The Busan International Film Festival, one of Asia’s largest film festivals is set to run from October 6-15 in the South Korean city of Busan. The festival will screen 301 films from 69 countries, which will include 96 world premieres and 27 international premieres.

Korean-Chinese director Zhang Lu’s ‘A Quiet Dream’ will open the festival while Iraqi director Hussein Hassan’s ‘The Dark Wind’ will close the festival.

Zhang Lu’s ‘A Quiet Dream’

Laurence Herszberg, director-general of Paris’ Forum des Images, will be awarded the festival’s annual Korean Cinema Award for her contribution to advancing the globalization of Korean cinema.

BIFF’s competition section for rising Asian directors, The New Currents, includes titles like Lim Dae-hyeong’s ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Mo’ and Wang Xuebos’ ‘Knife In The Clear Water’. Mali director Souleymane Cisse alongwith Indian producer Guneet Monga, International Film Festival Rotterdam festival director Bero Beyer, Iranian cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari and director Zhang Lu will head the jury of the section.

The Documentary Competition includes films such as Baby Ruth Villarama’s ‘Sunday Beauty Queen’, making its world premiere, while Indian film ‘The Cinema Travellers’, made by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya, will be part of the Documentary Showcase.

The Cinema Travellers by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya

The Panorama section of Korean Cinema Today includes an impressive line up of films such as Park Chan-wook’s ‘The Handmaiden’, Kim Jee-woon’s ‘The Age Of Shadows’ and Na Hong-jin’s ‘The Wailing’, among others. Noted independent filmmakers such as Shin Dong-il, Park Kiyong, Ahn Seonkyoung and others will showcase their films in the Korean Cinema Today Vision section.

14 Pixar shots will be curated as part of the Wide Angle section for documentaries, shorts and animations. While Korean film pioneer Lee Doo Yong, Colombian cinema and ten films by the late Abbas Kiarostami will be part of the Retrospectives at the Busan International Film Festival.

First Look of Park Chan Woo’s The Handmaiden

The Asian Film Market, which will take place from October 8 to 11, will feature E-IP Pitching and Book To Film events as well as legal and financing seminars.

For the entire lineup of the festival, visit – http://www.biff.kr/structure/eng/