There are 2 major film festivals in Bucheon, Korea. One is the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival and the other is the Bucheon International Animation Film Festival (BIAF). BIAF, now celebrating its 19th edition this year, is a very important event in Bucheon, which has grown into a cartoon and animation city that now boasts the Korea Manhwa Contents Agency (Komacon), Komacon Comics Museum, and a Cartoon Campus. This year BIAF will be holding a special Academy screening to celebrate acknowledgement by the Academy, as well as special Disney screenings and additional events to introduce promising Korean animators. Eugene KIM is an experienced programmer at BIAF and has a great network with domestic and global animators. He was happy to tell KoBiz the trend of this year's BIAF and the kind of meaningful goal that BIAF is working towards.

Sylvain Chomet's Special Screening and Master Class at BIAF last year made great news. Your guests usually have a great global presence. This year's program is also very colorful, from the Academy special screening to the Disney Special Screening.

This year is the 19th edition of BIAF but actually it is pretty much the 4th edition because it was named BIAF in 2015 and we went through a total transformation. This year BIAF has been acknowledged by the Academy for the first time, thanks to Sylvain Chomet. We were not sure if the academy would accept us because they highly value tradition, but they assured us that BIAF is a great film festival to have invited Sylvain Chomet. (laughs). This year BIAF has many programs owing to the Academy. Benjamin Renner of Big Bad Fox, the opening film (co-directed with Patrick Imbert) also made Earnest and Celestine which is an Academy nominee. Guests are also either Academy members or Academy film staff members, and so on. The Disney Special Screening is also very meaningful for us. We will screen Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is the first full length animated film ever, as well as Alice in Wonderland. We are also hosting a master class with Bernie Mattinson who made Little Mermaid and Eric Goldberg who made Pocahontas. It is not easy to invite Disney animators to a film festival, and we are deeply grateful that they are coming. We are also hosting Red Shoes & Seven Dwarfs in the work in progress section, which is directed by KIM Sang-jin, who was the character designer for Tangled, Frozen and Moana at Disney. KIM is also in the jury for full length animated films.

First of all, award winners at BIAF are automatically entered into the academy list. Feature length animated films are also brought to the attention of Academy members. For example, 2016 BIAF winners like The Handless Maiden and Window Horses are this year's Academy nominees. Last year, Ma Vie de Courgette was nominated in the feature length animation section, which was earlier shown at BIAF. If the BIAF winners do well at the Academy, Korean animation will have an opportunity as well. If you have a great animated Korean film at BIAF and win a prize, it will be automatically recommended to the Academy. That is part of our big goal, too. In the animation industry, the Academy has a big brand name.

What is noteworthy is Red Shoes & Seven Dwarfs by HONG Sung-ho and KIM Sang-jin. It is aiming for global distribution, featuring Chloë Moretz and Gina Gershon as voice actors. It is the first Korean animated film for KIM to work on. It is to be screened in the 'work in progress' section, and it is the first presentation. Under Dog by OH Seong-yun of Leafie, a Hen Into the Wild will also be introduced in the same section, telling the story of abandoned dogs who go on a journey for survival. It is expecting a big commercial success too, featuring stars like Do Kyung-soo and PARK So-dam. It is about to be completed and during the festival the entire production from storyboard to video will be presented.

You will soon have holograms, and major media companies like Netflix will govern the animation industry and film events like 'meet with the director.' In such a big change, I thought hard what would be some of the unique things that animation film festivals could do, and I came up with the idea of hosting an event where the animators may meet the audience. It would be a meaningful thing for a film festival to do, you know, hosting an event where you may meet legendary filmmakers. However, it is not easy to invite people. It takes at least 2 years, or even 10 years. I want to introduce the kind of animators who do not conform to the capital, and have their own way, like Sylvain Chomet, JUNG Yu-mi and JUNG Da-hee to name a few. 

I spent at least 2 years making the special screening to have an opportunity to discuss the Disney classics from the 1980s and 90s. I think it is meaningful for a film festival to go against the mainstream going digital. Many people were opposed to screening Fantasia 2000 in 2012. They said what is the point of screening what has already been made into a blue ray video. So we played the 35mm version, because we wanted to give a totally different experience from watching the blue ray version. I believe these kinds of efforts will build a clear character of our film festival.