Main menu
History
New Currents Award
New Currents Award is given to the two best feature films selected from the first or second feature of new Asian directors introduced in the New Currents section (a competitive section of BIFF for Asian films). A grand prize of USD 30,000 is awarded to each film. The jury consists or world-renowned film experts who will choose winners to discover and encourage the hidden jewels of Asian cinema.
Pascha
Remote Control
Special Mention
Transit
BIFF Mecenat Award
BIFF Mecenat Award is granted to the best documentary from Korea and Asia in Wide Angle competitive section. The winner will be granted KRW 10,000,000(approx. USD 10,000) with the purpose of assisting their next production.
Jalanan (“Streetside”)
Non-fiction Diary
Special Mention
Gureombi – The Wind is Blowing
Sonje Award
Sonje Award is given to the best Korean and Asian short films in the Wide Angle section, to assist them in producing next project by providing KRW 10,000,000(approx. USD 10,000) to each director.
A Lady Caddy Who Never Saw a Hole in One
In the Summe
Special Mention
Sprout
Special Mention
Temporary
KNN Award
This award is given to the film that gained most acclaim from festival audiences, among the films introduced in the New Currents section. The award is granted by KNN foundation and its winner is awarded USD 20,000.
10 Minutes
Busan Bank Award
This award is given to the film that is most highly rated by festival audiences. Around 10 films from the Flash Forward section are selected beforehand to participate in this competition. A total of USD 20,000 is granted by the Busan bank. USD 10,000 is awarded to the director and the other half is used to support the distribution of the film in Korea. BIFF character, Pine Tree sign, will be marked the candidates.
Home
FIPRESCI Award
The FIPRESCI Award is awarded to well-made works that reflect its experimental and progressive spirit, among those presented in the New Currents section.
10 Minutes
NETPAC Award
This award is given to the year’s best Korean film from either New Currents or Korean Cinema Today Vision section. NETPAC is an international organization founded in 1990 devoted to the expansion of Asian film distribution and screening.
Shuttlecock
Citizen Critics’ Award
Citizen critics from the Busan Cinematheque choose the best film from those screened in Korean Cinema Today-Vision section and its director is granted the award. The winner is awarded KRW 10,000,000 (approx. USD 10,000) for supporting the director’s next production.
Han Gong-ju
Shuttlecock
Busan Cinephile Award
This award is given to the best world documentary film presented in the Wide Angle documentary showcase. The jury consists of college students, including 70 students from the cinema-related departments of 7 universities in Busan region.
Father’s Garden – The Love of My Parents
CGV Movie Collage Award
This award was created in 2011 in collaboration with CJ CGV Movie Collage to shed a light on the Korean Cinema Today Vision. The award aims to provide independent films, indie films, new films, and low budget films with distribution and screening opportunities
Han Gong-ju
The Asian Filmmaker of the Year
This award is granted to the Asian filmmaker who has made the most significant contribution to the advancement of Asian film industry and culture throughout the year.
Rithy PANH
Director | Cambodia
Director Rithy Panh, born in Cambodia in1964, has led in the preservation of Cambodian film. Having lost his family in a refugee camp during the Khmer Rouge regime, he settled in Paris and studied film. His masterpieces include Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy (1996), S21, The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003), as well as Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell (2011) and life under the Khmer Rouge regime and its vestiges is the main the me of his works. He gained international acclaim by winning Un Certain Regard Prize at the 2013 Cannes International Film Festival with The Missing Picture (2013), in which he reproduced the history of Cambodia with elaborate dioramas. He has shown great talent in writing and contribution towards the preservation of Cambodian audio-visual materials including films as well. In 2005, he co-founded the ‘Bophana: Audiovisual Resource Center’ together with director Ieu Pannakar, with the mandate to collect endangered audio-visual materials. The institution, a mecca of Cambodian film industry, currently educates young filmmakers as well as introduces Cambodian films to the public. Last June in Phnom Penh, he led the establishment of ‘MEMORY! International Heritage Film Festival, ’a film festival with the theme of film heritage preservation.
Korean Cinema Award
This award is granted to a notable figure that has made significant contribution in promoting Korean cinema worldwide.
Charles TESSON
Cannes International Film Festival Critics’ Week Artistic Director | France
A world renowned film critic, Charles Tesson has discovered Asian films and introduced them to Europe. In 1999, as the editor of Cahiers du Cinéma, Tesson introduced around 30 Korean films as a part of the film section of the Paris Autumn Festival. At that time, film lovers in Paris were beginning to become enthusiastic about Asian cinema, particularly Japanese and Chinese films. However, this extensive event played a large role in shifting the focus towards Korea and worked as a catalyst for Korean cinema in attracting the French film industry’s attention. Starting with the Hong Sangsoo’s films, he continued to introduce different Korean films to film fans over the world and helped strengthen Korea’s place in world cinema. Since the late 1970’s Charles Tesson has been writing for the French film magazine, Cahiersdu Cinéma where he was also editor-in-chief from 1998 to 2003. In 2011, he was named the artistic director of the Cannes International Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, where he has consistently introduced up-and-coming directors to Cannes. Tesson is also a professor at the University of Paris III, teaching cinema history and a esthetics. A prolific author of books and essays on the subject of cinema, Tesson’s published works on directors include Satyajit Ray (1992), Luis Buñuel (1995), and Akira Kurosawa (2008). He has also authored books such as Photogénie de la Série B (1997) and Théâtre et cinema (2007). Tesson co-wrote the Cahiers du Cinéma special issue, Made in Hong Kong (1984), with Olivier Assayas and continues to contribute to an academic dialogue in the field of Asian cinema.