Eve Festival of Busan International Film Festival and Related Events

Detailed introduction

The first discussion of the Busan International Film Festival was a ‘Seminar on the promotion of Busan’s image and culture in preparation for the Asian Games in 2002’ held in November 1994. It started with the idea of taking the city brand of Busan to the next level with the Asian Games. At that time, it was not an optimistic atmosphere for a successful festival. Many people thought the festival would end in a year or two, but unexpectedly, it had an explosive reaction from the beginning.

During the first festival, 180,000 people visited Busan. Compared with 220,000 in 2015, it can be seen that a considerable number of viewers have visited the festival from the beginning. The Busan International Film Festival successfully continued going smoothly from its first step.

The world’s interest in Korean films has also increased as <Mint Candy> directed by Lee Changdong was favorably reviewed in the world film industry and <Chunyahngdyeon> directed by Im Kwontaek became the first Korean film to compete at the Cannes Film Festival.

The scale of the film festival increased from 171 films from 31 countries to 302 films from 75 countries. The budget was also 2.2 billion won in 1996, but the 20th budget was 11.9 billion won. Over the last two decades, the budget for the Busan International Film Festival totaled 149.9 billion won.

In order to resolve the limitations of old and narrow places in the area of Nampo-dong in Jung-gu, the Busan International Film Festival was held on September 29, 2011 at the Busan Cinema Center in Centum City, Haeundae. It also began to be used as the exclusive hall of the 16th Busan International Film Festival.

Since the Busan Cinema Center is used as the exclusive hall for the festival, various events were held mainly in Haeundae. The Opening Eve Festival of the Busan International Film Festival has been held in Nampo-dong, Jung-gu because Nampo-dong is the birthplace of the film festival. The “Eve Festival” has been held at BIFF Square in Nampo-dong.

The eve of the festival is a time for appreciating invited films, meeting with filmmakers and movie people, opening declarations, a hand printing opening ceremony, a landscape lighting ceremony, and a celebration performance. It is the beginning of quenching the public’s thirst for films. This is especially true of many citizens from the western part of Busan and the old downtown area where there is a blind spot of culture.

For 10 days during the festival, you can enjoy festival related events in BIFF Square such as live broadcasting of the festival, talk shows with actors and directors, outdoor screenings of previous BIFF movies and celebration performances. Also, there is a movie and tourist information center, movie photo zones, unique trial booths, and a movie related exhibition wall.

In Jung-gu, we are constantly striving to keep up with the festival, but many of us are saddened by the lack of screening of invited films in this location during the festival. We hope to revive old memories and meet again in the screening hall of the Busan International Film Festival in Nampo-dong.

Directions