The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN, Festival Director Shin Chul) has announced the appointment of its jury members for this year’s edition. 16 experts from various fields of the film industry, including directors, actors, producers, writers, programmers, and film critics, from Korea and abroad have been chosen.
BIFAN is a non-competitive international film festival with a few competition sections. The 16 people will select candidates for awards in the following juries: Bucheon Choice: Feature, Bucheon Choice: Shorts, Korean Fantastic: Feature, Korean Fantastic: Shorts, Melies International Film Festival Federation (MIFF) Asian Film Award and NETPAC Award.
The international competition section Bucheon Choice: Feature is the key section revealing the color of BIFAN. The jury consists of five people, Rich Cline, Kier-La Janisse, Kim Sunyoung, Kazuya Konaka, and Lee Wonsuk (in alphabetical order). They will choose the winners for the following awards: Best of Bucheon, Best Director Choice, Jury’s Choice and Audience Award. British film critic Rich Cline who is also chair of the London Film Critics’ Circle, has contributed film reviews to various media. He has served as a jury member at major international film festivals like Venice, Berlin, London, and Turin. Kier-La Janice is a film writer, programmer and producer. She produced and directed the documentary
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror which will be screened at this year's BIFAN special program Folk Horror: Lands of Cruelty, Beliefs of Terror. Kazuya Konaka is a director and producer well known for creating the
Ultraman series. His film
Single 8 which depicts autobiographical stories from his amateur days, will be presented at this year's BIFAN.
From Korea, actress Kim Sunyoung and director Lee Wonsuk will participate. Kim Sunyoun became famous with movies like
Happy Bus Day,
Communication & Lies, Herstory, Mal-Mo-E: The Secret Mission,
Three Sisters, and
Dream Palace. Through her unique, delicate, and realistic acting, she has established herself as the best ‘scene stealer’. She scored numerous awards including the Wildflower Film Award, the Baeksang Arts Award, the Buil Film Award, the Blue Dragon Film Award, the Korean Association of Film Critics Award, the Korea Gold Award and Best Actress Award at the Asian Film Festival. Her next movie
Concrete Utopia is set to be released soon. Director Lee Wonsuk gained recognition for his unique works by winning the Audience Award at the Udine Far East Film Festival with his acclaimed debut
How to Use Guys with Secret Tips and his later movie
The Royal Tailor. He once more demonstrated his own distinctive style with
Killing Romance, which was released this year.
¡ã (Clockwise from top left): Cho Young Kag, Rina Damayanti, Park Dae Min, Kai Ko, Yi Jin Hee, Alexander Zahlten
The jury for the Korean Fantastic: Feature section consists of three people, Cho Young Kag, Rina Damayanti, and Park Dae Min. Cho Young Kak served as festival director of the Seoul Independent Film Festival, and as programmer at the Indie Forum. He produced the independent films Film Adventure, The Fake and The King of Pigs. Rina Damayanti is the festival director of the Jakarta Film Week and works as a programmer in various fields such as long and short films, documentaries, and advertising films. Park Dae Min made his debut as a scenario writer with ‘Public Acrobat’ which he adapted and made into the thriller Private Eye in 2009. Since then, he continued to make genre films such as
Special Delivery and
Seondal: The Man who Sells the River. The competition sections Bucheon Choice: Shorts and Korean Fantastic: Shorts will be judged by Kai Ko, Yi Jin Hee, and Alexander Zahlten. Kai Ko won the Best New Performer at Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival for
You Are the Apple of My Eye. Afterwards, he gained recognition as a versatile actor through films such as
Road to Mandalay and
Moneyboys. This year, his directorial debut Bad Education will be screened in BIFAN’s Bucheon Choice: Feature section. After Yi Jin Hee founded SEE AT Film she produced the films
Kingmaker,
Love and Leashes, and
Kill Boksoon, and co-produced the series
Bloodhounds. She also produced the films
Whatcha Wearin’? and
The Merciless. Alexander Zahlten is Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. He wrote books about film such as the ‘The End of Japanese Cinema’, and organized various festivals and exhibitions, including the Nippon Connection Film Festival in Frankfurt.
¡ã (Clockwise from top left): Josemi Beltran, Patrick Van Hauwaert, Gulnara Abikeyeva, Kim Young-woo, Angela Lee
The Award of the Méliès International Festivals Federation (MIFF) dedicated to the discovery of Asian genre films, will be assessed by two representatives from MIFF. Josemi Beltran, in charge of the film department of the City Council of San Sebastian, Spain, has organized various film events and is also active as a film curator. Patrick Van Hauwaert, founder of Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival in Brugge, Belgium and programmer at the Brugge Royal City Theater, contributes his expertise to the jury.
The NETPAC Award is given by the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC). The NETPAC jury, composed of NETPAC members and cultural industry professionals, selects the Best Asian Film for the Merry-Go-Round section. Gulnara Abikeyeva, a film critic and researcher from Kazakhstan, will contribute her expertise to the jury. Kim Young-woo a programmer and curator who has worked with various domestic film festivals and institutions including the Busan International Film Festival, DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, and Seoul Independent Film Festival, recently served as a programmer for the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia. Angela Lee, has held positions as a programmer and organizer at numerous film festivals, including the EXiS Experimental Film and Video Festival and the Seoul International Women's Film Festival. Currently, she is preparing Scifian Festa which is a new alternative independent Sci-fi film festival as the festival director.
The 27th edition of BIFAN will run from June 29 to July 9. The festival hub will be located at the Bucheon City Hall with the Main Stage, the Fantastic Cube and the Lawn Square. Screenings will also take place at the CGV Sopoong, the Korean Manhwa Museum and the Megabox Bucheon Starfield City. Online screenings will be available on wavve. Beyond Reality, BIFAN’s XR section will be held at Bucheon Art Bunker B39.