Tentatively titled the Asia Joint Production Film Fund, the fund will invest in co-productions with a focus on Korea, China and Japan.
ACTI will start fund-raising activities next March and envisages that $8m (10bn won) will come from Korean investors, while $16m (20bn won) will come from overseas. Korean investors are likely to include the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), Korea Development Bank (KDB) and the Busan Metropolitan City.
Joint ACTI CEO Yoo In-taek, a producer whose credits include mega-hit May 18, said the initiative marks the first attempt in Korean to launch a pan-Asian fund.
The firmhas already identified some Asian filmmakers which it wants to work with such as Hong Kong director Pang Ho-cheung. Yoo saidhe would also work with the Pusan International Film Festival to source projects and filmmakers from outside Korea.
'The Korean film industry can't survive on its own,' said Yoo, speaking at Pusan 's Asian Film Funds Forum on Saturday (Oct 4). 'Asian markets need to come together to form a coalition and improve their competitiveness.'
ACTI already has four funds focused on cultural industries with combined value of $32m (39bn won) and aims to have funds worth $243m (300bn won) by the end of 2012.
In June this year, ACTI announced that it had raised a $15m fund for films, TV drama series, performing arts, animation and games. Busan Metropolitan City invested $2m in the fund, while Busan Bank put in $1m. Other investors included Korea Venture Investment Corp, Yedang Entertainment, Showbox Mediaplex and ACTI parent company M&FC.
At the time, Busan City Council said it expected the fund to help Busan reach its goal of becoming the media hub of Asia, bringing in location shoots and post-production work.
ACTI also launched a $4m Korean film development fund in March with backers including KOFIC, KDB, CJ Entertainment, ACTI and iHQ.
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