This year marks the 22nd edition of Asia's biggest film festival: the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in South Korea, which will take place from October 12 through 21 and also features a major sidebar event, the Asian Film Market. As is the case each year, French films will be well-represented at this event primarily dedicated to Asian cinema.
With twenty French films (including majority-French co-productions) presented this year, the 2017 Busan International Film Festival will once again give French cinema wide exposure, in keeping with the two previous years in which French films were particularly well-represented.
Jean-Pierre Léaud, who is the subject of a special tribute this year, will be in attendance to present The Lion Sleeps Tonight (accompanied by his director Nobuhiro Suwa), and Grandeur et décadence d'un petit commerce de cinéma, a TV movie directed by Jean-Luc Godard in 1986, which has very rarely been seen. Rachid Hami, director of Orchestra Class, will also make the trip to Seoul for the event.
A "French Evening" event will be held on October 14 at the Park Hyatt Hotel, immediately following the screening of Zombillenium, whose producer Arnauld Boulard will be in attendance.
We can also note that the French director of photography Agnès Godard is a jury member for this year's Official Competition.
All French films selected in 2017
World Cinema
- The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Nobuhiro Suwa
- 9 Fingers by F.J. Ossang
- Carbon by Olivier Marchal
- Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company by Jean-Luc Godard
- Jeannette: the Childhood of Joan of Arc by Bruno Dumont
- Amant double by François Ozon
- Orchestra Class by Rachid Hami
- Promise at Dawn by Eric Barbier
- Diving by Mélanie Laurent
- Bright Sunshine In by Claire Denis
- A Gentle Woman by Sergei Loznitsa
- L'Intruse by Leonardo Di Costanzo
- The Leisure Seeker by Paolo Virzi (minority-French production)
- In the Fade by Fatih Akin (minority-French production)
- The Square by Ruben Östlund (minority-French production)
- Rainbow - A Private Affair by Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani (minority-French production)
- Good Manners by Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra (minority-French production)
- Frost by Sharunas Bartas (minority-French production)
- Volubilis by Faouzi Bensaïdi
- Loveless by Andreï Zviaguintsev (minority-French production)
Open Cinema
Wide Angle
Flash Forward
- Montparnasse Bienvenüe by Léonor Serraille
- Oblivion Verses by Alireza Khatami
- Bitter Flowers by Olivier Meys (minority-French production)
- Gabriel and the Mountain by Fellipe Barbosa (minority-French production)
- I Am not a Witch by Rungano Nyoni (minority-French production)
- Beauty and the Dogs by Kaouther Ben Hania (minority-French production)
A Window on Asian Cinema
- The Insult by Ziad Doueiri
- Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts by Surya Mouly (minority-French production)
- The Journey by Mohamed Jabarah Al Daradji (minority-French production)
- Wajib by Annemarie Jacir (minority-French production)
- Silent Mist by Miaoyan Zhang (minority-French production)
- Radiance by Naomi Kawase (minority-French production)
Film Market
The BIFF also gains international attention for its important sidebar event, the Asian Film Market (AFM), to be held this year at the BEXCO Exhibition and Convention Center in Busan.
UniFrance will be present alongside 17 French sales companies, represented under the umbrella of European Film Promotion (EFP):
Alpha Violet
BAC Films
Celluloid Dreams
Charades
Cité Films
EuropaCorp
Playtime
Gaumont
Indie Sales
jour2fête
Le Pacte
Loco Films
Luxbox
Premium Films
Reel Suspects
Wide
WTFilms
The Asian Project Market, the market's co-production platform, will host 28 projects this year, including three French co-productions: Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous by the Lebanese director Wissam Charaf and produced by Charlotte Vincent (Aurora Films); A Year of Cold by the Nepalese director Min Bahadur Bham, co-produced by Catherine Dussart (Catherine Dussart Production (CDP)); and The Pass by the Afghan director Siddiq Barmak, co-produced by Guillaume De Seille (Arizona Productions).
In addition, the Film Market is holding a VR Conference for the first time this year, in which the French writer-filmmaker Jérôme Blanquet will participate. Blanquet is the director of Alteration, which was recently acclaimed at the Venice International Film Festival.
