Global Projects Gather in Bucheon for 8th Edition
The world’s first exclusive genre film project market, the Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF) opened the doors to its 8th edition on Sunday, July 19th with an opening reception at the Koryo Hotel that brought together filmmakers, producers, sales agents and all manner of professionals in the film industry. Taking place alongside the 19th
Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) for four days, this year’s NAFF featured special focuses on Chinese and Nordic genre films and forums on 3D technology, low-budget filmmaking and alternative film distribution channels.
Central to the NAFF program are its IT Projects, which see filmmakers from all around the world gather in Bucheon to present their pitches to sales agents, potential investors, film festival programmers and, of course, the NAFF jury, who decides which projects can receive the event’s cash prizes or post-production support awards. This year’s jury features Tom Davia, the co-founder and managing partner of CineMaven Media, Hong Kong International Film Festival Society executive director Roger Garcia, Boram Entertainment Inc. film producer
LEE Joo-ick and Mike Macari, the film producer behind the American remakes of Japanese horror series
The Ring.
Speaking to KoBiz, Davia expressed his belief "that NAFF 2015 understood perfectly and very effectively the new stage of globalization for film production. During the Forum events and the Projects Meetings this year, a palpable synergy was created between all participants. Attending producers were fed not only through the experiences of the experts present but also by their peers, creating valuable new interactions and solidly expanding the market for independent genre productions."
Finding New Stars
The 21 IT Projects on show this summer covered a wide spectrum of genres and hailed from 12 countries, including seven from Korea, which were whittled down from a record 171 submissions. Most prominent on the Korean side are new projects from arthouse auteur
PARK Jung-bum (
Alive), who is looking to dip his feet into genre with
Never Die Again, and
KIM Gok, the horror maven who was one of the directors of the 2012 BiFan opening film
Horror Stories and returns to Bucheon with
The Bunker.
Looking beyond these shores, some of the notable projects included The Hell Bank Heist from WAN Chi Man, which is produced by HK director PANG Ho-cheung (Vulgaria, 2012) and Silk, from stop motion animation short Butterflies (2012), director Isabel Peppard. Sitting down with us earlier during the festival, NAFF Managing Director Thomas NAM was also keen to point out Japanese director MITSUTAKE Kurando, a former guest in 2009, who returns to Bucheon with plans for a sequel to his feature Gun Woman from last year, calling it “an ambitious project that has a good chance of succeeding” while also referring to the pitch’s “80s Cannon Films feel”.
To date, NAFF has presented 130 projects, 35 of which have already made it to the screen. Among the most successful pitches to have originated in the meetings at the Koryo Hotel are the Korean films
The King of Pigs (2011),
Azooma (2012) and
The Terror, LIVE (2013), and
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (2013) from Taiwan and the Indonesian film
The Raid 2: Berandal. Awards worth KRW 66 million (USD 59,300) will be handed out to this year’s winners during the closing ceremony on July 22nd.
Each year, NAFF also puts on a Project Spotlight, which invites a select number of pitches from a featured country. This year marks the second time that China has been selected for the Project Spotlight, and during the interim (it was the first spotlighted country in 2008) the industry has turned into a giant. Thomas NAM highlighted the current success of Monster Hunt, which became the first Chinese film to top the international box office chart (minus the United States) over the past weekend, as a demonstration of how far Chinese genre films have come. Four projects were showcased, while NAFF also staged a glitzy China Film Night at the Noblian Wedding Hall, which was attended by numerous dignitaries and stars from both China and Korea. This year also saw the inclusion of two more projects under the banner ‘Nordic Genre Invasion’, which hailed from Sweden and Finland.
Also on the cards was the NAFForum, which featured five seminars with experts sharing their knowhow. These included ‘KAFA 3D Forum: 3D & BEYOND’, ‘Low-budget Filmmaking: Ways to Successful Outcome’, ‘Alternative Film Distribution, New Trend in China Film Marketplace’, and ‘VFX Technology in China: Its Growth and Outlook’.
Lastly, the Fantastic Film School, a professional training program for genre film professionals, started on Thursday and featured faculty such as Hawaii International Film Festival program director Anderson LE, Bunnygraph Entertainment CEO John Heinsen, Convergence Entertainment CEO Tim KWOK, screenwriter and producer Vincent NGO and documentary film director Alexandre O. Philippe.
Not Just a Project Market, But a Contents Market
Guests in attendance were quick to point out the positive steps NAFF has taken in recent years. Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia vice director Mike Hostench told us that: "This year I had the positive impression that NAFF has been adapting its case studies well according to current trends. Total democratization of production means, new distribution strategies in an increasingly segmented market and examples of locally successful micro-budget films were present in NAFF 2015, a privileged window of how the genre industry will look three years from now."
James Marsh, an acquisitions executive for XYZ Films told us: “It is very exciting how quickly NAFF has expanded and gained prominence, both in the region and within the industry globally. This year’s China Spotlight in particular presented an exciting and diverse range of projects and talent that will hopefully yield many exciting opportunities - and movies - in the future.”
Echoing some of the sentiments shared by Hostench and Marsh, acquisitions consultant Annick Mahnert added that “NAFF offers great networking possibilities. It helped me connect with Korean sales agents and filmmakers. Participating at the coproduction market, I also found a couple of projects that could be interesting for my clients for sales or distribution. NAFF is definitely on my list of markets to attend.”
And it seems NAFF has no intention of slowing its pace. NAM explained how he hopes to turn the event into a more comprehensive industry center by the market’s 10th edition in 2017. Further still, NAM envisions NAFF as an event like “San Diego Comic Con, a contents market instead of just a project market. Not just for films but also manga, anime and other sorts of content.”