City Busan Showbiz Latest News and Updates

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. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival has apologized for its mishandling of the resignation of its executive director Huh Moon-young and related sexual harassment allegations. “We sincerely apologize over the sexual harassment case that occurred in the workplace,” BIFF said in a Korean-language statement on Thursday. (A festival spokesperson said that an English-language statement, along with an update, will be issued in the coming days.) Huh has publicly denied the allegations, though he has not replied to email and telephone requests for comment by Variety.

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track… So, we’re going to do the hard work for you.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Nam Dong-chul will act as interim director of the Busan International Film Festival after a month of management turmoil, two high profile resignations and sexual harassment accusations levelled at festival director Huh Moon-young. Huh denies the allegations, but will not return to the festival. In early May, the festival announced the appointment of Cho Jong-kook, a close friend of festival chairman Lee Yong-kwan, as managing director, with responsibility for operations, administration and budgeting.

Lise Pedersen Newcomer Docs-by-the-Sea, the international documentary Labs and Forum for creative doc projects from Asia, will present and works-in-progress showcase for the first time at the Marché du Film’s Cannes Docs.  Featuring four films in late production stage, the showcase is highly necessary, argues its curator, Gugi Gumilang, the executive director of In-Docs, the non-profit org behind Docs by the Sea.   A member of last year’s Docs-in-Progress jury, he said this gave him a chance to see what people are looking for. “There’s a lack of Asian representation [in documentaries],” he tells Variety, adding: “It’s really tough for documentary filmmakers in Asia, few countries have film funds,” he said, citing Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines and, more recently, Hong Kong. “There are few dedicated festivals, the biggest being South Korea’s DMZ. Other international film festivals like Busan, Singapore and Jeonju cater for documentary film, but the competition is tough as they don’t just focus on Asian projects.”

Seoul-based sales agent Finecut has sold Hong Sangsoo’s In Our Day to France’s Capricci, Spain’s L’Atalante Cinema and Ama Films for Greece. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “In Our Day,” the film by South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo which closes the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes film festival, has seen distributors in multiple territories move early to strike rights deals. French rights were picked up by Capricci), Spanish rights by L’Atalante Cinema and Greek rights by Ama Films. The film has its official premiere on May 25. Seoul-based Finecut has long been the sales agent for Hong’s plentiful output. In addition to the deals on “In Our Day,” Finecut signed agreements with L’Atalante, with France’s Ariona Films and Taiwan’s Cola Films for “In Water,” Hong’s first film of 2023 which premiered in the Encounters section in Berlin in February. The film was previously sold to Cinema Guild for North America.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired the international rights of Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir’s debut feature “City of Wind.” The film is in post-production and will be ready for a world premiere in fall 2023. Purev-Ochir is known for several high-profile short films, including “Mountain Cat,” which was in Cannes Competition in 2020, and won best short in Busan in 2020, and “Snow in September,” which was awarded the Golden Lion for best short in Venice, and best short in Toronto last year. Ze is a timid 17-year-old shaman. He studies hard at school to succeed in the cold, callous society of modern Mongolia, while communing with his ancestral spirit to help those in his community. But when Ze encounters Maralaa, his senses are awakened and another reality seems possible.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwan-based Screenworks Asia is using the Cannes Market to launch international rights sales on “Lost in Perfection.” The film, previously titled “Love is a Bitch,” is a female-led psychological thriller that marks the live-action debut of Sung Hsin-ying, who is already established as an award-winning animation director. The story follows a TV anchor, played by Shao Yu-Wei, whose apparently perfect life unravels when she discovers that her father may have become the victim of a romance scam. To make matters worse, the scammer is accused of murdering men she dated. In an attempt to protect her family, the woman partners with the local prosecutor to investigate the crime. Yet, she quickly finds herself lost in the twists and turns while uncovering the truth.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Amanda Nell Eu’s “Tiger Stripes,” which had its premiere this week in Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, is being celebrated as a punchy female-driven debut feature and as the first film by a Malaysian woman director in any section Cannes. The story focuses on a small group of 11 or 12-year-old girls. When one of the friends enters puberty she finds her body changing in unexpected ways. Relations with her friends and family start morphing too. Eu’s finished film straddles the metaphorical drama and body horror genres. “Tiger Stripes” is also a triumph for the now highly-developed global network of project markets, talent development programs, script and production workshops (often labelled as ‘labs’) and grant schemes. These are intended to encourage diversity and nurture film-making talent in countries where that is a rarity or where commercial films crowd out more experimental art-house titles.

