A Film Festival Remembered for Its Films, A New Leap Forward
A Film Festival Remembered for its Films
Last year as the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary, a decision was made to reorganize the program sections. The diverse spectrum of the festival's genre films were classified into 'Blue' and 'Red' to help audiences intuitively choose films that suited their tastes. The goal was to organize the programming in a way that made it wide-ranging and colorful, in order to encompass all of the diverse audiences that come to the festival; from the Family Zone's children and families, to the genre fanatics who might prefer more extreme selections from the Forbidden Zone that explore taboo themes. In staying true to the festival's focus on quality programming, a new programmer that is exclusively responsible for Korean films at the festival has been appointed. The Korean film section has been divided into a competitive and a non-competitive section in order to raise the quantity and quality of Korean films. Two special programs for Korean films have also been prepared for this year. To increase the diversity of the film festival, a new Asian programmer has been recruited this year who is not only knowledgeable about Asian films, but who can also offer comprehensive insight into popular culture as a whole. A total of 289 movies from 58 countries will be awaiting audiences at the 21st Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival this year.

Special Programs that Reflect BIFAN's Distinct Colors
This year's 21st edition of BIFAN will be showcasing a number of special programs. As a special program for Korean cinema, audiences can look forward to 'Contact, JEON Do-yeon,' - a program honoring actress JEON Do-yeon as she enters into her 20th year as a film actress. 'HONG Ki-seon: The Cinema beyond Grand Apparition and Policy' will feature films by director HONG Ki-seon, who was a vanguard for Korean independent films that held fast to his criticism of society for over 30 years. ‘Álex DE LA IGLESIA: El Maestro Cineasta Fantastico' will delve into the world of Spanish director Álex DE LA IGLESIA's films. Everything will be shown from his early incisive works to his most recent films made after he had become a master of mainstream movies. This is a special program that fans of genre films in particular can look forward to. For the special program ‘Terrible Women: Monsters and Villainess’, female characters who punish and enact revenge on male authority figures and the monstrous females who are to fear in horror films, have been summoned. We expect that the program will offer new insight and culturally rich examples that can amp up cultural conversations surrounding the topic of feminism.

A Midsummer Fantasia that Lives and Breathes with Audiences and the Public
A Space Design That Helps You Escape from Everyday Life
By using the street that starts from Bucheon City Hall Station on line seven and stretches past Bucheon City Hall to CGV Bucheon (main screening theater) as the main venue, and smoothly connecting the area to a secondary area around the Bucheon Station plaza and CGV Bucheon Station by shuttle bus, festival attendees will be able to comfortably enjoy 'A Midsummer Fantasia'. The street from subway line seven's Bucheon City Hall Station to CGV Bucheon will be made into BIFAN Street and will be designed to feel like a festival space that allows visitors to escape from their everyday lives, while the Bucheon Station plaza will feature live concerts and additional events. By having a live broadcast of the opening ceremony along with pre-opening ceremony events, a two-way interaction with the audience will be created.

An Opening/Closing Ceremony for the Public and a Theater in the Original City Center
As was done last year, the opening ceremony will be held at Bucheon City Hall's Lawn Square, which will infuse Bucheon City's landmarks with the festival atmosphere of the opening ceremony. The Songnae Solan Art Hall was chosen to be the family exclusive theater where Family Zone selections, as well as feature films and short films made for general audiences, will be shown. The purpose of assigning a family friendly theater was to create a space where Bucheon's citizens could comfortably enjoy the festival along with their families. While the film festival's main films will be screened at Ojeong Art Hall and Sosa-gu Office Sohyanggwan, the two main theaters will also be used to show a live broadcast of the closing ceremony as it happens at Bucheon City Hall's Main Theater.

The Development of a New Tradition
Through the rebranding of BIFAN's logo and signature for the 20th edition, the visual identity of the film festival was strengthened. The 'Cell of Fantasy' - which was a youthful recreation of the existing symbol - was turned into a more approachable 3D character, and it has been applied to a variety of design components. This year, the festival's Korean and English signatures and the festival color will be developed further to strengthen the originality and sophistication of the festival's visual image. It's expected that these changes will also help in portraying the festival to be more attractive and engaging to the public. In addition, by connecting the Joongdong and Sangdong Markets near Bucheon City Hall and Bucheon CGV with the Freedom Market near CGV Bucheon Station, and by doing joint publicity and promotions for the locations, audiences will get a closer look at unique places in the Bucheon region.

The Stability of B.I.G
BIFAN Industry Gathering (B.I.G) is now in its second year after being launched as a combination of BIFAN's existing NAFF program and a number of new industry programs. It has become much more stabilized, and is pushing ahead with plans for further expansion. NAFF, which consists of It Project and Fantastic Film School, is currently in its 10th year and is planning to continue discovering new talents within the world of Asian genre films. The programs that were introduced for the first time last year including Korea Now, Made in Asia, and New Media are pursuing expansion and growth in 2017.

Korea Now: Looking Ahead to a New Generation and a New Industry Model
Korea Now was launched in 2016, and is a program that was born out of the solidarity between BIFAN and various functional organizations within the Korean film industry. With the new generation and changes that have arrived in conjunction with the establishment of the new government administration, Korea Now seeks to find potential for changes in the domestic film industry. As the industry attempts to recover from the damages incurred by the previous administration's artist blacklist and leap ahead to new beginnings, programs that provide an opportunity to have important discussions about the future - like Korea Now's 'Korean Film Policy Roundtable' - will play an important role.

Other programs that will be featured under Korea Now include: BIFAN Scenario Showcase, which aims to discover new stories; Case Study: Asian Co-production, a forum that looks to create alternative networks through the productive exchange between Asian film professionals; and Fantastic Marketing Funding, which hopes to change the film industry's structure that heavily favors large corporations by helping to gather funds for the release of Korean films through crowdfunding.

Made in Asia: Capturing the Dominant Trends in Asia's Film Industry
Introduced for the first time last year, Made in Asia is a unique program in that it showcases the biggest hit films from different Asian countries under its 'Best of Asia' program, while also examining industrial trends in Asia and providing networking opportunities for Asian producers. If the purpose of a genre film festival is to 'discover' the newest styles in filmmaking and the up-and-coming masters of genre films, Best of Asia's purpose is to show the current mainstream trends that have been selected by the audiences and movie markets of different countries. Not only does Made in Asia offer a chance for audiences to see the newest hit films from the Asian film industry, but it also acts as a stepping stone for the establishment of a network for Asia's leading producers.

New Media
VR (Virtual Reality) is a hot topic of conversation currently in the film world. The Venice Film Festival has become the first major festival to introduce a VR competition section, and the Cannes Film Festival officially screened Alejandro González IÑÁRRITU's VR film Carne y Arena this year. Through B.I.G's New Media program last year, BIFAN became the first event in the country to present an Immersive Fulldome that was 12 meters in diameter. This year, the New Media program is planning to show the newest VR films from Korea and overseas countries. In order to contemplate the industrial significance of VR technology, a variety of VR contents that can be experienced first-hand will also be introduced. There will also be a program that screens new short films created by famous Korean directors that will be formatted for ScreenX technology.