B.I.G

NAFF Project Market 2023

B.I.G

About

NAFF is attended by prominent film figures as judges. The NAFF judges conduct individual project meetings with the supervisor and promoter of the NAFF project selection. The project is reviewed, and excellent projects are selected to award the Cash Award and the Post-production Support Award.

Project Market Juries

	Alexandre O. PHILIPPE USA Exhibit A Pictures. / Creative Director Alexandre O. Philippe holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and is Creative Director at Exhibit A Pictures. In 2022, Lynch/Oz, a documentary exploring the relationship between the work of director David Lynch and the film The Wizard of Oz (1939), screened at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. He recently completed the feature-length documentary You Can Call Me Bill, which recently premiered at SXSW, and will screen in the Merry-Go-Round section at BIFAN 2023. Most of his films take on the role of unpacking the most influential works of master filmmakers, and dissecting seminal screen moments. Past works include Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist (2019 Venice Film Festival, 2020 Sundance Film Festival), Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019 Sundance Film Festival), 78/52 (2017 Sundance Film Festival), Doc of the Dead (2014 SXSW), and The People vs. George Lucas (2010 SXSW).

Alexandre O. PHILIPPE

USA Exhibit A Pictures. / Creative Director

Alexandre O. Philippe holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and is Creative Director at Exhibit A Pictures. In 2022, Lynch/Oz, a documentary exploring the relationship between the work of director David Lynch and the film The Wizard of Oz (1939), screened at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. He recently completed the feature-length documentary You Can Call Me Bill, which recently premiered at SXSW, and will screen in the Merry-Go-Round section at BIFAN 2023. Most of his films take on the role of unpacking the most influential works of master filmmakers, and dissecting seminal screen moments. Past works include Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist (2019 Venice Film Festival, 2020 Sundance Film Festival), Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019 Sundance Film Festival), 78/52 (2017 Sundance Film Festival), Doc of the Dead (2014 SXSW), and The People vs. George Lucas (2010 SXSW).

	Bianca BALBUENA The Philippines \| Kroma Entertainment’s Anima Studios / Managing Director Bianca Balbuena is the Managing Director of Kroma Entertainment’s Anima Studios (formerly Globe Studios), which has produced Sundance Film Festival-Toronto Film Festival winning Leonor Will Never Die, Emmy-nominated and Philippines’ Oscar entry On The Job Missing 8, Locarno Film Festival title Whether The Weather Is Fine and Berlin Film Festival title Season of the Devil; and the former CEO of Epicmedia Productions Inc. which has produced over 30 features, shorts and series most notably Venice Film Festival Lion of the Future Engkwentro, Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery, Cannes Film Festival Critics Week’s The Manila Lover, and local top grossers That Thing Called Tadhana, Patay Na Si Hesus and Fan Girl, all on Netflix. She is the recipient of the Asian Film Commissions Network’s Producer of the Year, the Film Development Council of the Philippines’ highest honor: the Camera Obscura Award, and the youngest awardee of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) FIAPF Award for her outstanding contribution to cinema. She has served as jury of film festivals such as Sydney Film Festival, Fribourg Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Seashorts Film Festival, Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival and Durban Film Festival. She is the European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE) Ambassador for Asia and has mentored at Locarno Film Festival Open Doors, Talents Tokyo and Berlin Film Festival Talents Short Form Station. She has a casting director credit for Cannes Film Festival Palm D’Or Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Ostlund. While co-producing Southeast Asian titles like Truong Minh Quy’s Viet and Nam, (Vietnam), Tan Chui Mui’s Barbarian Invasion (Malaysia), Mouly Surya’s This City Is A Battlefield (Indonesia) and Pham Ngoc Lan’s Cu Li Never Cries (Vietnam), she’s actively doing series content for local and international streaming sites such as Cignal, iWantTFC, HBO, Amazon Studios. She just released Lav Diaz’s ARTE-supported When The Waves Are Gone which garnered a five-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, Lorcan Finnegan’s Screen-Ireland-supported Nocebo starring Eva Green and Mark Strong which is distributed by Universal Pictures and RLJ Entertainment, and Sundance Film Festival Midnight title In My Mother’s Skin, acquired by Amazon Studios for Prime Video.

Bianca BALBUENA

The Philippines | Kroma Entertainment’s Anima Studios / Managing Director

Bianca Balbuena is the Managing Director of Kroma Entertainment’s Anima Studios (formerly Globe Studios), which has produced Sundance Film Festival-Toronto Film Festival winning Leonor Will Never Die, Emmy-nominated and Philippines’ Oscar entry On The Job Missing 8, Locarno Film Festival title Whether The Weather Is Fine and Berlin Film Festival title Season of the Devil; and the former CEO of Epicmedia Productions Inc. which has produced over 30 features, shorts and series most notably Venice Film Festival Lion of the Future Engkwentro, Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery, Cannes Film Festival Critics Week’s The Manila Lover, and local top grossers That Thing Called Tadhana, Patay Na Si Hesus and Fan Girl, all on Netflix.

