Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has revealed 30 titles chosen for the 2024 Asian Project Market (APM), including upcoming features by award-winners Kirsten Tan, Iqbal H. Chowdhury, Woo Ming Jin and Daishi Matsunaga.
The investment and co-production market, which runs as part of BIFF’s Asian Contents and Film Market (ACFM), is set to take place from October 5-8 in Busan, South Korea.
Scroll down for full list of titles
This year’s APM selection features an expanded variety of genres, including crime thrillers, horror, queer cinema, and animated films, alongside the more traditional selections of drama, comedy and romance. Organisers said this selection “underscores APM’s commitment to promoting diverse storytelling and creative freedom across Asia”.
The titles include Dhakar Nagin from Toronto-based Bangladeshi filmmaker Iqbal H. Chowdhury, whose drama The Wrestler won the top New Currents Award at BIFF last year.
Also returning is Indonesia’s Wregas Bhanuteja with Levitating, after his tech-thriller Photocopier screened in BIFF’s New Currents section in 2021. Sotoyama Bunji will also return to Busan with Life Redo List after screening Soirée at BIFF in 2020.
Further notable filmmakers include Singapore’s Kirsten Tan with Crocodile Rock, produced by Momo Film’s Tan Si En. Tan is known for 2017’s Pop Aye, which won a screenwriting award at Sundance, the Big Screen award at Rotterdam and the Golden Eye for best international feature at Zurich.
Malaysia’s Woo Ming Jin, whose Stone Turtle won the Fipresci prize at Locarno in 2022, will bring US-Malaysia co-production The Camford Experiment; and Japan’s Daishi Matsunaga, whose LGBTQ+ romance drama Egoist played in competition at Tokyo in 2022 and landed distribution in the US and territories across Asia, returns with Until That Day (working title).
This year’s selection also includes Nothing Happened, the debut fiction feature of Hong Kong’s Chan Tze-woon, whose documentary Blue Island screened at a raft of festivals in 2022 including BIFF; Hum, directed by Filipino filmmaker Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan, who often focuses on indigenous and post-colonial narratives; and four projects from India comprising 7 To 7, Mangal – The Holy Beast, The Murder Of Crows and The Testimony.
Seven projects from Korean directors range from action noir and fantasy to black comedy and road movie. The selected projects are: A Way to Étretat by Shin Suwon, Door-Frame by Jeong Beom, The Birds by Sohn Hyun-lok, Hellfire Club by Shin Aga, Ulaanbaatar by Kang Donghun, Strange Marriage by Jung Wonhee, and DO BYE Nursing Hospital by Oh Seyeon.
Now in its 27th year, organisers said a record 441 submissions were received from 44 regions. The 30 selected titles span 17 regions.
Asian Project Market 2024 titles
7 To 7 (India-Ghana)
Dir. Nemil SHAH
Pros. Nemil SHAH, Rajesh SHAH
90 Meters (Japan)
Dir. Shun NAKAGAWA
Pros. Tamako TSUJIMOTO, Yasushi UTAGAWA
Another Green World (China)
Dir. WANG Kejing
Pros. XU Jiahan, LIU Wenli, HUANG Yue
The Birds (S Kor)
Dir. SOHN Hyun-lok
Pro. JO Su-jin
Burden to Carry (Japan)
Dir. Tadashi NOHARA
Pro. Satoshi TAKATA
The Camford Experiment (US-Malay)
Dir. WOO Ming Jin
Pros. WOO Ming Jin, Gerry KIM, Alvaro VALENTE
The Chameleon Woman (Thai-Viet)
Dir. Tanaseth TULYATHAN
Pros. Chartchai KETNUST, PHAM Gia Quy
Crocodile Rock (Sing-US)
Dir. Kirsten TAN
Pro. TAN Si En
Dhakar Nagin (Ban)
Dir. Iqbal H. CHOWDHURY
Pros. Iqbal H. CHOWDHURY, Tuhin TAMIJUL
DO BYE Nursing Hospital (S Kor)
Dir. OH Seyeon
Pro. LEE Jinsook
Door-Frame (S Kor)
Dir. JEONG Beom
Pro. JEONG Joeun
Hellfire Club (S Kor)
Dir. SHIN Aga
Pro. PARK Doohee
Hum (Phil-US)
Dir. Don Josephus Raphael EBLAHAN
Pros. Hannah SCHIERBEEK, Alemberg ANG
Kingdom Of The Insomniacs (China)
Dir. KANG Bo
Pros. XIE Meng
Leg (Kaz-It-Ger-Fr)
Dir. Shokir KHOLIKOV
Pros. Aigerim SATYBALDY, Paolo Maria SPINA, Silvana SANTAMARIA, Johann CHAPELAN
Levitating (Indo-Sing)
Dir. Wregas BHANUTEJA
Pros. Siera TAMIHARDJA, TAN Si En
Life Redo List (Japan)
Dir. Bunji SOTOYAMA
Pro. Yoko IDE
Making A Sea (Myan-Thai)
Dir. Lin Htet AUNG
Pro. Mai MEKSAWAN
Mangal - The Holy Beast (India-UK)
Dir. Triparna MAITI
Pros. Pooja CHAUHAN
Moments (Switz-Kur)
Dir/Pro. Mano KHALIL
The Murder Of Crows (India)
Dirs. Rinchin, Maheen MIRZA
Pros. Maheen MIRZA, Anjali PANJABI, Rinchin, Maheen MIRZA
Nothing Happened (HK-China-Tai)
Dir. CHAN Tze-woon
Pros. CHAN Tze-woon, LUNG Kwok-yiu, Candy WONG
Rabbit Hole (Sri)
Dir. Ilango RAM
Pro. Hiranya PERERA
The Sickness of Yerevan (Arm)
Dir. Ovsanna GEVORGYAN
Pros. Vardan HAKOBYAN, Ovsanna GEVORGYAN
The Testimony (India-US)
Dir. Bikas Ranjan MISHRA
Pros. Shiladitya BORA, Madhu SHARMA, Kunal KUMAR, Anshuman SINGH
Strange Marriage (S Kor)
Dir. JUNG Wonhee
Pro. Jéro YUN
Ulaanbaatar (S Kor)
Dir. KANG Donghun
Pro. JUNG Youn
Until That Day (w/t) (Japan-Tai)
Dir. Daishi MATSUNAGA
Pros. Shinji OGAWA, Asako NISHIKAWA, Sanling CHANG
A Way To Étretat (S Kor-Fr-US)
Dir. SHIN Suwon
Pro. Francis C.K. LIM
Where The Mountain Women Sing (Mong-Tai-Ger-Den)
Dir. ZHANG Juefang
Pros. Patrick Mao HUANG, Kathleen I-Ying LEE
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