Pusan Film Fest Prepares for 10th Year
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By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
The biggest port city in the nation will throw its biggest party for moviegoers yet as the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) will celebrate its 10th edition with special programs and events next month.
"This year's event will be especially dedicated to Pusan citizens and moviegoers who have truly supported us for the past nine years", Kim Dong-ho, festival director of PIFF, said on Tuesday during a news conference at Seoul Royal Hotel in Seoul.
The festival, taking place from Oct. 6 through 14 in Pusan, will present 307 films from 73 countries, the most in the past 10 years with 62 films to be world-premiered.
The opening film is China's auteur director Hou Hsiao Hsien's "Three Times". The film, a collection of three tales of love, is the re-edited final version, different from the two other versions shown this year at Cannes and Toronto.
The film shows different love stories in three different times, 1911, 1966 and 2005 by the same actor and actress but in different characters. The stories are titled "A Time for Love", "A Time for Freedom" and "A Time for Youth".
As the closing film, Korean director Hwang Byeng-gug's directorial debut film "Wedding Campaign" will be shown. The heart-warming melodrama is about two single male farmers looking for wives in Uzbekistan.
Since the festival plans to have a big closing party with all the audiences, they selected a film that can be enjoyed by general audiences, Kim Ji-seok, programmer of the festival's A Window on Asian Cinema section, said.
The festival consists of nine official sections, which will show a variety of spectrums and current trends in such sections as World Cinema and Korean Panorama.
In Korean Cinema Retrospective, Korean director Lee Man-hee-I's works will be shown to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death. Titled "Lee Man-hee-I, Poet of the Night", the retrospective collects 10 of Lee's finest films, including "Holiday - 1968", which audiences will view for the first time as it was banned by the government when it was produced in 1968. His as a member of the jury
In the Open Cinema section, Kim Cheong-gi's local classic animation from the 1970s, "Robot Taekwon V", will be shown for the first time since the original film's three-year restoration.
In addition, to commemorate the 10th anniversary, the festival has other special programs. Re-mapping of Asian Auteur Cinema 1 sheds light on works by leading Asian directors who have not had a chance to be appreciated by international audiences, and Reunion of New Currents introduces the latest films by new directors who won awards in the previous editions of the festival. And a collection of the most loved movies shown at the previous editions will be screened in PIFF's Asian Pantheon, selected by festival programmers and advisors.
Other special events include Directors' Choice Troopers and Actors' Choice Troopers, in which moviegoers can see a film alongside invited directors and actors and have a chance to talk about films with them. The invited directors include Kim Jee-woon of "A Bittersweet Life" and Choi Dong-hoon of "The Big Swindle", and actors include Moon So-ri of "A Good Lawyer's Wife" and Yoo Ji-tae of "Antarctic Journal".
Many popular and renowned guests will also pay a visit to the festival. They include director of the opening film Hou Hsiao Hsien, popular British filmmaker Peter Greenaway, Japanese director Seijun Suzuki, renowned Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami and international martial arts film star Jackie Chan.
During the festival, the Pusan Promotional Plan (PPP), a film project market to help filmmakers find investors, will take place from Oct. 10 to 12 at the Paradise Hotel Busan. This year, 27 projects from 19 countries were selected. Among the filmmakers chosen are Korean directors Kim Ki-duk and Lee Kwang-mo, Shinya Tsukamoto of Japan, Xiao'er Gan of China and Abdy Japarov of Kyrgyzstan.
Along with PPP, the festival will run its inaugural program titled Asian Film Academy (AFA) to help young and talented Asian directors. Co-hosted by Dongseo University and the Korean Academy of Film Arts, AFA will provide selected directors with an intensive training workshop sessions from Sept. 24 through Oct. 14.
As part of celebration events, the organizing committee of the festival will publish essay and photography books about the history of the festival as wall as DVD collection consisted of winners of Wide Angle section in the previous years.
To help offer visitors more chances to see films, the festival has increased the number of venues with 14 screens added from 17 in the previous year.
Online ticket purchase for the opening and closing films is available from Sept. 15 to 16.
The 10th Pusan International Film Festival
When: Oct. 6 through 14
Where: 31 indoor and outdoor venues in Pusan
Info: Call (051) 747-3010 or (02) 3675-5097 or visit http://www.piff.org
Staff Reporter
The biggest port city in the nation will throw its biggest party for moviegoers yet as the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) will celebrate its 10th edition with special programs and events next month.
