South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has unveiled the 30 titles selected for the 2023 Asian Project Market (APM), including new works by Makbul Mubarak, Koji Fukada, Rima Das and Emma Kawawada.
The film financing event, which runs as part of BIFF’s Asian Contents and Film Market, will take place from October 7-10 and comprises projects by directors who have made at least one short or full-length feature as well as producers who have been involved with at least one feature. They will conduct four days of one-on-one meeting and pitching sessions.
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Indonesian filmmaker Mubarak will bring Watch It Burn, produced by Yulia Evina Bhara who was a producer on this year’s Cannes Critics Week winner Tiger Stripes. Mubarak’s debut Autobiography premiered in Venice’s Horizons strand last year, where it scooped a Fipresci prize, and went on to win prizes at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Golden Horse Film Festival and Marrakech among others.
Japan’s Fukada will present Japan-France co-production Nagi Notes, produced by Osanai Terutaro. The well-decorated filmmaker is known for directing features such as Venice competition title Love Life, Cannes 2016 Un Certain Regard jury prize winner Harmonium, and Locarno 2019 competition title A Girl Missing.
Indian filmmaker Das, whose most recent feature Tora’s Husband was the first Indian film ever selected for Toronto’s Platform strand, will bring Malti My Love. Das’ Village Rockstars premiered at Toronto in 2017, going on to win best feature at India’s National Film Awards and becoming the country’s Oscar submission for 2019. She followed it up with 2018’s Bulbul Can Sing, which also premiered at TIFF.
Japan’s Kawawada will present Son & Sun, produced by Yoko Ide. A former assistant director to Hirokazu Kore-eda, Kawawada premiered her debut My Small Land at the Berlinale in 2022 and the feature went on to play Busan later in the year.
Notable producers in the line-up include Singapore’s Jeremy Chua, who recently worked on Vietnamese feature Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, which won director Pham Thien An the Camera d’Or at Cannes in May. Chua is now producing Filipiñana, a Philippines-Singapore-UK co-production that will mark the feature debut of London-based Filipino director Rafael Manuel.
Seven Korean projects include First Step by Yoon Danbi, whose debut Moving On won four prizes at BIFF in 2019 before going on to international festival and awards success.
Organisers said this year saw a large number of submissions from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, with a marked increase in the number of Japanese and Taiwanese projects from previous years.
Asian Project Market 2023 titles
Appetite For Desire (HK-Tai)
Dir. Peter HO
Pros. KAO Chun Ting, HUNG Hsiu Lin, Patrick Mao HUANG
The Botanist In The White House (China)
Dir. JING Yi
Pros. SHAN Zuolong, QI Ai
Chronicles Of A Confession (India)
Dir/Pro. Prateek VATS
Daughters Of The Sea (Phil)
Dir. Martika RAMIREZ ESCOBAR
Pros. Monster JIMENEZ, Rajiv IDNANI
Filipiñana (Phil-Sing-UK)
Dir. Rafael MANUEL
Pro. Jeremy CHUA
First Step (S Kor)
Dir. YOON Danbi
Pro. KIM Gi-hyeon
For The Girls Of The Tribe (Iraq-Turkey)
Dir. Arsalan AMIRI
Pros. Ida PANAHANDEH, Ruth Yoshie LINTON
Friends Of This Life (S Kor)
Dir. KIM Mi-young
Pro. Jenny YANG
Full Moon (China-Japan)
Dir. SONG Fang
Pro. ICHIYAMA Shozo
I’ll Smile In September (India-Sing)
Dir. Aakash CHHABRA
Pros. Sanjay GULATI, Fran BORGIA
The Last Semester (S Kor)
Dir. LEE Ranhee
Pros. SHIN Woonseop
Madness And Honey Days (Iraq-Can)
Dir. Ahmed Yassin AL DARADJI
Pros. Maytham JBARA
Malti My Love (India)
Dir/Pro. Rima DAS
Morning Star (S Kor)
Dir. KANG Yi Kwan
Pro. PARK Jooyoung
Mr. Tiger (Tai)
Dir. HSU Chao-Jen
Pros. Stefano CENTINI, CHANG Chuti, CHOI Kwang-suk
Mr. Van (Viet-Ger)
Dir. Kim Quy BUI
Pros. NGUYEN Mai, NGUYEN Hong Quan
Nagi Notes (Japan-Fr)
Dir. Koji FUKADA
Pros. Terutaro OSANAI
Pay The Bill (Kazak)
Dir. Assel AUSHAKIMOVA
Pros. Assel YERZHANOVA, Assel AUSHAKIMOVA
The Road To Elysium (S Kor)
Dir. LIM Sun-ae
Pro. KANG Jiyoun
Snake & Scorpion (S Kor)
Dir. LEE Dongwoo
Pro. CHO Young Kag
Sol (Japan-Fr)
Dir. Kohki HASEI
Pros. Eisuke ISHIGE, Atsuko OHNO
Son & Sun (Japan)
Dir. Emma KAWAWADA
Pros. Yoko IDE
Southern Summer (China-Malay)
Dir. LAN Tian
Pros. TENG Lee Yein, HUO Chuxin, YU Ru
Suraiya (Bang)
Dir. Robiul Alam ROBI
Pros. Fazle Hasan SHISHIR, Shibabrata BARMAN
Tarkam (Indo)
Dir. Teddy SOERIAATMADJA
Pro. Eric PRIMASETIO
To Kill A Mongolian Horse (China)
Dir. JIANG Xiaoxuan
Pros. TAN Chui Mui, MO Zhulin
Watch It Burn (Indo)
Dir. Makbul MUBARAK
Pro. Yulia Evina BHARA
What’s Love Got To Do With It? (Japan)
Dir. Nanako HIROSE
Pros. Eiji KITAHARA, Daiju KOIDE
Where The Rivers Run South (Nepal)
Dir. Suraj PAUDEL
Pros. Anup POUDEL, Abinash Bikram SHAH
The Women Who Brush Their Teeth Outside (S Kor)
Dir. SHIN Sun
Pros. KIM Soon-mo
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