S. Korea’s largest int’l film festival opens in Busan1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), one of Asia’s largest film events hosted by South Korea, opened on Thursday in the southern port city, featuring 308 films from 70 countries worldwide.
This year’s festival, set to run until Friday next week, is meaningful as it’s the first event to be held at Busan Cinema Center, according to its organizers.
The center was completed late last month to become the festival’s permanent venue with three cinemas and a 4,000-seat outdoor theater.
The number of films that will be screened at the 16th BIFF is similar to past years, but the number of world premiers, at 89 for this year, will be fewer.
An opening ceremony was held at the outdoor theater of the cinema center with about 5,000 filmmakers, entertainers and movie fans from both at home and abroad attending.
“Always,” a melodrama directed by South Korea’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Song Il-gon about a retired boxer who falls in love with a woman slowly going blind, was the opener of the festival.