Naman Ramachandran India’s Richa Chadha and the U.K.’s William Moseley will headline the cast of India-U.K. co-production “Aaina.” The film, set between London and India, is a drama about the impact of the cycle of violence, both within cultures and on human beings in the form of PTSD. It marks the feature directorial debut of Markus Meedt, who previously directed several acclaimed shorts, including “Shelter” and “Anonymous” and episodes of mini-series “Let’s Get Macho.” Chadha starred in “Gangs of Wasseypur” and “Masaan,” both of which debuted at Cannes. She was most recently in Disney+ Hotstar series “The Great Indian Murder.” Moseley made a mark as a child actor in the Narnia franchise. He was one of the leads in “Land of Dreams,” which debuted at Venice, and was also in Indian film “Margarita With A Straw,” which had festival play at Toronto, Busan and London.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival, Asia’s biggest annual film event, may be headed for fresh turmoil following the announcement by festival chairman Lee Yong-kwan that he plans to resign. On Friday, the festival’s director Huh Moonyung announced his plan to resign and exit by the end of the month. The two high-level resignations follow the announcement a week ago that the festival would split the director’s job and appoint Cho Jongkook to the newly created position of managing director. “Festival director Huh Moonyung and chairperson Lee Yong-kwan have both announced their resignation, but neither have been processed yet,” a festival spokesperson confirmed to Variety.

Taipei-based Screenworks Asia is launching international sales on award-winning director Hsin-Ying Sung’s female-centric psychological thriller Lost In Perfection ahead of the Cannes market. 

Naman Ramachandran Huh Moonyung is set to step down from the position of director of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in South Korea, according to reports. Huh had been announced as director of the festival in 2021, following the departure of Jay Jeon, with the term expected to run until March 2024. The news of Huh’s departure arrives just days after Cho Jongkook, who had previous stints as secretary general of Busan Film Commission and Korean Film Council, being named managing director of the festival. While announcing the appointment of Cho, the festival had said that Huh would continue to oversee the official selection of films and festival events and discovery of prominent directors and films in Korea and Asia, while in the new MD position Cho would oversee the operation of the organization, such as corporate operation, general affairs, administration and budgeting. “The appointment of the MD will not only secure global competitiveness for BIFF as a worldwide film festival, but also focus its efforts on accomplishing its mid-to-long term vision and strategic task of becoming an ‘Asian film hub festival’, as announced last year,” the festival had explained in its announcement.

Eternals actor Ma Dong-seok (also known as Don Lee) as their profile pictures to get better customer service.Earlier this week, The Guardian reported that several Chinese social media users have started a trend of switching their profile pictures to photos of Korean-American actor Ma Dong-seok, best known for his roles as Gilgamesh in Marvel’s Eternals and Yoon Sang-hwa in Train To Busan.According to users on the recommendation app XiaoHongShu, using Ma in their avatars helped them resolve issues more quickly and got them better online customer service.One user, per The Guardian, claimed that they were ignored by customer service when using the photo of a girl as their profile image.  “After changing to the avatar of Ma Dong-seok, the customer service attitude was much more polite, and they even took the initiative to make up the price difference,” they said.Another user shared that changing her profile picture to a photo of Ma led to her property manager resolving an issue that she had previously raised several times in a matter of minutes.The trend has since spread to Weibo, a social network similar to Twitter, and social messaging app WeChat, which are two of the most widely-used social media platforms in China.

Spanish Screenings Goes to Cannes,  a selection of five pix in post which underscores the ever broadening compass – in genre, setting, protagonists, production bases and models – of film production in Spain. “Sima’s Song,” for example, is set in 1979 Kabul, “Jumping the Fence” on the Morocco-Spain border in Africa.  Many titles, though still in post production, come laden with prizes as projects, prestige deals or rich talent. “Sima’s Song,” from Afghan director Roya Sadat, whose “A Letter to the President” was shortlisted for an Oscar, won the Taicca Award at Busan’s Asian Project Market and the IFI-Pas Award at Mumbai’s Film Bazaar. Its producer, Alba Sotorra, was nominated for an International Emmy as a director for “The Return: Life After ISIS.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Dubai-based sales agency Cercamon has picked up international rights to “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell” by first-time feature director Pham Thien An. The film will have its global premiere next month in the Directors Fortnight section of the Cannes film festival. Pham Thien An previously made short films “The Mute” in 2018 and the one-take “Stay Awake, Be Ready” in 2019. Both enjoyed a busy festival career, with “Stay Awake” earning the Illy Prize in Cannes followed by additional awards at the Palm Springs, Busan, Kyiv and Flickerfest events. “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell” follows the emotional journey of Thien, who is entrusted with the responsibility of delivering his sister-in-law’s body to their hometown after a tragic motorcycle accident in Saigon. Amidst this heartbreaking task, Thien also takes care of his nephew, Dao, a five-year-old survivor of the accident. As they traverse the mystical landscapes of rural Vietnam, Thien embarks on a quest to find his long-lost brother and reunite him with Dao, a journey that ultimately leads him to question his faith.

Cannes Critics’ Week has announced the selection for its 62nd edition, running from May 17 to 25.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Jio Studios, the content arm of Reliance Industries Limited, has unveiled a huge slate of 100 new films and TV shows that will play on Reliance’s streaming platforms. They range from the previously-announced Shah Rukh Khan-starring Bollywood movie project “Dunki,” through Adil Hussain’s Bengali-language art-house picture “The Storyteller,” which appeared at the Busan Film Festival last year, to a range of web originals and mini-series. Contents are made as originals in a range of local languages including Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati and Bhojpuri. Genres range from action, drama, thriller and romance to horror and musicals.

