Strong female presence at Busan's Asian Project Market

A total of 27 titles from 16 countries have been selected including projects from names including Yim Soon-rye, Tan Chui Mui and Laila Pakalnina.

In its 19th year, the APM (formerly called the Pusan Promotion Plan or PPP) said it tried to go back to its original mission of discovering up-and-coming talent with a selection that includes Pavle Vuckovic - who debuted last year in Cannes with Panama - bringing his Serbian thriller Mountain Eyes and Lei Lei with his debut feature animation Ningdu, which has Isabelle Glachant attached as a producer.

APM stated it saw “an increased interest and more submissions by female directors and producers” this year. Yim is bringing Project Lee Jung-Seob, based on the legendary Korean artist’s life, while Tan has Malaysian coming-of-age drama All About Yuyu and Pakalnina has Latvia-Estonia co-production fantasy Insect Night.

Gina Kim is bringing Korean mystery Paradise Lost and Pimpaka Towira has her Thai drama about a journalist, a masseuse and an army officer in The General’s Secret.

The selection also includes Iran-Turkey co-production Aylan Kurdi, directed by Batin Ghobadi with elder brother Bahman Ghobadi producing. The team’s Mardan screened at the 2014 Toronto film fest and was Iraq’s official entry to the Oscars’ foreign language category last year.

Busan regular Edwin is returning with his Indonesian project Love And Vengeance and 2009 New Currents Award winner Shawkat Amin Korki (Kick Off) will do so with Iraq-Japan-Germany co-production Stone Land, which follows a family’s struggles in wartime Iraqi Kurdistan.

Hospitalité director Koji Fukada is also returning to Busan as part of omnibus project Youth And Other Stories, based Mori Ogai’s historical short stories about relations between Japan and Europe.

The 21st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) will run Oct 6-15, with the Asian Film Market Oct 8-11 and APM Oct 9 – 11.

Full APM 2016 Project List

(project/country/director/producer)

1. All About Yuyu (Malaysia) Tan Chui Mui / Foo Fei Ling

2. Aylan Kurdi (Iran-Turkey) Batin Ghobadi / Bahman Ghobadi

3. Beautiful Shadows (Indonesia) Nan T. Achnas / Nurman Hakim

4. Blame It On My Youth (Taiwan) Wang Wei-Ming / Yu Wei-yen, Jay Miao

5. The Chrysanthemum And The Guillotine (Japan) Zeze Takahisa / Sakaguchi Kazunao, Takamatsu Miyuki

6. The Cold-Blooded Penguin (Korea) Jang Kunjae / Kim Woori, Kim Hwabeom, Youn Heeyoung

7. Cu Li Never Cries (Vietnam) Pham Ngoc Lan / Phan Dang Di

8. The Emperor (Korea) Min Byung-Hun, Lee Sang-Hun / Kim Suk-Bum

9. The French Woman (Korea) Kim Hee-Jung / Yoo Byungok

10. The Gambler (Hong Kong) Freddie Wong / Freddie Wong

11. The General’s Secret (Thailand) Pimpaka Towira / Donsaron Kovitvanitcha

12. The God Of Karatas Village (Kazakhstan) Adilkhan Yerzhanov / Olga Khlasheva

13. The India Story (India) Suman Ghosh / Suman Ghosh

14. Insect Night (Latvia-Estonia) Laila Pakalnina / Laila Pakalnina, Kaspar Kallas

15. Love And Vengeance (Indonesia) Edwin / Meiske Taurisia, Lorna Tee, Muhammad Zaidy

16. Mountain Eyes (Serbia) Pavle Vuckovic / Tatjana Zezelj Gojkovic

17. Ningdu (Hong Kong-China) Lei Lei / Isabelle Glachant, Liang Ying, Lei Lei

18. Paradise Lost (Korea) Gina Kim / Kim Seonah

19. Parvona (India-Tajikistan) Sharofat Arabova / Pushpendra Singh

20. Project Lee Jung-Seob (Korea) Yim Soonrye / Jason Chae

21. Sayakbay. Homer Of The 20th Century (Kyrgyzstan) Ernest Abdyjaparov / Samatbek Ibraev

22. Silence (Kazakhstan) Yerlan Nurmukhambetov / Julia Kim

23. Starring Ranbir & Hrithik (India) Sanjoy Nag / Sanjoy Nag

24. Stone Land (Iraq-Japan-Germany) Shawkat Amin Korki / Mehmet Aktas, Shohreh Golparian

25. Undefined (Korea) Seo Eunyoung / Park Youngsoo

26. White Building (Cambodia-France) Neang Kavich / Davy Chou, Marine Arrighi De Casanova, Steve Chen

27. Youth And Other Stories (Japan-France) Fukada Koji, Take Masaharu, Matsunaga Daishi, Uchida Eiji / Bryerly Long