▲ This file photo, shows Chinese film director Diao Yinan holding the Golden Bear award at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

 

BUSAN, Aug. 4 (Yonhap) -- This year's 26th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) will showcase representative works of new generation Chinese film directors, who are following the footsteps of master directors such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and others, through a special program held from Oct. 6-15. 

 

China is the world's third-largest film producing country, following the United States and India. The market size of China's film industry exceeded 60 billion Chinese yuan (10.63 trillion won) for the first time in 2018, according to the '2020 Chinese Film Industry Status and Trend Report' released by the Korean Film Council. 

Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, which had a substantial effect on the movie industry, the Chinese film industry had an impressive annual growth rate of 20%. Despite such success, the Korean public has not been able to experience the scope, depth, and potential of Chinese films.

In light of this, the 26th BIFF is planning to open a special program that will focus on the works of up-and-coming, preeminent Chinese directors and highlight their achievements as well as new trends in the film industry. 

The films selected for ‘New Voices, Chinese Films,’ which are quite peripheral from the current Chinese film industry’s mainstream market, are the representative works of these directors, who have all received much acclaim from the international film industry after premiering at various prestigious film festivals throughout the world. More importantly, these films are worthy of attention because they portray, in their own unique cinematic perception and style, the lives and hardships of individuals who struggle to keep pace in the ever-changing, modern Chinese society.

Diao Yinan’s crime thriller, "Black Coal, Thin Ice" (2014), which won the Golden Bear award and won Liao Fan the Silver Bear for Best Actor award at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival; Bi Gan’s "Kaili Blues" (2015), which won him the Best Emerging Director Award at the 68th Locarno Film Festival; and Li Rui Jun’s "Walking Past the Future" (2017), which was invited to the Un Certain Regard section at the 70th Cannes Film Festival.

In addition, Gu Xiaogang’s "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountain" (2019), which received high acclaim during Critics’ Week at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival; Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s "The Cloud in Her Room" (2020), which received the Tiger Award at the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam; Song Fang’s "The Calming" (2020), which was invited to the 70th Berlin International Film Festival Forum and won the CICAE Art Cinema Award; and Wei Shujun’s "Ripples of Life" (2021), which was premiered at this year’s Cannes’ Critics’ Week; were all selected for this special program.

Many of the aspiring, preeminent directors invited to this year’s program have a deep, ongoing affiliation with BIFF. Both Diao Yinan and Li Rui Jun have continued to showcase their works at BIFF following their invitations to the "New Currents" section for their debut films, while Wei Shujun has showcased all three of his feature films at BIFF including his debut film, "Duck Neck." Song Fang, who is an alumnus of BIFF’s very first Asian Film Academy (AFA), which aims to discover new film talents in Asia, also has a long-standing relationship with BIFF.

This year’s special program, ‘New Voices, Chinese Films,’ will be co-hosted by Pusan National University (PNU) Film Institute and BIFF, and will be open for ten days. In addition, there will be an online platform immediately following the movie premiere that will encourage interaction with the audience as well as make available the publication of a special program book that will be co-written by both domestic and international authors.

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