Seven directors have been selected from Korea: KIM Tae-yong, MIN Kyu-dong, PARK Jung-bum, PARK Heung-sik, JEON Soo-il, JUHN Jai-hong, and YEUN Sang-ho. KIM Tae-yong has presented a project with the silent film era as its backdrop. YEUN Sang-ho, whose The King of Pigs took him to the Directors’ Fortnight of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, has unveiled a new animated film called The Fake. PARK Jung-bum, who received the New Currents Award at the Busan International Film Festival and the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam for The Journals Of Musan, is working on a film project set in Poland.

 
MIN Kyu-dong, the director of All about My Wife, presented a project based on Marilyn Monroe’s love life. JEON Soo-il’s Blue Straggler, PARK Heung-sik’s Memories of Sword, and JUHN Jai-hong’s Café Flower are also eagerly anticipated.

 

 

 
Projects from renowned foreign directors are also worthy of note, namely those from WANG Xiaoshuai, YUKISADA Isao, Lav DIAZ, Santosh SIVAN, CHANG Tso-Chi and Royston TAN. WANG Xiaoshuai, the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear Award winner of the 2001 Berlin Film Festival for Beijing Bicycle, presented I Love You Arirang, a story of North Korean woman working at a restaurant in China. The Philippines’ Lav DIAZ, a winner of the Orizzonti Grand Prize at the 2008 Venice Film Festival, is planning to make a film about Andres BONAFACIO, also known as the “Father of the Philippine Revolution." Internationally acclaimed Japanese Director YUKISADA Isao, well-known for his works such as Go and Camellia, will be sure to draw much interest this year at BIFF as well. Royston TAN from Singapore, India’s Santosh SIVAN, the director of Tahaan - a boy with a grenade, and a frequent guest of BIFF, CHANG Tso-Chi, the Taiwanese director of How Are You, Dad? and When Love Comes are some of the other names keenly anticipated.

  
Global Projects to be unveiled
   
APM will also feature new projects established global film talents. The latest project from Dutch director David VERBEEK, whose debut film earned him a Tiger Award nomination at the 2008 International Film Festival Rotterdam and whose second film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, will be unveiled at APM. Turkish Director Özcan ALPER, who received international acclaim for his second feature, Future Lasts Forever, will also be sure to draw a lot of attention in Busan. Musa SYEED, an Indian director whose work earned him the Audience Award for World Cinema at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, will bring his latest project to APM and so will Marat ALYKULOV, this year’s recipient of the Asian Cinema Fund's (ACF) Incubating Fund. 

 

Ambitious Projects by Up-And-Coming Directors
   
This year’s APM is also marked by projects from BIFF’s newly-discovered directors: PARK Jung-bum (whose debut was a multi-award winning festival hit), Chinese Director GAO Zipeng (whose debut feature brought him to BIFF’s New Currents section), Teddy SOERIAATMADJA (a new directorial talent from Indonesia), Rajesh SHERA from India and YANG Ya-Che from Taiwan. These talented directors have been internationally recognized through their participation at BIFF, The line-up is proof that APM and BIFF continue to be a source of strong support for Asia’s independent auteur-directors.

 

Invigorating Film Production in Wider Regions
 
Aside from the traditional cinematic powerhouses such as Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, and India, another noticeable feature of APM 2012 is the diversity of projects that have been selected from various other Asian countries. They encompass a wide range of regions from Southeast Asia – WOO Ming Jin (Malaysia), Teddy SOERIAATMADJA (Indonesia), Royston TAN (Singapore), Thanakorn PONGSUWAN (Thailand), Lav DIAZ (The Philippines) - to Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Iran. Non-Asian projects from the Netherlands, Turkey, and Algeria have been selected as well.
 

 

APM 2012, held from October 8 to 11, will be comprised of many different programs. The Film Fund Talk will promote meetings with major global fund managers and other investors, the Book To Film program will link the film and publication industries, the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) will host an Industry Forum, and finally APM and the Busan Film Commission (BFC) will co-host a Project Pitching event. APM 2012 will take place for three days between October 8 and 11 at the BEXCO convention center.