Festivals and Markets

The Busan International Film Festival (known as Pusan Festival prior to 2011) is one of the major Asian film festivals and in 2022 screened 353 films from 71 countries. Total attendance 161,145.

The festival accepts features, shorts, documentaries and animation and screens them across various programs including Gala Presentations – world premieres; New Currents – an international competition for first or second features from Asian directors; Icons – the latest films from iconic filmmakers from around the world; Flash Forward – narrative features from non-Asian filmmakers; World Cinema – works by world-renowned filmmakers; Wide Angle – shorts, animation and documentaries; Open Cinema – new titles screening at their hallmark open cinema; and Midnight Madness – horror, sci-fi and cult films.

Busan also hosts the Asian Film Market (AFM), a marketplace for all Asian film business, and the Asian Project Market (APM), which brings together filmmakers with potential co-producers or co-financiers.

Tips for Attendees

‘…for subjects with any Asian content this would be an ideal opportunity to explore possibilities for finance and presales in Asia.’

‘Most of the networking took place after-hours at the functions organised by the festival. These were invaluable and impressed on me the importance of attending the industry ‘parties’ at future events. Because that’s where the professional relationships are forged, in an informal way.’

‘There was an official marketplace operating during the festival. We met people regarding local sale opportunities for the film. We also got the details of other short film distributors in Europe, from other contacts made at the festival.’

‘If you have a project that could be an Australian-Asian co-production, it’s also a good festival to target, it seems. Make sure you take your producer.’

‘The sales opportunity came the instant our film was listed in the programme… That resulted in three sales agents bidding on the film during the festival.’