Busan Film Festival’s Market Chief, Oh Seok-Geun, Announces Resignation In Ongoing Management Turmoil

Korea’s Busan International Film Festival issued a heartfelt statement today, promising to “do our best for the successful hosting” of this year’s edition of the October festival, which has been in turmoil for the past few months following a series of high-profile management exits.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A+E Networks has promoted Youngsun Soh to senior VP and MD of A+E Korea, and John Flanagan to senior VP and MD of A+E Japan & Southeast Asia. Saugato “Shoggy” Banerjee, who currently serves as MD of A+E Asia, is leaving the company from Sept. 30. The moves, intended to bolster operations in Asia, were announced Monday by Patrick Vien, group MD, A+E International and Steve MacDonald, president, global licensing & international. Based in Seoul, and reporting to Vien, Soh will continue to lead the growth of A+E’s business in Korea. She has led the unit since joining the company in 2017 as GM and oversaw the launch of History and Lifetime linear channels.

B.I has announced a list of countries he is set to visit on his upcoming 2023 ‘Love Or Die’ Europe tour.On July 17, the singer unveiled a poster for his upcoming 2023 ‘Love or Die’ Europe tour, marking his first official tour in the region. Set to take place later this year, B.I will be performing in 14 countries.B.I’s tour will feature shows in the UK, France, Germany and more.

It’s been quite a week for filmmaker Andrew Ahn. 

The Kim Kardashian and Tom Brady romance rumours are starting up again.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean star Park Eun-bin is confirmed to lead Netflix’s upcoming series “Castaway Diva,” set to premiere in late 2023. Park previously starred in “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” the hit series that featured in Netflix’s non-English global top ten chart for 21 weeks and reached the top ten titles in 57 countries. In the new series, Park brings to life the character of Seo Mok-ha, an aspiring singer turned castaway who, after being stranded on a deserted island for 15 years, commences her journey to become a diva. Joining her are renowned actors Kim Hyo-jin, Chae Jong-hyeop, Cha Hak-yeon, and Kim Joo-hun. Kim Hyo-jin portrays a once-popular singer who is the idol of Seo and who seeks a new lease of life after encountering her fan from the island.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief

Will Tizard Contributor Bulgarian crime story “Blaga’s Lessons” by Stephan Komandarev scored the top prize and $25,000 at the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Saturday, capping a week of celebrating art film, stars and bold global work. With sold out screenings ranging from Russell Crowe introducing “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” to rare Japanese masterworks by Yasuzo Masumura and a tribute to actor Daniela Kolarova, Czech audiences proved once again to be hungry for every kind of film they cannot experience at any other venue. The Crystal Globe competition special jury prize, along with $15,000, went to “Empty Nets,” a German-Iranian gritty love story directed by Behrooz Karamizade.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The great Choi Min-sik was on hand to take early headlines at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan). Described somewhat blandly as “a highly reliable performer” by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), Choi is not only the star of Korea’s top grossing film of all time “The Admiral: Roaring Currents,” he continues to be available for work of all different levels. He appears in no less than ten titles that played at the festival this week. The festival also does reliable — in its own way – as it plays up to its “stay strange” mantra, cooperates with other festivals of a similar fantasy leaning and sidesteps the political infighting that currently bedevil Korea’s best-known festivals.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent For his third edition at the helm, Locarno Film Festival artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro has assembled a wide spectrum of films that “do not resemble each other in terms of tone or form” while reflecting “the world in all its expressions and manifestations,” he tells Variety. This boundless range is best exemplified by the fact that starkly surrealist Filipino arthouse star Lav Díaz’s latest work, “Essential Truths of the Lake,” will be vying for the fest’s Golden Leopard alongside fare that, at least on paper, appears much lighter. This includes U.S. director Bob Byington’s indie comedy “Lousy Carter” and Estonian helmer Rainer Sarnet’s “The Invisible Flight,” which Nazzaro says  “mixes Kung Fu, hard rock and the Orthodox Church.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Bucheon film festival’s Network of Asian Fantastic Films project market wrapped up three days of meetings and pitching sessions on Monday with a prize ceremony that disbursed cash, post-production support and invitations to related genre film events. “The Passport,” a Tamil- and English-language Malaysian project about an Indian rockstar who is forced to confront cultural expectations and her interactions with an imaginary friend, won the headline Bucheon Award for director Ananth Subramanian and producer Bel Choo Mun. It was both a popular choice among other NAFF participants and the unanimous decision of the jury. The numerical winner was “Please Bear With Me,” which saw director Gabriela Serrano and producer Gale Osorio from the Philippines collect three prizes. The project is a sci-fi and social issues mash-up about a call center operative who gets paid in dream-time and uses it to relive her glory days as a pop star. A clearly-surprised Serrano used her second visit to the stage to explain the film’s origins as a deep frustration with seeing Filipina women stuck at the bottom of society and yet apologizing for their ambitions.

