The ninth edition of the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival is set to run from July 14-23, with a program of 172 features and shorts from 32 countries. The festival will open with twin screenings of the Russian blockbuster Night Watch and Mexican director Carlos Reygadas' Battle in Heaven, which played in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Closing films will be the Hollywood horror film Open Water as well as the Korean mystery thriller The Wind Mill Palm Forest by YU Sang-wook. Special sections will be devoted to Egyptian cinema of the past two decades, Korean directors Park Chul-soo and Ko Young-nam, and erotic cinema from various countries. The festival also announced that it would revive the tradition of the "festival lady", with actress JANG Shin-young of Springtime and Red Eye taking up this year's duties. The festival will be held at the same time as the rival Real Fantastic Film Festival, launched by PiFan's former programmers and festival director who were let go by the festival's executive committee in early 2005 (see separate news story). More information can be found at http://www.pifan.com.