Following a special assembly held on January 31, the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) reinstated former festival leaders LEE Yong-kwan and Jay JEON. LEE, who left the festival as its festival director, will now step into the festival chairman position. Meanwhile former deputy director and Asian Film Market head Jay JEON will now act as BIFF’s new festival director.

Both LEE and JEON were founding members of the festival, which launched in 1996. They take over the positions vacated by former chairman KIM Dong-ho and former festival director KANG Soo-youn, who stepped down from their positions at the close of last year’s 22nd edition.

LEE and JEON left the festival in the midst of a controversy that began when the festival went ahead with a screening of the controversial documentary The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol in 2014, against the wishes of local politicians at the time.

LEE, who will serve as chairman for the next four years, was program director and deputy director at BIFF prior to acting as festival director. He has also held positions as the dean of the Graduate School of Art at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, as a professor in the department of Theater and Film at Kyungsung University in Busan and as the director of the Cinematheque Busan.

JEON was the world cinema programmer of BIFF prior to being deputy director and head of the Asian Film Market. He will take on the position of festival director for the next three years.