The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has nominated veteran filmmaker and academic Park Kwang-su as its next chairperson, as it works to move on from a series of high-profile resignations.
Park will replace Lee Yong-kwan, who stepped down last year to take responsibility for a string of departures that included festival director Huh Moonyung and managing director Cho Jongkook less than four months before the 28th edition of the festival in South Korea. Oh Seok Geun, director of the Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), also stepped down.
The appointment of Park will go some way to putting the challenges of 2023 behind the festival, which remains a leading showcase for Korean and Asian cinema.
Park is a film director who was among the Korean New Wave of cinema with titles such in the early 1990s including The Black Republic, Berlin Report and To The Starry Island. His drama A Single Spark played in Competition at the Berlinale in 1996.
He was also a founder of BIFF and a forerunner in the industrialisation of Korean and Asian films, as a prominent figure in the inauguration of the Pusan Promotion Plan – now known as the Asian Project Market – as well as the Asian Contents & Film Market. He was also the founding director of the Busan Film Commission, and professor of the School of Film, TV & Multimedia at the Korea National University of Arts.
In a statement, Busan’s executive recommendation committee said: “The qualifications provided by the committee for the next chairperson include the ability to manage the organisation and its administration, present the future vision and direction of the film festival, willingness to innovate the organisation, political neutrality, and affection for Busan. The committee has concluded that candidate Park Kwang-su possesses such qualifications, and made a unanimous decision for his nomination.”
The final selection is expected to be formalised at a general meeting on February 1.
However, the work continues to appoint a festival director and ACFM director as well as a board of directors and auditors.
An open recruitment process will take place from January 23 to February 13. The term of office will be four years for all positions and can be extended for one additional term. Appointments are expected to be made at a board meeting in March.
The 29th BIFF is set to take place from October 2-11 while the 19th ACFM is dated October 5-8.
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