The fifth Asian Film Market in Pusan, Korea wrapped this week after a four-day run with 108 companies from 26 countries representing a 44% increase in participation.

Thirty-nine films from ten countries were screened.

CJ Entertainment’s senior vice president and head of international sales and distribution Kini Kim said: “Of the past five years, this Pusan yielded the best results. Before, it was more a bridge between TIFFCOM [the Tokyo festival market] and the American Film Market (AFM). This year we’ve signed more deals here. It’s still a good environment to pitch and talk liberally. It would have been better if more Europeans had come, but between Toronto, MIPCOM, Rome and AFM, it seems they found it harder to come here. In some cases, even when they did send someone, it wasn’t the actual decision maker.”

Toei manager of international Tadayuki Okubo said: “It’s been better than last year. I saw more people. It helps a lot to have a film in the festival.”

The new online screening service launched this year had 168 films registered. In addition to 73 festival screenings, over 126 features films were also registered. During the four days of the market, a total of 240 people viewed films that accounted for an aggregate of 1652 screenings. Market participants can still access the screenings until Oct 31.

The Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) announced there were 400 one-on-one meetings with positive feedback from participants.

Sixty-six percent of market participants were from Asia, with the percentage from Hong Kong/China falling from 33% last year to 19% this and the percentage from Korea falling from 19% to 18%. Attendees from Japan represented 7% of the total (the same as last year) and those from other Asian territories 22% (up from 10% last year).

Thirty percent of participants came from Europe (up from 27%) and 4% from North America (up from 3%).

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