It is the 21st edition of Asia's most important film festival: the Busan International Film Festival, in South Korea, will take place this year from October 6 through 15, and also features the Asian Film Market. As is the case each year, French cinema has a strong presence in this event mainly focused on Asian cinema.
It is yet another fine year for French cinema at the Busan Film Festival, after an exceptional 2015 edition, in terms of films represented.
2016's lineup, when including coproductions, reaches 50 films produced or coproduced by France (19 are majority productions), with an artistic delegation relating to French cinema composed of Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar (for Heaven Will Wait), Déborah François (who will present The Poisoning Angel), Stéphanie Di Giusto and her The Dancer, Jean-Luc Gaget, screenwriter of The Together Project, and Davy Chou, director of Diamond Island.
A French gala will take place on October 8 at the Park Hyatt Hotel, after the screening of The Dancer.
Film Market
Busan is also the venue for the Asian Film Market (AFM), which will take place from October 8 through 11, 2016 at BEXCO, Busan's trade show complex.
Unifrance will be present alongside the 17 French sales agents grouped together beneath the European Film Promotion (EFP) umbrella. The downloadable brochure is available in this newsletter.
The Asian Project Market, the market's coproduction platform, hosts 27 projects, two of which are French coproductions.
Lastly, a conference "Filming With France," organized by the Ambassade de France, will take place on October 9 from 4 to 6 pm, in the presence of French producers (Bertrand Gore from Blue Monday, Xavier Castano from Loull Production, and Alexis Dantec from The French Connection) as well as Korean producers and representatives of KOFIC, the CNC, and Unifrance.
Selections
World Cinema:
- Foreign Body by Raja Amari
- Frantz by François Ozon
- The Together Project by Solveig Anspach
- The Death of Louis XIV by Albert Serra
- Heaven Will Wait by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar
- From the Land of the Moon by Nicole Garcia
- Death in Sarajevo by Danis Tanovic
- Personal Shopper by Olivier Assayas
- A Woman's Life by Stéphane Brizé
- La Vita Possibile by Ivano De Matteo (minority)
- The Ornithologist by João Pedro Rodrigues (minority)
Wide Angle:
- Gentleman Rissient by Benoit Jacquot, Pascal Merigeau, Guy Seligmann
- Louise by the Shore by Jean-François Laguionie
- A Journey Through French Cinema by Bertrand Tavernier
Documentary Competition:
Documentary Showcase:
- Ta'ang, un peuple en exil, entre Chine et Birmanie by Wang Bing (minority)
Presentation Gala:
Features - Flash Forward:
- The Poisoning Angel by Stéphanie Pillonca (minority)
- The Dancer by Stéphanie Di Giusto
- Zoology by Ivan Tverdovsky (minority)
- Wolf and Sheep by Shahrbanoo Sadat( minority)
- The Worldly Girl by Marco Danieli (minority)
- The Empty Box by Claudia Sainte-Luce (minority)
- Mimosas by Oliver Laxe (minority)
- Aloys by Tobias Nölle (minority)
- Godless by Ralitza Petrova (minority)
A Window on Asian Cinema:
- Diamond Island by Davy Chou
- The Salesman by Asghar Farhadi
- The Road to Mandalay by Midi Z (minority)
- Harmonium by Koji Fukada (minority)
- Bangkok Nites by Katsuya Tomita (minority)
- A Yellow Bird by K. Rajagopal (minority)
- Apprentice by Boo Junfeng (minority)
