The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has postponed the appointment of a festival director to after this year’s edition in October and has detailed who will handle the upcoming 29th edition.
Pak Dosin, who was previously a senior programmer at the festival, has been appointed co-deputy director alongside Kang Seung-ah. The dual leadership approach will be overseen by recently appointed chairperson Park Kwang-su and Ellen Y. D. Kim, who was named director of the Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) earlier this month.
In a statement issued today, the festival said: “After much deliberation, BIFF has decided to postpone the appointment of the next festival director… This decision aims to allocate resources effectively by reducing the administrative processes and time needed to elect the festival director and enabling undivided attention towards successfully organizing the 29th Busan International Film Festival.”
The statement added that the next festival director will be selected after this year’s event, which runs October 2-11, “allowing ample time to seek the most suitable candidate”.
Pak began his career at BIFF in 2001 and has held positions including head of the programme department, head of the PR department, senior programmer, and head of the Jiseok Film Institute.
Pak will oversee the film selection and planning for this year’s events, while Kang will handle corporate operations and budget management.
The previous edition was handled by interim festival director Nam Dong-chul, a veteran programming director at BIFF who stepped in following the high-profile resignation of Huh Moonyung – the first in a string of top-level departures at the organisation last year. Nam told Screen last year that he had no interest in taking on the role full-time in favour of his role as programming director.
The festival has been working to move on from the turmoil it experienced last year and established the BIFF Executive Recommendation Committee in December 2023 to formulate the new executive committee and elect new board members. However, after the second round of open recruitment, the committee today announced the absence of sufficient candidates and consequently submitted a statement notifying their dissolution.
The committee said: “Although many individuals who have achieved outstanding works in various fields, including the film industry, participated in the first and second rounds of recruitment, given [BIFF’s] aspirations for a new leap and strategic direction, it has been challenging to identify suitable candidates at this time.”
In turn, the committee has stated that it would be more appropriate to reform around the newly elected chairperson and board of directors when selecting the next festival director.
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