Busan, South Korea –

In May, there was talk among South Korean film enthusiasts of whether the 2023 edition of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), considered the year's most important Asian movie event, would take place.

Following the creation of a new managing director position that would relieve the festival director of handling BIFF's finances, director Huh Moon-young resigned — and all hell broke loose. The South Korean media then reported that an unnamed festival employee had accused Huh of sexual harassment, and that the organization itself was accused of trying to cover it up. More resignations ensued, including that of chairman Lee Young-kwan, one of BIFF's founders.

Though the harassment allegations are still under investigation, BIFF opened on schedule Oct. 4 at the Busan Cinema Center. The festival assured the world it was back from the pandemic with the kind of flashy opening ceremony it is known for, but the choice of Song Kang-ho (“Parasite”), the most famous South Korean actor in the world, as the host was indicative of the provisional nature of the preparations. Normally, the festival director is the host, but at the moment there is only an interim director — chief programmer Nam Dong-chul.

In an interview with The Japan Times, Nam said he doesn't think a new director will be installed until next year, but when asked if he would stay on he replied, "No. I just want to be the programming director."

If Nam has his work cut out for him, it's not just because of the scandal. "We had to cut the budget," he said. "Support from the Busan government was less than last year's, and private sponsorship was also down. Both are related to the economic situation in Korea." Domestic box-office numbers continue to be low since the pandemic, and as a result the Korean Film Council said it will reduce its overall budget for film festivals by 50%.

The main impact of these cuts was a smaller lineup: There were 209 films this year compared to last year’s 243, and around 300 in the years before COVID-19. The cuts also meant removing some regular features, such as forums, as well as the Korean Retrospective section, though Nam implied the section had run its course. The sorry state of the domestic film industry was also reflected in the Korean selections. The Panorama section, which showcases mainstream Korean fare, was notably thin and included none of the more famous South Korean films released in the past year.

Though these outcomes look dire on paper, they had little effect on BIFF's on-site exuberance. The festival is held in tandem with the Asian Content and Film Market, and attendance this year was higher than ever. Also, BIFF is a festival for fans. The screenings, personal appearances and side events are geared toward amateur cinephiles, who are legion in South Korea and showed up this year in full force.

Moreover, BIFF maintained its mission of being the prime showcase for emerging Asian cinema, even if the most prominent releases of the year had their premieres at European and North American festivals. "Our goal is to discover new territories and new work in Asia," Nam said. "This year we have three films from Bangladesh and two from Mongolia. Only Busan can do that."

Each year the contours of this representation change. In 2022, there were hardly any features from China, owing to lingering COVID restrictions and government control over the film industry. During his press conference as Asian Filmmaker of the Year, veteran Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat said, "The biggest competitive advantage of Korean films is the level of freedom. The topics cover a wide range and there's more creativity." This year, there were a number of high-profile Chinese films, including Wang Bing's 215-minute documentary about young textile workers, "Youth (Spring)," and Han Shuai's long-awaited second feature, "Green Night," which is set in South Korea and stars legendary actor Fan Bingbing, who attended the festival. The closing film was a comedy about the Hong Kong film industry called "The Movie Emperor."

On the other hand, Iran, which usually sends a half dozen or more films, only had its name attached to three features. Two were documentaries from the Mohsen Makhmalbaf film family, which is now based in London, and the third was "Critical Zone," a wild and surreal night ride with a Tehrani drug dealer that displeased the regime. The director, Ali Ahmadzadeh, was prohibited from leaving the country.

This year’s BIFF also had a special section called Renaissance of Indonesian Cinema, though Khozy Rizal, a young Indonesian filmmaker who was a fellow in the Chanel X BIFF Asian Film Academy (BAFA) and had a short in the section, says that Indonesian cinema never went away. "We've always had big movie stars and famous directors," he added. "Even during COVID, the theaters were full."

The special section Nam was proudest of was Korean Diasporic Cinema, six films featuring Korean American directors and actors, including this year's most Oscar-worthy indie, Celine Song's "Past Lives," about childhood sweethearts from Seoul reconnecting in New York decades later. During the section's press conference, director Lee Isaac Chung ("Minari") explained why these movies are unique: "None of our parents did this (make movies). We all had to figure out our own paths."

As usual, the country that delivered the most movies after South Korea was Japan with 15, including past Asian Filmmaker of the Year Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Monster," screened in the Gala Presentation section, and veteran documentarian Tatsuya Mori's first fiction feature, "September 1923," about the post-Great Kanto Earthquake massacre of resident Koreans and others, which won the runner-up award in the New Currents competition. One of the hottest tickets was "Evil Does Not Exist," Ryusuke Hamaguchi's follow-up to his Oscar-winning "Drive My Car," about a mountain village that objects to a corporation buying land for a campsite. But the biggest Japanese presence was director Nobuhiro Suwa ("M/Other"), the dean of this year's BAFA.

"Festivals like Busan give Japanese filmmakers more prestige than the Tokyo International Film Festival," he said, "and provide a better stage for them to get world exposure."

Perhaps the most notable regional showing this year was from the Indian subcontinent. In addition to Bangladesh, there were strong offerings from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, and what was striking was how the stories and themes crossed borders. The winner of the Kim Jiseok Award, named after BIFF's original Asian programmer, was Prasanna Vithanage’s

"Paradise," about a well-to-do Indian couple who are robbed while on vacation in Sri Lanka during the 2022 financial crisis.

However, the fare that attracted the most media attention was in the On Screen section, now in its fourth year, which featured episodes of upcoming TV dramas — five South Korean, one Indonesian. The section sidesteps BIFF's mission of promoting cinema, but since so many Korean filmmakers are moving into streaming series, Nam said it was inevitable BIFF would highlight this "content."

Pierce Conran, a South Korea-based writer who covers K-dramas for the South China Morning Post, said, "I went to all the screenings. They're the busiest I've ever been to, and it was all press.” Netflix even operated its own cafe at the festival. "It's an acknowledgment of market realities," Conran added.