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The 21st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) winded up its 10 days journey on October 15th. 299 films were screened from 69 countries, which was on par with previous editions, yet attendance to the festival manifested an unavoidable dip, with this year’s 165,149 slowing 27% from 2015’s record 227,377. As explained by festival director KANG Soo-yeon, this was partly a result of the 3,700 less seats available across screening venues, 65 fewer screenings and the aftermath of Typhoon Chaba, which wrecked havoc on Busan just as the festival was getting underway. 

 

This year BIFF highlighted several new low-budget titles singled out for praise by global critics and viewers during the event. One of these films was Merry Christmas Mr. Mo, which screened in the festival’s signature New Currents competition lineup. Variety wrote of the LIM Dae-hyeong film: “Played to deadpan perfection by an appealing cast and directed with impressive assurance by first-time feature helmer LIM Dae-hyeong, Mr. Mo is, to put it simply, a lovely film.” Screen International also singled out the film’s “mix of delicate melodrama and Chaplinesque slapstick humour.”

Meanwhile, the opening film A Quiet Dream, from BIFF favourite ZHANG Lu, also a member of this year’s New Currents jury, drew praise from Variety as a “whimsical, frequently poetic urban rhapsody buoyed by its deadpan dropout protagonists.” Screen International also opined that “ZHANG’s film feels like an apt choice to open the 2016 festival, and will most likely entertain those familiar with those previous films and their respective characters.”

Of this year’s Korean crop, Screen International seemed to reserve the most praise for Jane, a feature from first-time filmmaker CHO Hyunhoon that focuses on transgender and marginalized characters. The Trade wrote that “The film’s premise should arouse interest, but it’s the manner of execution along with terrific performances by the two leads which may give Jane the attention it deserves.” Another film that drew positive words from Screen was Busan veteran SHIN Dong-il’s Come, Together, which they believed that its “strong mix of social critique together with well-crafted narrative tension could provide the film with further exposure both home and abroad.”

In this year’s New Currents competition, which bestowed awards from the jury headed by Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cisse, both prizes went to Chinese films, WANG Xuebo’s Knife in the Clear Water and ZANG Qiwu’s The Donor. The jury also reserved a special mention for Navid Mahmoudi's Parting from Afghanistan. 

This year’s Actress and Actor of the Year awards, which were chosen by local performers KIM Eui-sung and CHO Min-soo, went to the leads of homegrown indie film Jane, actress LEE Min-ji and actor KOO Kyo-hwan.

 

Beyond the films shown in theaters, BIFF had plenty of other events taking place for industry professionals that gathered from all corners of the globe. The Asian Film Market took place again at the BEXCO Convention Center in Busan’s Centum Area and welcomed 1,400 film professionals from 47 countries. Korean sales companies appeared to have a good year with several major outfits reporting healthy sales. 

On the back of the success of TRAIN TO BUSAN, Contents Panda drew plenty of attention for the rest of its slate, fielding several offers for Pandora, another disaster title. Other titles that sold during the event included Showbox films LUCK-KEY, a remake of Japanese film Key of Life, and their disaster drama Tunnel. 

Also getting a boost from TRAIN TO BUSAN was FINECUT, which represents the film’s animated prequel Seoul Station, which sold to several European nations. The company also scored sales success with their Liam Neeson-starring Korean War title Operation Chromite, the North Korea-themed KIM Ki-duk film THE NET and Hide and Never Seek, a new horror acquisition from director LEE Doo. Both CJ Entertainment and M-Line Distribution also reported an uptick in sales at the Asian Film Market this year.

In the same building, the Asian Project Market was held again, a pitching event for Asian projects. 27 projects took part in 550 meetings during the event. Of those, seven came away with awards, including Love and Vengeance from Indonesian filmmaker Edwin, which picked up the main Busan Award, worth USD 15,000. The Japanese project The Chrysanthemum and the Guillotine from director ZEZE Takahisa won the Bright East Films Award, and NEANG Kavich’s White Building, a Cambodia- France co-production, took the CJ Entertainment Award and the ARTE International Prize. Korean winners included SEO Eun-young’s Undefined (Lotte Award), KIM Hee-jung’s The French Woman (KOCCA Award) and JANG Kun-jae’s The Cold-blooded Penguin (MONEFF Award).

Additionally, 20 works were presented through Book To Film and E-IP Pitching events at the 2nd Entertainment Intellectual Property Market. Among those, CHUNG Myung Seob's ‘The Lawyer who sues Chosun Dynasty’ took the Book To Film prize while AN Jong-jun’s ‘Sprinter : Underworld’ received the E-IP Pitching award.

The 21st edition of the Busan International Film Festival, which closed with Hussein Hassan’s The Dark Wind from Iraq, ran from October 6th to 15th this year.