Busan International Film Festival audience exceeds 200,000... “First time in 11 years”

The number of visitors to the Busan International Film Festival exceeded 200,000 for the first time in 11 years.

The Busan International Film Festival Organizing Committee held a press conference at the Busan Cinema Center in Haeundae-gu, Busan on the 15th, the closing day of the 31st Busan International Film Festival, and announced, "The audience for this film festival has exceeded 200,000," and "this is the first time since 2015."

The number of viewers who watched movies at this year's Busan International Film Festival was counted at 200,043. This figure is a combination of films invited to the film festival (185,239 people), films screened at Community Beef (5,186 people), and films screened at Neighborhood Beef (9,618 people).

If we add 76,984 viewers of program events and side events, the total number of audiences reaches 277,027. This is an increase of about 40,000 people compared to last year, when the 30th event was held.

Organizers believe that the increase in audience numbers was influenced by moving the opening date forward to Tuesday for the first time, breaking away from the practice of opening on Wednesday, and increasing the number of screenings per day from Thursday to Sunday from four to five.

Office workers who took time off to attend the film festival were able to stay in Busan from Tuesday to the weekend and enjoy movies.

During this film festival, 315 films were screened mainly in 8 theaters in Busan. There were 246 officially invited films, of which 94 were world premieres.

30,484 people visited the film industry platform ‘Asian Contents & Film Market’ (ACFM) held at BEXCO in Haeundae-gu. 129 booths were set up, and 339 companies from 32 countries participated.

Attending this year's film festival were leading figures from the world film industry, including actor Yang Zichong (Yang Tzu-kyung), winner of the Film Actress of the Year Award, director Xian Hua (He An-hua), winner of the Camellia Award, which is given to filmmakers who have raised the status of women in the film industry, and Kim Dong-ho, former chairman of the Busan International Film Festival, winner of the Korean Film Achievement Award.

Director Alfonso Cuaron, who is visiting Korea for the first time, as well as foreign great directors and actors such as Maggie Gyllenhaal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Isabelle Huppert, Zhou Xun, Fan Bingbing, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Majid Majidi, Lave Diaz, Rintaro, Lee Chang-dong, Na Hong-jin, Kim Ji-woon, Im Kwon-taek, Jeong Ji-young, Bae Chang-ho, Lee Myung-se, Sol Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon, A large number of Korean directors and actors, including Jo Yeo-jeong and Jo In-seong, also visited Busan.

All schedules generally went smoothly, but as the movie 'Assassin(s)' became embroiled in controversy, schedules such as the lead actor's attendance at the film festival and stage greetings were cancelled.

Regarding the fact that questions related to 'Assassin(s)' were not properly answered at the opening press conference, Executive Chairman Jeong Han-seok said, "At that time, the actor's life was in danger. We were careful to prevent an announcement that was not deliberated at an official event from spreading as a threat to his life or a tool of political strife," and explained that sufficient answers were given to similar questions at the competition press conference the next day.

This film festival ends with the closing ceremony held at the Busan Cinema Center this afternoon.

The results of the competition category screening, which marks the second year this year, will also be revealed at the closing ceremony. Thirteen Asian films were invited to the competition section of this film festival, and Chinese director Zhang Yimou served as the head of the jury.

Winners of competition categories will receive the 'Busan Award', and the grand prize-winning film will be eligible to be submitted to the American Academy Awards for International Feature Film.

Executive Chairman Jeong said, "The person in charge of this year's Academy International Feature Film Award visited the Busan International Film Festival and discussed with the executive department," and added, "We decided to move forward with specific details."