Posted on : Oct.15,2005 07:28 KST

The eleventh Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) came to a close Friday. In just ten years after members of the Korean film community started working on it with their bare hands the event has become one of the biggest international film festivals anywhere, like other young festivals in Toronto, Rotterdam, and Locarno.

PIFF began with 170 films from 27 countries and this time hosted 307 films from 73 countries. There were 61 world premier showings, 28 international premier showings, and 87 Asian premier showings. You could see the position PIFF has earned back at the Venice film festival at the end of August; PIFF director Kim Dong Ho was give a place between the directors of the festivals in Cannes and Berlin.

Kim gives all the glory for accomplishments to the citizens of Busan (Pusan) for their passion and dedication. The film community rewarded them by joining with them in Nampodong and in theaters. That is how PIFF has become a special film festival where audiences are the key players. Key factors in its success were how the film community focused and gave Asian film a clear identity when it had long been considered to be part of the margins of world film, and how newcomers were allowed to put their dreams and imagination to work by destroying authority and form.

You see audiences being pushed to the side as the scale of the event grows. They say that as the center stage moves from Nampodong to Haeundae the simple gatherings in Nampodong are leaning too much towards the film community. The film festivals in Tokyo and Hong Kong hold film markets with government support. PIFF has plans for the same, but it would require W2 to W3 billion. There also needs to be an expansion of distinctive projects like the Asian Film Academy.

The Hankyoreh, 15 October 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]

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