She is the recipient of the Asian Film Commissions Network’s Producer of the Year, the Film Development Council of the Philippines’ highest honor: the Camera Obscura Award, and the youngest awardee of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) FIAPF Award for her outstanding contribution to cinema. She has served as jury of film festivals such as Sydney Film Festival, Fribourg Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Seashorts Film Festival, Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival and Durban Film Festival. She is the European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE) Ambassador for Asia and has mentored at Locarno Film Festival Open Doors, Talents Tokyo and Berlin Film Festival Talents Short Form Station. She has a casting director credit for Cannes Film Festival Palm D’Or Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Ostlund.

While co-producing Southeast Asian titles like Truong Minh Quy’s Viet and Nam, (Vietnam), Tan Chui Mui’s Barbarian Invasion (Malaysia), Mouly Surya’s This City Is A Battlefield (Indonesia) and Pham Ngoc Lan’s Cu Li Never Cries (Vietnam), she’s actively doing series content for local and international streaming sites such as Cignal, iWantTFC, HBO, Amazon Studios.

She just released Lav Diaz’s ARTE-supported When The Waves Are Gone which garnered a five-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, Lorcan Finnegan’s Screen-Ireland-supported Nocebo starring Eva Green and Mark Strong which is distributed by Universal Pictures and RLJ Entertainment, and Sundance Film Festival Midnight title In My Mother’s Skin, acquired by Amazon Studios for Prime Video.

	Samuel Yeunju HA Korea Bound Entertainment / CEO Samuel Yeunju Ha is a veteran entertainment executive and producer who has over 15 years of experience working on many Korean, pan-Asian and US co-productions ranging from film to animations and games. He worked as an executive fund manager at Union Investment Partners, Korea’s largest private investor in film and entertainment. He managed a $120 million content investment fund that invested into over 60 companies and content-related projects that encompassed Korean films, TV shows, games and animations, as well as international film and animation co-productions with the USA, China, and Japan. Some of his executive producer credits include Director Bong Joon-ho’s Okja and Snowpiercer, Lee Min-ho’s first Chinese co-production Bounty Hunters for China’s LeTV, Director Kim Jee-Woon’s Illang: The Wolf Brigade with Warner Bros., Director Yoon Sung-Hyun’s Time To Hunt for Netflix And on US co-productions such as Equals (Kristen Stewart, Nicholas Hoult), A Walk in the Woods (Robert Redford, Nick Nolte), Free State Of Jones (Matthew Mcconaughey) and Colossal (Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis). Before working At Union Investment Partners, Samuel Yeunju Ha served as Senior Vice President of Film Production & Investment at the film studio, DCG Plus, where he managed packaging and finance deals on over 15 films that were picked up by major distributors in Korea. Some of his producer credits include Scandal Makers, My Girlfriend Is an Agent and War of Arrows. Samuel Yeunju Ha is currently the founder and CEO of Bound Entertainment, which was established in the beginning of 2019. Based in Seoul and Los Angeles, Bound specializes in television, film, and digital media and is dedicated to developing and producing a slate of diverse stories that can reach global audiences for all platforms with a focus on talent, resources, and stories from and about the Asian diaspora. Bound Entertainment produced Apple TV+’s first Korean language original series, Dr. Brain, written and directed by Kim Jee-woon ( The Age of Shadows, I Saw the Devil), Starring Lee Sun-Kyun Of Parasite.

Samuel Yeunju HA

Korea Bound Entertainment / CEO

Samuel Yeunju Ha is a veteran entertainment executive and producer who has over 15 years of experience working on many Korean, pan-Asian and US co-productions ranging from film to animations and games.

He worked as an executive fund manager at Union Investment Partners, Korea’s largest private investor in film and entertainment. He managed a $120 million content investment fund that invested into over 60 companies and content-related projects that encompassed Korean films, TV shows, games and animations, as well as international film and animation co-productions with the USA, China, and Japan. Some of his executive producer credits include Director Bong Joon-ho’s Okja and Snowpiercer, Lee Min-ho’s first Chinese co-production Bounty Hunters for China’s LeTV, Director Kim Jee-Woon’s Illang: The Wolf Brigade with Warner Bros., Director Yoon Sung-Hyun’s Time To Hunt for Netflix And on US co-productions such as Equals (Kristen Stewart, Nicholas Hoult), A Walk in the Woods (Robert Redford, Nick Nolte), Free State Of Jones (Matthew Mcconaughey) and Colossal (Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis).