"This year's event will be especially dedicated to Pusan citizens and moviegoers who have truly supported us for the past nine years", Kim Dong-ho, festival director of PIFF, said on Tuesday during a news conference at Seoul Royal Hotel in Seoul.
The festival, taking place from Oct. 6 through 14 in Pusan, will present 307 films from 73 countries, the most in the past 10 years with 62 films to be world-premiered.
The opening film is China's auteur director Hou Hsiao Hsien's "Three Times". The film, a collection of three tales of love, is the re-edited final version, different from the two other versions shown this year at Cannes and Toronto.
The film shows different love stories in three different times, 1911, 1966 and 2005 by the same actor and actress but in different characters. The stories are titled "A Time for Love", "A Time for Freedom" and "A Time for Youth".
As the closing film, Korean director Hwang Byeng-gug's directorial debut film "Wedding Campaign" will be shown. The heart-warming melodrama is about two single male farmers looking for wives in Uzbekistan.
Since the festival plans to have a big closing party with all the audiences, they selected a film that can be enjoyed by general audiences, Kim Ji-seok, programmer of the festival's A Window on Asian Cinema section, said.
The festival consists of nine official sections, which will show a variety of spectrums and current trends in such sections as World Cinema and Korean Panorama.
In Korean Cinema Retrospective, Korean director Lee Man-hee-I's works will be shown to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death. Titled "Lee Man-hee-I, Poet of the Night", the retrospective collects 10 of Lee's finest films, including "Holiday - 1968", which audiences will view for the first time as it was banned by the government when it was produced in 1968. His as a member of the jury
In the Open Cinema section, Kim Cheong-gi's local classic animation from the 1970s, "Robot Taekwon V", will be shown for the first time since the original film's three-year restoration.
In addition, to commemorate the 10th anniversary, the festival has other special programs. Re-mapping of Asian Auteur Cinema 1 sheds light on works by leading Asian directors who have not had a chance to be appreciated by international audiences, and Reunion of New Currents introduces the latest films by new directors who won awards in the previous editions of the festival. And a collection of the most loved movies shown at the previous editions will be screened in PIFF's Asian Pantheon, selected by festival programmers and advisors.
Other special events include Directors' Choice Troopers and Actors' Choice Troopers, in which moviegoers can see a film alongside invited directors and actors and have a chance to talk about films with them. The invited directors include Kim Jee-woon of "A Bittersweet Life" and Choi Dong-hoon of "The Big Swindle", and actors include Moon So-ri of "A Good Lawyer's Wife" and Yoo Ji-tae of "Antarctic Journal".
Many popular and renowned guests will also pay a visit to the festival. They include director of the opening film Hou Hsiao Hsien, popular British filmmaker Peter Greenaway, Japanese director Seijun Suzuki, renowned Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami and international martial arts film star Jackie Chan.
During the festival, the Pusan Promotional Plan (PPP), a film project market to help filmmakers find investors, will take place from Oct. 10 to 12 at the Paradise Hotel Busan. This year, 27 projects from 19 countries were selected. Among the filmmakers chosen are Korean directors Kim Ki-duk and Lee Kwang-mo, Shinya Tsukamoto of Japan, Xiao'er Gan of China and Abdy Japarov of Kyrgyzstan.
Along with PPP, the festival will run its inaugural program titled Asian Film Academy (AFA) to help young and talented Asian directors. Co-hosted by Dongseo University and the Korean Academy of Film Arts, AFA will provide selected directors with an intensive training workshop sessions from Sept. 24 through Oct. 14.
As part of celebration events, the organizing committee of the festival will publish essay and photography books about the history of the festival as wall as DVD collection consisted of winners of Wide Angle section in the previous years.
To help offer visitors more chances to see films, the festival has increased the number of venues with 14 screens added from 17 in the previous year.
Online ticket purchase for the opening and closing films is available from Sept. 15 to 16.
The 10th Pusan International Film Festival
When: Oct. 6 through 14
Where: 31 indoor and outdoor venues in Pusan
Info: Call (051) 747-3010 or (02) 3675-5097 or visit http://www.piff.org
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