The 16th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has announced 31 selections for this year’s Asian Cinema Fund (ACF).

Out of 285 submissions - up more than 30% from last year, ACF chose 31 films to be recipients of the Script Development Fund, Post-production Fund and Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund.

Script Development Fund

This year’s ACF Script Development Fund has been allocated to four Asian projects, three Korean projects and one from a graduate of the Asian Film Academy (AFA) – BIFF”s annual filmmaker’s workshop.

Putting a focus on the Philippines and Thailand as “two of the many countries in Asia with burgeoning and active communities of independent film producers and productions,” BIFF selected two projects from the Philippines and two from Thailand. From the former country: Venice-awarded Pepe Diokno’s Above The Clouds and Sheron Dayoc’s Satra. From the latter: Wisit Sasanatieng’s Muay Thai boxer film Suriya and Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s Interior, which deals with contemporary family issues.

The Korean projects which BIFF deemed to “show incredible creativity and the various initiatives” are Jang Hee-sun’s Somebody To Love, Kim Tae-yong’s Stop Over and Kim Dong-hyun’s Happy Birthday Mom!

From amongst the AFA graduates, BIFF selected Abu Shahed Emon’s The Tale Of A Good Police from Bangladesh.

Post-production Fund

Notable previous recipients of the ACF Post-production Fund include Yang Ik-june’s Breathless, Sivaroj Kongsakul’s Eternity, and Park Jung-bum’s The Journals Of Musan.

This year’s Post-production Fund goes to three Asian coproductions and three Korean films: Busan veteran Amir Naderi’s Cut, which is to be the upcoming Venice Orizzonti (Horizons) opening film is a Japan/Iran/US co-production. Tongpong Chantarangkul’s I Carried You Home, which was a 2008 ACF Script Development Fund winner, is a Thailand/Singapore coproduction. Tom Shuyu Lin’s Starry Starry Night, which was in the 2010 Asian Project Market (APM) and won the CJ Entertainment Award, is a Taiwan/China coproduction.

The Korean projects this year are: Koo Ja-hong’s Dangerously Excited, Lee Kwangkuk’s Romance Joe, and Jesus Hospital, co-directed by Shing A-ga and Lee Sang-cheol.

Asian Network of Documentary Fund

BIFF this year added two new documentary support funds – the DMZ Fund for Asian projects about conflict areas and the Busan Film Commission Fund for documentary post-production support.

Co-executed by the DMZ International Documentary Festival and BIFF, the DMZ Fund goes to In God’s Land, by Pankaj Rishi Kumar (India), Fe Chaudhry’s Pakistan by Mazhar Zaidi (Pakistan), and Where Your Boundaries Are by Nontawat Numbenchapol (Thailand).

The Busan Film Commission Fund goes to a Korean project, Kim Tae-il’s A Song Of Life.

Other AND Funds, supported by various institutions such as the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), Busan Bank and Kyungsung University, go to projects such as Fahad Mustafa’s Powerless (India/Austria), Davy Chou’s Golden Slumbers (France/Cambodia) and Dain Said and Yayan Wiludiharto’s Cinema of Terror (Indonesia/Malaysia),

The AND Production Support for Korean Projects include 1818 Bus by Kim Sung-hwan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Hwang Yun, and Nora Noh by Kim Sung-hee and Kim Il-rhan.

The AND Post-production Support Fund for Korean Projects goes to Kim Cheol-min’s Reason Of The Step, based on a folk singer named Baekja.

The 16th BIFF will run Oct 6–14.

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