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DATABASE
Festival/Market

Festival/Market

DATABASE

Busan International Short Film Festival (BISFF)


Official Website
Dates
Category	Competitive
E-mail	office@bisff.org

Busan International Short Film Festival (BISFF) launched in 1980 as a domestic event under the name ‘Korean Short Film Festival’ with the aim of discovering talented film professionals and fostering a filmmaking-friendly environment. It has introduced various kinds of films, including 8mm and independent films made by students and general audience. It earned a reputation of fairness by selecting socially-conscious films during Korea’s military dictatorship era. Many of these young talents have grown into established filmmakers and leaders of the filmmaking industry.

The festival evolved over the years and renamed itself ‘Busan Asian Short Film Festival’ in 2000 as it extended its horizon abroad, accepted entries from foreign countries and introduced excellent Asian filmmakers to local audiences - a first at the time in Korea. Eventually, BISFF became the ‘Busan International Short Film Festival’ in 2010 and expanded to the world of films beyond Asia. It continues to present the latest tendencies in short-filmmaking from Korea and abroad, and to be a meeting place between short films, cineastes and audiences.

In recent years, BISFF has become a member of the Short Film Conference and of the NETPAC - Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema. In 2018, it became South Korea’s first Oscar®-qualifying festival, each year providing one Korean filmmaker and one foreign filmmaker with the opportunity to submit their films for consideration to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.

In addition to the competitive sections, various curated sections lets the audience see the worldwide trends in short-filmmaking and guess its future. Furthermore, by showing experimental films, animations and documentaries, BISFF intends to break away from the viewing conventions of fiction-oriented movies and to satisfy those craving for more varied forms of story-telling.

City

Busan

Program

Competition

- International Competition

- Korean Competition

- Operation Kino: run by the Busan International Short Film Festival (BISFF) and the Jung-gu Busan Metropolitan City to cultivate local film majors by giving them an opportunity to create a short documentary film.

Guest Country: USA

- Kings of Comedy: Charlie Chaplin VS. Buster Keaton

- USA Documentarist

- Carte blanche to Palm Springs International Film Festival

Korean Shorts

- Platform: a single journey of 10 short films that explore the trends and visions of Korean short films in various contexts.

Beyond Shorts

- Prism: A showcase of experimental films from the guest country that extend beyond the frame.

- 3D Shorts: Discover how filmmakers use stereoscopic filmmaking technologies and styles to create never seen artistic experiences.

- Interactive shorts

Hub of Asia

- Rendez-vous with AFiS: 20 short films made by some of the Asian filmmakers who are currently following this year’s course at Busan Asian Film School.

- Asian-Americana: A program highlighting today's concerns and perspectives of Asian American filmmakers, with 6 films focusing on multiculturalism, artistic expression and self-identity.

- The Death of Cinema(s): Five films proving a truly meta-cinematic and purely cinephile experience - to be in a movie theater to watch films about movie theaters, shot within movie theaters.

Special Screenings

- BISFF Best-of International Shorts: A selection of international short that have won awards at previous BISFFs and other prestigious international film festivals.

- BISFF Best-of Korean Shorts: A selection of Korean short that have won awards at previous BISFFs and other prestigious international film festivals.

- Curtain Call

- BISFF Short Film Project: Three short films, each selected from the BISFF Short Film Project.

- BISFF Open Theater: Free outdoor screenings.

Awards

International Competition

- Grand Prix for Best Picture: 10,000,000 KRW and a trophy

- Excellence Award for Best Picture: 5,000,000 KRW and a trophy

- Jury Prize: 2,000,000 KRW and a trophy

- Audience Award: A prize and a trophy

Korean Competition

- Grand Prix for Best Picture: 5,000,000 KRW and a trophy

- Excellence Award for Best Picture: 3,000,000 KRW and a trophy