Before working At Union Investment Partners, Samuel Yeunju Ha served as Senior Vice President of Film Production & Investment at the film studio, DCG Plus, where he managed packaging and finance deals on over 15 films that were picked up by major distributors in Korea. Some of his producer credits include Scandal Makers, My Girlfriend Is an Agent and War of Arrows.

Samuel Yeunju Ha is currently the founder and CEO of Bound Entertainment, which was established in the beginning of 2019. Based in Seoul and Los Angeles, Bound specializes in television, film, and digital media and is dedicated to developing and producing a slate of diverse stories that can reach global audiences for all platforms with a focus on talent, resources, and stories from and about the Asian diaspora. Bound Entertainment produced Apple TV+’s first Korean language original series, Dr. Brain, written and directed by Kim Jee-woon ( The Age of Shadows, I Saw the Devil), Starring Lee Sun-Kyun Of Parasite.

Project Market Preliminary Juries

	Paul D. KIM Korea Hive Filmworks Inc. / CEO Entering the film industry first as an international sales agent in the early 2000s, he has conducted international distribution of multiple domestic films. Based on the long-established overseas network, he is working on global projects centered in Asia. Among them, the film Till We Meet Again, co-produced with Taiwan, was selected as the opening film for BIFAN 2021 and 2021 Taipei Film Festival. In the same year, the Taiwanese co-produced film Treat or Trick, a remake of To Catch a Virgin Ghost, won the Jury Prize at BIFAN 2021 and was selected as the closing film of the 2021 Taipei Film Festival. Currently, as CEO of Hive Filmworks Ins., he conducts international sales, production, co-production, and domestic/international distribution & acquisition.

Paul D. KIM

Korea Hive Filmworks Inc. / CEO

Entering the film industry first as an international sales agent in the early 2000s, he has conducted international distribution of multiple domestic films. Based on the long-established overseas network, he is working on global projects centered in Asia. Among them, the film Till We Meet Again, co-produced with Taiwan, was selected as the opening film for BIFAN 2021 and 2021 Taipei Film Festival. In the same year, the Taiwanese co-produced film Treat or Trick, a remake of To Catch a Virgin Ghost, won the Jury Prize at BIFAN 2021 and was selected as the closing film of the 2021 Taipei Film Festival. Currently, as CEO of Hive Filmworks Ins., he conducts international sales, production, co-production, and domestic/international distribution & acquisition.

	Danny Daehee PARK Korea IRON PACK LTD. / CEO He studied Journalism, Film and Broadcasting (BA) at Cardiff University and Film and TV Studies (MA) at Warwick University in the U.K. Starting with Jail Breakers (2002), he has worked on features such as Oldboy (2003), Crying Fist (2005), The Beast and the Beauty (2005), and Go Go Sister (2006), as well as several short films. He produced feature film The Servant (2010), and smartphone film Milk Age (2010) and TV episodic The Servant, Bang Ja Chronicles (2011) and feature film Obsessed (2014). He has served as an executive producer for Mad, Sad, Bad (2014), A Dramatic Night (2015), Elephant in the Room (2015), and The Bacchus Bacchus Lady (2016), and has lectured on film at various universities and organizations. He is currently living in North Vancouver, Canada, where he is looking for a new film project.

Danny Daehee PARK

Korea IRON PACK LTD. / CEO

He studied Journalism, Film and Broadcasting (BA) at Cardiff University and Film and TV Studies (MA) at Warwick University in the U.K. Starting with Jail Breakers (2002), he has worked on features such as Oldboy (2003), Crying Fist (2005), The Beast and the Beauty (2005), and Go Go Sister (2006), as well as several short films. He produced feature film The Servant (2010), and smartphone film Milk Age (2010) and TV episodic The Servant, Bang Ja Chronicles (2011) and feature film Obsessed (2014). He has served as an executive producer for Mad, Sad, Bad (2014), A Dramatic Night (2015), Elephant in the Room (2015), and The Bacchus Bacchus Lady (2016), and has lectured on film at various universities and organizations. He is currently living in North Vancouver, Canada, where he is looking for a new film project.

	CHOI Jeonghwa Korea Producers Guild of Korea, Anthology Studios / President, Executive Producer He majored in photography at Chung-Ang University. He started his career as a cinematographer on the 1996 film Beat, then switched to producer on Lee Changdong's Peppermint Candy. He has worked with many directors with bold style, including Lee Changdong, Park Kwangsoo, Kim Sungsoo, and Kim Jee-woon, and has been the president of the President of Producers Guild of Korea for six years.

CHOI Jeonghwa

Korea Producers Guild of Korea, Anthology Studios / President, Executive Producer

He majored in photography at Chung-Ang University. He started his career as a cinematographer on the 1996 film Beat, then switched to producer on Lee Changdong's Peppermint Candy. He has worked with many directors with bold style, including Lee Changdong, Park Kwangsoo, Kim Sungsoo, and Kim Jee-woon, and has been the president of the President of Producers Guild of Korea for six years.

