Busan’s Asian Project Market Goes Virtual With Koji Fukada, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki Efforts

The Busan film festival’s Asian project market will be held online this year on Oct. 12-14. Some 22 projects from around Asia will vie for production funds during the market.

These include “Love Life,” from Japanese filmmaker Koji Fukada who won the Un Certain Regard jury prize at Cannes in 2016 for “Harmonium,” and “A Burning Question” from Bangladesh’s Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, who closed Busan in 2012 with “Television.”

Other selections include “Tick It” from Vietnamese director Tran Thanh Huy, who won Busan’s New Currents award in 2019 winner for “Rom,” and “A River in the Mirror,” by Tashi Gyeltshen, FIPRESCI International Critics’ Award 2018 winner for “The Red Phallus.”

From the Philippines, Sheron Dayoc, winner of Busan’s Mecenat Award in 2016 with “The Crescent Rising,” will participate in the market with “6th Finger.” From Kazakhstan, Elzat Eskendir, who won Busan’s Sonje Award in the same year for “Off-season,” will present “Abel.”

From China, Wei Shujun, Cannes winner for short “The Border,” will present “Ripple of Life.” First Youth winner, Qu Youjia will present “Lava.”

The market has six Korean projects this year. Kim Seungwoo, director of Toronto 2019 title “Bring Me Home,” has a new project “The Survivor,” and director Ahn Jaehuun, winner of the Contrechamp Jury Distinction of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2020 for “The Shaman Sorceress,” will present his animation project “A Thousand Years Together.” “Nowhere To Hide” by Lee Myungse, “A Bite of the Cosmos” by Shin Dongseok, “Flowers of Mold” by Shim Hyejung, and “A Taegueki Boy “by director Jeong Heejae are also among the selections.

This is the 23rd year for the Asian project market, originally known as the Pusan Promotion Plan. Since it was started in 1998, the market has presented 585 projects, with more than 250 turned into completed feature films.

The festival itself will run Oct. 7-16 in front of live audiences, but with few foreign guests.