28th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN, Festival Director Shin Chul) has announced the appointed members of its 6 juries. Among the selected 19 jury members are Korean and international professionals from all areas of the film industry, including directors and producers, an actor and an actress, writers, festival programmers, and critics, as well as AI experts, a new media artist and a strategic advisor from Cannes Next.

 

 

¡ã Bucheon Choice: Features jury
(from top left clockwise) PARK Joong-hoon, KIM Seonah, Jason Taylor, SABU  

'Bucheon Choice: Features' is the international competition, the core section of BIFAN. The jury will be composed of Kim Seonah, Park Joong-hoon, Sabu, and Jason Taylor (hereinafter in alphabetical order of their last names). They will give out the awards Best of Bucheon, Best Director Choice and Jury’s Choice. Also, the section has an audience award to be chosen by public vote.
PARK Joong-hoon, who will head of jury, made his debut as the lead in the movie Kam-Bo in 1986, and has appeared in more than 40 films ever since, including Springtime of Mimi and Cheol-Su (1987), Chil-Su and Man-Su (1988), My Love, My Bride (1990), Two Cops (1993), Nowhere To Hide (1999), and Radio Star (2006). In 2013, he made his directorial debut with Top Star. He has an unparalleled record of winning best actor awards, including at the Grand Bell Award, the Blue Dragon Film Award, the Baeksang Arts Award, the Korean Association of Film Critics Award, as well as awards at the Asia Pacific Film Festival, the Deauville Asian Film Festival, and the New York Asian Film Festival.
Kim Seonah is an associate professor at the School of Theater and Film at Dankook University, and also serves as the president of Women In Film Korea. She has been an active producer for the past three decades, having developed and produced several successful films. In 2017, she produced the VR film Bloodless which won Best VR Story at the Venice International Film Festival.
Sabu worked as an actor before he debuted as a director with D.A.N.G.A.N. Runner (1996) which was invited to the Berlinale’s Panorama section and won him Best New Director Award at Yokohama Film Festival. Since then, he has become one of Japan's leading directors continuously invited to international film festivals with his works. In 2023, he directed his first Korean film, Under Your Bed.
Jason Taylor is an award-winning film, television, and Broadway musical producer. He has co-produced several blockbusters, including X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). He has also extensive production experience in documentaries and independent films. In 2022, his horror satire Sissy was invited to BIFAN, where it won the Audience Award.

¡ã Korean Fantastic: Features jury
(from left to right) KIM Dong Hyun, KIM Young-min, SONG Kyung Won
¡ã Bucheon Choice: Shorts and Korean Fantastic: Shorts
(from left to right) Sabrina BARACETTI, Vivian SUNG, Jason YU  

Kim Dong Hyun, Kim Young-min and Song Kyung Won will form the jury of the Korean feature film competition section 'Korean Fantastic: Features'.
Kim Dong Hyun is the festival director of the Seoul Independent Film Festival (SIFF). As a professional film festival organizer and programmer, she has played a central role in the growth and development of Korean independent cinema. Her credits as producer include Cinema with You (2017), A Midday Picnic (2018), and Citizen Pane (2022). Kim Young-min has been working as a producer in the Korean film industry for the past 20 years and has been involved in the production of more than 20 feature films and TV series. Among them, Secretly Greatly (2013) and Exhuma (2024), both of which were huge successes and set box office records both in Korea and abroad. Song Kyung Won is the editor-in-chief of Cine21, a film weekly magazine, film critic, and film journalist. He is the author of “Lee Chung-ho: Critique of a Comic and Webtoon Artist” (2019) and “The Stains Spread and Became a Film” (2024). He also critiques other forms of visual culture and arts, including games and animations.

The competition sections Bucheon Choice: Shorts and Korean Fantastic: Shorts will be judged by Sabrina Baracetti, Vivian Sung and Jason Yu.
Sabrina Baracetti is the founding member and current president of the Udine Far East Film Festival. She also leads the cultural organization C.E.C., an arthouse exhibition company, and consults for the distribution company Tucker Film. Additionally, she co-founded and consults for Ties That Bind and serves on the Board of Directors at the Friuli Cinematheque. She has been appointed to numerous festival juries and as a selection advisor for the Asian Film Awards.
Vivian Sung began her career as an actress in 2014 with the film Cafe. Waiting. Love. The following year, she rose to stardom with her performance in Our Times, which won her a nomination for Best Leading Actress at the 52th Golden Horse Awards. This year, she will star in the Korean film The Secret House, and this will be her first Korean speaking role.
Jason Yu won the award Best Korean Short Film at the 22nd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival with his short The Favor in 2018. His debut feature film, Sleep (2023), which he directed and wrote, is a mystery-thriller that captivated audiences with its intriguing storytelling, earning awards such as the Emerging Raven Award at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and the Best Screenplay Award at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

The jury for this year's new competition section, Bucheon Choice: AI Films will be composed of Ferdi Alici, Kim Tae-yong, Sten-Khristian Saluveer, and Shin Chul. Ferdi Alici is the Director of OUCHHH, a pioneering new media and art studio. His work has been showcased in world-renowned museums, organizations, and publications, and he has collaborated with numerous international brands. He has also been selected as a jury member for the Ars Electronica, PromaxBDA Global Excellence Awards, and PromaxBDA Europe Awards.
Kim Tae-yong debuted with Memento Mori (1999), co-directed with director Min Kyu-dong, and directed Family Ties (2006), followed by Late Autumn (2010), a remake of director Lee Man-hee’s original film starring Hyun Bin and Tang Wei. His new work, WONDERLAND (2024), explores the changes in daily life and the meaning of existence brought about by the ambiguous boundary between real and AI-generated virtual images. The film will have a special screening at this year's BIFAN.
Sten-Kristian Saluveer is a visionary in media and technology, known for pioneering initiatives between South Korea, Japan, and Europe, and creating Estonia’s first genre film festival, HÕFF. He founded Storytek, a media tech innovation hub, and co-developed future strategies for the European Film and Media sector. He currently serves on the advisory board of Future Hubs at VRT and as strategic advisor for Cannes Next.
Shin Chul became the head of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in 2019, and this year marks his sixth festival edition. He has been involved in Korean film production for over 30 years and is regarded as the producer who started the new golden era of Korean cinema. His success triggered major Korean companies to invest in the Korean film market. At this year’s BIFAN, he is curating ‘BIFAN+’ to explore the evolution and future of cinema and film festivals brought through generative AI technology.