Restoration of Daily Life and the Return of BIFAN
Our life is coming back. In the past two years, the Korean film industry and theaters have suffered immensely due to the pandemic, and the crisis is still ongoing. However, Korean films have made remarkable achievements overseas. The Cannes Film Festival honored the Korean Films once again, and the whole world went crazy for the K series, including Squid Game. What do we call films? Is Squid Game something utterly out of the scope of films? The language of cinema, the form of the medium, and how the audience receives them have changed, and the changes are irreversible. The audience and filmmakers should celebrate together the achievements of Korean films and K contents, which were rooted in the nourishment of Korean cinema. I hope that BIFAN will serve as a place for the recovery of the exhausted and weary community and audience, all gathered to console each other for the tough time we had over the last two years.

Bringing Festive Fever Back: Halloween in July
Halloween is a party for the youth that allows them to express their individuality and freedom. Halloween in July started from the authentic imagination of BIFAN, dreaming of enjoying Halloween in midsummer, and the Festival will bring a fantastic feast ready to blast. Halloween in July is BIFAN's gift to the community and visitors who finally came to the plaza for freedom. It offers a variety of programs for a perfect midsummer party, such as wearing costumes, parades, dancing nights, water gun fights, junk art gardens, and mission games, completed with the voluntary participation of the public. The party will serve as the place where the visitors and local stores will enjoy the coexistence, providing various entertainment with accommodations tailored to the concept of events related to nearby stores. Halloween in July is tailored to meet BIFAN's identity, combining different elements and creating new colors with ingenious imaginati

New Programs, New Festival
While keeping the signature competition programs, Bucheon Choice and Korean Fantastic, BIFAN revamped all the other sections. Mad MaxX will introduce the film masters' new works. The other sections, Adrenaline Ride, Metal Noir, Merry-Go-Round, Odd Family, XL, and more, are packed with captivating films with section titles that the audience can find their favorite films. BIFAN also brings various special exhibitions, THE ACTOR, SEOL KYUNG GU, featuring the actor of our time, It Goes On: 39+1, KAFA, a pre-event for the 40th anniversary of the Korean Film Academy in 2023, and Boys, Be, Love, a special exhibition with BL(Boys’ Love) films. The children's jury will resume with the new name, The Jury of Strange Children Jury, in the Odd Family section. As a hybrid festival, BIFAN will present the online Screenings at wavve(www.wavve.com) as it did last year, with more numbers of on-site theaters.

B.I.G Offering Offline and Online Industry Programs
B.I.G went online with metaverse and other online business platforms for the past two years due to the pandemic. This year, B.I.G comes back with offline events, forums, and face-to-face business meetings, and it also continues to offer online platforms, including Bucheon Fantastic Castle Gather-town in metaverse, for those who can't attend offline events. B.I.G provides a new communication process, P&I (press and industry) screening, so that people can view the film festival projects and the portfolio of participants. Director Brian Yuzna will be the dean of the Fantastic Film School with the master class.

Goedam Campus Season 3
Goedam Campus has made remarkable achievements over the past two years. Following the Goedam Collection with online Goedam(±«´ã, ÎÖÓÈ) from all over the world and Goedam Shorts with Korean Goedam, the 2022 Goedam Archive collects ghost stories from the number of the UNESCO Creative City of Literature that has signed an agreement with Bucheon City. The International Goedam Collection will be published and distributed to industry officials and the Creative City of Literature worldwide as booklets and e-books in both Korean and English. The Goedam Short Films Production Support led the projects to major local and international film festivals, and Ghost Friend has an opportunity to be released in theaters. Goedam Planning & Development Camp participants made outstanding achievements in completing projects or signing contracts with production companies. Season 3 of finding new talents has already begun with the Goedam Campus programs, and the creators will be introduced at the Goedam Campus launching ceremony during the Festival.

Beyond Reality
During the pandemic, Beyond Reality greeted audiences at Incheon International Airport, but it prepared for its 7th journey this year at the Bucheon Manhwa Museum and the Culture Hall of the Hyundai Department Jungdong Store. BIFAN explored the potential of the metaverse Festival through the virtual platform exhibition XR3 in collaboration with the Cannes Film Festival and New Image Film Festival last year. This year, BIFAN focuses on presenting works with various media. The selection expands both in forms and contents, blending with media art, theater performances, games, and YouTube, are to meet the audience. Please observe how the possibilities of cinematic storytelling have evolved instead of examining how far they are away from films. This year's Beyond Reality presents how film history could advance by collaborating with adjoining art fields.

Leaving the pandemic behind, 2022 BIFAN is back on track with a face-to-face festival. BIFAN proudly presents our new poster, a four-part series of an ice sculpture film projector revealing what's hidden inside as it melts. There is something strange inside the large ice sculpture of a film projector. The film projector melts and disappears, but the fantastic cell that was inside and beating like a heart is still alive. Means and formats change all the time, but the essence of storytelling remains the same. People tend to focus on the materials and formats that melt away, and it's time to look at the things that have been hidden and forgotten.

Even before the pandemic with COVID-19, the global film industry was already experiencing a pandemic, the innovation of digital technology. In the strange situation of facing significant technological and social changes, the film has to evolve instead of simply adapting to the changes. The film must be re-defined and re-categorized to respond to the unprecedented changes.
 
· Art direction and poster design | CHOI Jeewoong, PARK Dongwoo, LEE Donghyoung (PROPAGANDA)
· Character design | SONG Cheolun
· Ice Sculpture and Character Creation | All of Them
· Photo team | LEE Seunghee, JOO Yena (LEE Seunghee Studio)