The 18th Busan International FIlm Festival (BIFF) is just a month away and yesterday BIFF revealed their packed new lineup. 301 films from 70 countries will be screened over the event's 10 days, including 95 world premieres and 42 international premieres.
Opening the festival will be the Bhutanese Vara: A Blessing from Bhutan. Closing the event will be The Dinner, the 3rd feature by local indie filmmaker Kim Dong-hyun.
Gala presentations include Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer, billed as its major festival debut by the programming team, and Kim Jee-woon's new short The X, which is the first film developed with CGV's brand new Screen X exhibition technology. The Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven will also get the red carpet treatment.
Many of the luminaries of Asian cinema are featured in this year's Window on Asian Cinema program, including Jia Zhangke (A Touch of Sin), Aoyama Shinji (Backwater), Koreeda Hirokazu (Like Father Like Son), Kurosawa Kiyoshi (Real), Chung Mong-hong (Soul), Tsai Ming-liang (Stray Dogs), Asghar Farhadi (The Past) and Sono Sion (Why Don't You Play in Hell?).
As to be expected, a large number of major new Korean films will be screening, such as the latest works from Kim Ki-duk (Moebius), Hong Sangsoo (Nobody's Daughter Haewon and Our Sunhi), Ryoo Seung-wan (The Berlin File), Jeon Kyu-hwan (My Boy), Yeun Sang-ho (The Fake), Lee Jang-ho (God's Eye View), Shin Young-shick (Rough Play) and Noh Young-seok (Intruders). Also of note are the directing debuts of actors Ha Jung-woo (Roller Coaster) and Park Joong-hoon (Top Star).
Many more Korean films are featured in the Korean Cinema Today as well as other sections, including a comprehensive retrospective on Korean cinema legend Im Kwon-taek and a commemoration of the recently deceased Park Chul-soo.
BIFF will take place over October 3-12 this year.