BST Hyde Park, BLACKPINK have made history as the first K-Pop band to headline a major UK festival. Check out footage of the show, as well as the full setlist below.Taking to the stage this weekend, the girl group performed an electrifying 17-song set to their sold-out crowd of 65,000 fans, and made history as the first Korean pop group to headline a major UK festival.Introducing themselves to their London audience, Jennie, Jisoo, Rosé and Lisa kicked off their milestone set with ‘Pink Venom’, ‘How You Like That’, ‘Pretty Savage’ and ‘Kick It’, before breaking into a rendition of their first-ever single ‘Whistle’ — which first launched them to fame in 2016.The four-piece also brought the energy to their 90-minute-long set, blasting through back-to-back choreography and outfit changes. During the show, Rosé declared: “​​We’re absolutely honoured to perform here at Hyde Park… It’s a dream come true!”Other fan favourites played at the gig included ‘Tally’ and ‘Typa Girl’, as well as a “solo” part of the show where each member took the limelight and performed an individual rendition of one of their favourite tracks.

The National Association of Theatre Owners VP & Chief Communications Officer Patrick Corcoran is departing after 24-plus years.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Oh Seok-geun, head of the Asian Contents and Film Market in Busan, has resigned. Oh’s exit follows the resignation earlier this week of Busan International Film Festival chairman Lee Yong-kwan and the earlier departure of festival director Huh Moonyoung. “I submitted my resignation to the BIFF. I decided this was the best choice I could make. I hope my decision will help solve the BIFF situation,” Oh told Variety. A spokesman for the festival confirmed that Oh had tendered his resignation and said that the organization will frame its response next week.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of indie distributor Magnolia Pictures, has acquired North American rights to “Sleep.” The horror-thriller, which sounds designed to make you rethink your thoughts about sleepwalking, recently had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival’s critics week. It was directed and written by Jason Yu, who worked with Korean filmmaking legends Bong Joon-ho and Lee Chang-dong before making his feature directing debut with “Sleep.” Magnet will release the film early next year. The director’s previous collaborator, Bong, called “Sleep,” “the most unique horror film and the smartest debut film I’ve seen in 10 years.” So that’s some high praise from the director of “The Host” and “Parasite.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lee Yong-kwan, one of the original founders of the Busan International Film Festival, says he is stepping down as the event’s chairman – this time with immediate effect. He says the move is intended to defuse a morass of factional infighting and political interference surrounding Asian’s most prominent film festival. A festival spokesman told Variety that the board of directors “has decided to persuade the chairperson to return. So, the resignation has not been accepted yet.”

Taipei Film Festival is aiming to shine an international spotlight on Taiwanese actors through a new initiative, Top Talents, that will showcase nine actors including major stars Kai Ko and Chen Bolin. 

South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival has moved to resolve its ongoing management crisis by confirming that managing director Cho Jongkook has been dismissed and will be replaced by deputy director Kang Seung-ah. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Some 18 film industry guilds and trade associations are calling for urgent structural reform of the Busan International Film Festival. They point out that this year’s edition of the festival is looming less than 100 days away. The festival’s management has made a succession of management missteps in recent weeks, including one that resulted in an official apology. At the beginning of May, a decision to split the festival’s senior management in two by creating a new position for Cho Jongkook, was followed by consternation among guilds and the resignation of festival director Huh Moonyoung.

EXCLUSIVE: Korean multi-hyphenate powerhouse Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok) is set to star in and produce an English-language feature adaptation of New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s dystopian sci-fi novel series Hell Divers. The film will draw from the first three books in the series whose first installment was published by Blackstone in 2016; there are 10 books in total.