Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival Starts on July 4th

The 28th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) will be held from July 4 to 14 in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province.

The festival is Asia’s largest genre film festival that has been spearheading the discovery of the most innovative films. It is considered one of the three major film festivals in Korea along with the Busan International Film Festival and the Jeonju International Film Festival.

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Starting this year, the festival invited 15 films by launching “Buchon Choice: AI Films,” an international competition solely for films produced by Generative AI. All of them are short films with a running time of less than 10 minutes. Director Kwon Min-seul’s “One More Pumpkin,” which recently won the grand prize and the grand prize at the first Dubai AI Film Festival, Director Dave Clark’s “Another,” Director Grukan Atakan’s “Be an Elephant” and Director Hiroki Yamaguchi’s “The Cycle of Development” will meet Korean audiences.

Various AI-related events such as AI film making workshops and international conferences will be held as well as AI movie screenings. Reportedly, more than 600 creators have been attracted to the 30-member workshop. “AI will become a revolutionary tool for new directors to show off their talents and meet with the world with minimal production cost,” said Shin Cheol, chairman of the executive committee. “I am confident that if I have an idea, I will be able to create a work that was only possible with huge capital.”

The opening film of the festival is “Love Rise Bleeding” directed by Rose Glass. It is about a woman named Lu (Christine Stewart), who is living with her father’s violence, falls in love with a female bodybuilder named Jackie (Katie O’Brien) who appears at a gym and becomes involved in a crime. Earlier, Glass won the Best Picture Award in the 24th BIFAN International Competition category with his debut film “St. Mode” in 2019. The closing film is “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” directed by Jeong Baolui. In the 1980s, during the chaos of Hong Kong, he depicted a chase game against the backdrop of “Kowloon Walled City” a slum on the Kowloon Peninsula

Eight films were selected for the Bucheon Choice: Feature, an international feature film competition. Directed by Liao Ming, “Suffoating Love” is a story of a man who chose to transfer to a relationship without enduring his obsessive-compulsive lover. Like Liao’s 2020 debut “WeirDo,” the movie was shot only with an iPhone. Thea Hibistendhal’s “Handling the Underhead” depicts a dead family turning into zombies. Damien McCarthy’s “Odity” is a horror film about a supernatural phenomenon involving the death of his sister.

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Eleven films were selected in the Korean Fantastic category, the competition section for Korean feature films. Director Yoon Eun-kyung’s “The Tenants” is a story of setting up a monthly rent in a bathroom in order to avoid being kicked out of a monthly rent in Seoul in the near future. Director Lee Yoon-seok’s “You will die in 6hours” is based on a Japanese novel, which depicts a journey away from the prophecy of death. Director Jeong Jae-hoon’s “Espers Light” is a film about adventures in a fantasy world created by teenagers gathered in online communities.

The main character of the special actor exhibition is Son Ye-jin. It looks at the world of Son Ye-jin, Korea’s representative female actor,’s 23-year-old work. <The Classic> <My A Moment to Remember>
Six films will be screened, including > <My Wife Got Married>. In addition to the publication of commemorative brochures and photo exhibitions, “Mega Talk” has been prepared to meet Son Ye-jin in person.

Director Du Ki-bong and Director Mitani Koki, who are among the masters in Hong Kong’s noir and Japanese comedy film genres, will hold a Master Class in Korea. Director Du Ki-bong’s <Throw Down> and Director Mitani Koki’s <Once in a Blue Moon> will be screened in 4K quality. <12.12: The Day
There is also “Night of Living Fans” where they watch and have a conversation with director Kim Sung-soo’s <Deadend> <City Of The Rising Sun> <The Warriors> which became ’10 Million Director’ with >. Director Roger Corman’s memorial exhibition, which was called the ‘Godfather of B-class movies in the United States’, will feature screenings of major works such as <The Little Shop of Horrors> and lectures by critics

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The festival will showcase 255 films from 49 countries at Bucheon City Hall, Korea Cartoon Museum, CGV Picnic, and Bucheon Art B39. The opening ceremony will be held at Bucheon Art Center, which opened last year and has become a landmark of Bucheon City. The Bucheon City Symphony Orchestra has prepared the eve of the “Movie Music Concert.” Reservations for the opening and closing ceremonies will be available from July 25 and general screenings from July27.