Overview

• The 10-day festival opened Sept. 17 at the Busan Cinema Center with Lee Byung-hun hosting and Park Chan-wook’s black comedy ‘No Other Choice’ as the curtain-raiser.
• BIFF launched its first full-fledged competition, the Busan Awards, featuring 14 Asian films across five prizes, with a seven-member jury led by Na Hong-jin and the Best Film set to screen as the closing title.
• The 30th edition presents 241 official selections from 64 countries, including 90 world premieres, and 328 films in total with Community BIFF, running through Sept. 26 when winners will be announced.
• Opening-night honors recognized Jafar Panahi as Asian Filmmaker of the Year, Sylvia Chang with the Camellia Award, and Chung Ji-young with the Korean Cinema Award.
• A high-profile red carpet drew global guests including Blackpink’s Lisa, Guillermo del Toro, Milla Jovovich, Ken Watanabe and Tony Leung Ka-fai, with highlights such as retrospectives for Marco Bellocchio and Juliette Binoche, Carte Blanche picks by Bong Joon-ho and Maggie Kang, and a sing-along screening of Netflix’s ‘KPop Demon Hunters.’