16 Asian, 11 Korean Projects Among Latest Announcements
The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has announced 27 selections for this year's Asian Cinema Fund (ACF). The ACF consists of various funding support programs for the worldwide development and promotion of Asian films. Out of a total of 438 submissions in this year’s round, 11 Korean projects and 16 projects from other Asian countries are selected in three categories of ACF support: the Script Development Fund, the Post-production Fund and the Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund.
A total of eight projects were picked for the ACF 2013 Script Development Fund. Among those are three Korean offerings, which include GOH Tae-jeong’s Perfect Stranger, which looks at the shady past of a former schoolmate, KIM Geon’s The Internship, which examines the life of a young attorney to be and SHIM Hyun-seok’s Your Family, which takes aim at the price paid for overbearing parenting. Beer Girl, the latest from 2012 Rotterdam Tiger Award winner Wichanon Somumjarn from Thailand, is also selected in this category among non-Korean projects.
Meanwhile, five projects have been selected for the Post-production Fund, which is associated with the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). Korean submissions include SEO Ho-bin’s Mot, a sad tale of youth and friends who suffer a tragic accident to drift apart, Shuttlecock by LEE Yu-bin which is a road movie and coming-of-age story about a boy on a search for his stepsister while a positive immigrant woman with a hard life is the subject of KIM Jae-han’s Thuy.
The Asian Network of Documentary Fund has selected 14 projects, of which five hail from the peninsula. IM Heung-soon’s Comfort Factory Complex documents the female workers of the Guro Factory Complex. KIM Tae-il’s Hijab focuses on the lives of women from Palestine. KIM Jeong’s Open City: Guangzhou and Ansan examines immigrant people in China and Korea. KIM Cheol-min’s Prisoner of Conscience looks at the Korean National Security Law and prisoners of conscience. Finally, CHO Sung-bong’s Solidarity of the Gureombi follows the struggle of Gangjeong Village on Jeju Island against the Jeju naval base construction.