	HAN Sunhee Korea Plain Pictures / CEO Han Sunhee is the founding producer and director of Plain Pictures. As a producer, her current narrative projects-in-development The Final Print (2018) and Winter Worm, Summer Grass< (2019) were respectively awarded at the Asian Project Market of the Busan Film Festival. Another project Camp Page (2021) was invited to B.I.G NAFF Project Spotlight Korea. As a director, her debut feature documentary Old Days (2016) was invited to Jeonju Film Festival and Udine Far East Film Festival among others, followed by a narrative short film Transmigration: The Turtle and the Women (2021) invited to the Seoul Independent Film Festival. Since 2016, she has been teaching young Asian filmmakers as a faculty at the International Film Business Academy of the Busan Asian Film School.

HAN Sunhee

Korea Plain Pictures / CEO

Han Sunhee is the founding producer and director of Plain Pictures. As a producer, her current narrative projects-in-development The Final Print (2018) and Winter Worm, Summer Grass< (2019) were respectively awarded at the Asian Project Market of the Busan Film Festival. Another project Camp Page (2021) was invited to B.I.G NAFF Project Spotlight Korea. As a director, her debut feature documentary Old Days (2016) was invited to Jeonju Film Festival and Udine Far East Film Festival among others, followed by a narrative short film Transmigration: The Turtle and the Women (2021) invited to the Seoul Independent Film Festival. Since 2016, she has been teaching young Asian filmmakers as a faculty at the International Film Business Academy of the Busan Asian Film School.

	Jongsuk Thomas NAM Korea Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival / Programmer of English-speaking countries’ cinema & NAFF Managing Director Jongsuk Thomas Nam majored in RTVF/Communication Arts. He returned to Korea from the US to be an assistant director for the film Jungle Story (1996). He worked for the Busan Film Festival from 1997 on as the coordinator of the Kim Kiyoung Retrospective, a festival coordinator at BIFF, and the senior coordinator of the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP). After working as the general secretary of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC), he joined the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in 2007 as a staff member and also worked for the festival as an expert adviser. He is currently a festival programmer for BIFAN and the managing director of the Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF). He also works as the curator for the After Dark section of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in India.

Jongsuk Thomas NAM

Korea Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival / Programmer of English-speaking countries’ cinema & NAFF Managing Director

Jongsuk Thomas Nam majored in RTVF/Communication Arts. He returned to Korea from the US to be an assistant director for the film Jungle Story (1996). He worked for the Busan Film Festival from 1997 on as the coordinator of the Kim Kiyoung Retrospective, a festival coordinator at BIFF, and the senior coordinator of the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP). After working as the general secretary of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC), he joined the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in 2007 as a staff member and also worked for the festival as an expert adviser. He is currently a festival programmer for BIFAN and the managing director of the Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF). He also works as the curator for the After Dark section of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in India.

	MO Eunyoung Korea Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival / Programmer of Korean cinema Mo Eunyoung majored in film and animation theory. She was a writer for EBS programs such as Cinema Paradiso and Anitopia, and she contributed to magazines and daily newspapers such as FILM2.0, DVD2.0, and KINO as a film critic. She also worked as a programmer for Korean Film Archive Cinematheque KOFA for multiple years after it first opened. She has also organized a number of fusion performances that join classic films with various genres, such as the silent film narration performance of Crossroad of Youngsters.

MO Eunyoung

Korea Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival / Programmer of Korean cinema

Mo Eunyoung majored in film and animation theory. She was a writer for EBS programs such as Cinema Paradiso and Anitopia, and she contributed to magazines and daily newspapers such as FILM2.0, DVD2.0, and KINO as a film critic. She also worked as a programmer for Korean Film Archive Cinematheque KOFA for multiple years after it first opened. She has also organized a number of fusion performances that join classic films with various genres, such as the silent film narration performance of Crossroad of Youngsters.

	Samantha MOON Korea Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival / Industry Program Manager Samantha Moon majored in philosophy and minored in multimedia, first started working in the film industry in 2008. After serving as the program manager of the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, she has been working as the industry program manager of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. She has directed several short films, and worked as an artist. She has created artist groups, most notably Nomaki(Nomad Kirke) to organize various types of contemporary exhibitions including audio-visual, media installation, and improvisation performance.

Samantha MOON

Korea Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival / Industry Program Manager

Samantha Moon majored in philosophy and minored in multimedia, first started working in the film industry in 2008. After serving as the program manager of the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, she has been working as the industry program manager of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. She has directed several short films, and worked as an artist. She has created artist groups, most notably Nomaki(Nomad Kirke) to organize various types of contemporary exhibitions including audio-visual, media installation, and improvisation performance.