Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has named Jin Park a World Cinema programmer starting this month. Park will be responsible for films from Central and South America.

Previously executive programmer at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) from 2007 to 2013, Park is also a critic and lecturer at Chung-Ang and Yonsei universities, and was a programmer at the Green Film Festival in Seoul (2005-2006). He is currently working on his Ph.D dissertation in film at Chung-Ang University.

“I’m looking forward to exploring more of the cinema that I was always interested in, but I think my past years at PiFan will help me as well – I’m still interested in genre films and the beautiful friendships that I developed over those years,” said Park, speaking to Screendaily.

With Jay Jeon as director of the Asian Film Market since last year, a spot on the BIFF’s World Cinema programming team was left open. Park joins Rhee Soue-won, who handles films from Europe and Africa, and Dosin Pak, who handles North America and Oceania.

“I think it’s a big change for the festival because it’s been a while since they’ve hired a new person, and it’s a big change for me as well, so I’m very honored and excited,” he added.

Park is set to go to the film festivals in Cartagena, Columbia and Guadalajara, Mexico later this month and then will be in Cannes.

All the other BIFF programmers stay the same - Kim Ji-Seok remains executive programmer, in charge of Asian Cinema; Nam Dong-chul programmes Korean Cinema, and Hong Hyosook programmes Korean Documentaries and is also director of the Asian Cinema Fund.

The 19th BIFF will run Oct 2-11 with the Asian Film Market Oct 5-8, 2014.

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