Wang Xiaoshuai, Lav Diaz among Busan’s APM selections

“Submissions were up a bit this year – we had 196 and chose 30, so the quality of the selection is very high. We’re seeing a greater diversification of territories as well,” said Nam Dong-Chul, Asian Film Market general manager, speaking to Screendaily.

As usual, APM showcases well-known names such as Wang Xiaoshuai, Yukisada Isao, Lav Diaz, Santosh Sivan, Chang Tso-Chi and Royston Tan, while also highlighting newcomers such as Musa Syeed, whose Valley Of Saints won the Audience Award at Sundance this year and Marat Alykulov, who is a recent Asian Cinema Fund (ACF) winner.

Seven Korean projects are in the line-up, including ones from Yeon Sang-ho whose animation The King Of Pigs was at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight this year; Park Jung-bum, who won a New Currents Award at Busan and a Tiger Award at Rotterdam for The Journals Of Musan; and Min Kyu-dong, whose All About My Wife was a local hit earlier this year.

“Finding a balance between art films and commercial films is always a concern, and we took special care in this selection,” said Nam.

“We’ve also seen previous APM projects completed and bringing in results this year as in other years. I think films like Edwin’s Postcards From The Zoo, Hur Jin-ho’s Dangerous Liaisons and Choi Dong-hoon’s The Thieves show that APM projects bring results at film festivals and the box office,” he said. (Edwin’s film went to Berlin competition; Hur’s to Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, and Choi’s is currently a big hit at the local box office.)

“Even more APM films will likely be completed and screened by the time of the Busan film festival,” he added.

APM will continue with the Ties That Bind Workshop co-organised with the Udine Far East Film Festival and EAVE as well as events such as the Film Fund Talk, Book To Film and Busan Film Commission (BFC) Project Pitching. 

“This year, we are also working with the Korean Film Council on a KOFIC Industry Forum inviting projects and financiers, so expect more participants than before,” said Nam.

Asian Film Market and Asian Project Market will run Oct 8-11, during the Busan film festival, Oct 4-13.

(For the full APM selection list see www.biff.kr)