BTS exhibition ‘Proof’ is set to open in Los Angeles this Spring, HYBE and Live Nation have announced.The ‘Proof’ exhibition is set to take place at the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica this May, following stops in the South Korean cities of Seoul and Busan last year.The upcoming exhibition will feature “an immersive visual journey that explores the members’ past, present and future through photographs, videos and experiential installations in a multi-room walkthrough experience”, per a press release, via Billboard.According to the ‘Proof’ exhibition’s official website, registration for ticket access is open now until April 17 at 11:59pm PT. The website states that all who register will be “equally eligible to participate in the onsale”.“However, if demand for tickets exceeds supply, visitors will be randomly selected to participate in the sale,” it adds.

Naman Ramachandran Writer-director Jesper Ganslandt has signed with CAA for representation. Ganslandt made his debut with “Falkenberg Farewell” in 2006. The coming-of-age film followed a group of friends who grew up in the titular town of Falkenberg and spend a last summer there before moving to the big city. The film debuted at Venice and had a stellar festival run including Toronto, Reykjavik, Tallinn Black Nights and Goteborg. It was nominated for the Nordic Council’s Film Prize, chosen as Sweden’s submission for the Academy Awards, and was nominated in several categories at the Guldbagge Awards in 2007, including best film, best direction and best screenplay. It won the FIPRESCI Award at the IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Writer and director He Shuming has signed with Sugar23, the multimedia and management company founded by Oscar-winning producer, manager and entrepreneur Michael Sugar. The signing comes following He’s breakout debut feature “Ajoomma,” about a widow obsessed with Korean soap operas who travels abroad for the first time to Seoul, finding more than she had bargained for in the process. That movie collected several nominations and prizes on the film festival circuit. It premiered at the 2022 Busan International Film Festival in the New Currents section; was nominated at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for the FIPRESCI Prize for Best International Film; received four nominations at the Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, including Best New Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Leading Actress and Best Supporting Actor; and won the Film AIUla Audience Award for Best Film at the Red Sea International Film Festival.

Naman Ramachandran The writing team of Iran’s Jafar Panahi and Nader Saeivar, who won best screenplay at Cannes for “3 Faces” (2018) directed by Panahi, have reunited for “The Witness.” To be directed by Saeivar, the project has been selected for the 21st Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the project market that operates concurrently with FilMart (March 13-16). Saeivar made his feature debut with “The Alien” (2020), which was a Berlinale selection and won prizes at the Beijing, Hong Kong, Duhok, Taormina and International Crime and Punishment film festivals. Saeivar’s sophomore feature, “No End,” debuted at Busan in 2022 and won him best director at Goa and a brace of awards at Vesoul recently.

Naman Ramachandran Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen wears his producers hat at the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) shepherding two projects from debut directors. Chen’s feature directorial debut “Ilo Ilo” (2013) won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes. His most recent film as director, “Drift,” bowed at Sundance earlier this year. As a producer, Chen’s recent credits include Locarno selection “Arnold Is a Model Student” and Busan selection and Red Sea winner “Ajoomma.” First up is the English-language animated feature “Skin Coat,” directed by Singapore’s Tan Wei Keong. Set in the 16th century, it will follow a son who returns to his village to see his aging parents, and his male lover has to put on a woman’s skin coat to accompany him back home.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief After three editions that were canceled due to a combination of COVID and bad timing, Hong Kong’s FilMart film rights market may have finally had some things go its way. It opens March 13 with many factors now moving in its favor. Not least of these are the moves by the Hong Kong government to end its previously harsh and persistent disease-control measures. The city wound down its disruptive quarantine and tracking measures at the end of 2022, opened its borders in January and finally dropped its mask mandate in the last 10 days. “We saw an immediate jump in interest from buyers and sellers after Chinese New Year’s border opening and there were no more restrictions on the food and beverage sector,” says Gloria Chan, section head for the entertainment industry at FilMart organizer, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The much-decorated Japanese drama “Drive My Car” was named the best film Sunday at the Asian Film Awards, defeating hot favorite “Decision to Leave.” Other notable awards went to Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda whose “Broker” debuted at Cannes, but which was largely shunned in his home country. “Decision to Leave,” which started the evening with ten nominations, was nevertheless rewarded with three awards, best screenplay, best production design and best actress for China’s Tang Wei.

Sammo Hung will be presented with a lifetime achievement honor at the Asian Film Awards. The ceremony was back as an in-person event after a two-year absence and has shifted back to Hong Kong after previously being held in Hong Kong, Macau and Busan. Hung will accept the award on Sunday at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. Hung’s career as an actor, action choreographer, director and producer spans some 60 years. His acting credits include action comedies “Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog” and “Odd Couple,” paranormal horror comedies “Encounters of the Spooky Kind” and “The Dead and the Deadly,” comedy film series “Lucky Stars” and gangster action film “Shanghai, Shanghai.” In 1982, Hung won the best actor prize at the second Hong Kong Film Awards for his directorial effort “Carry on Pickpocket,” as well as best action choreography for “The Prodigal Son,” which he also directed and starred in.

‘Riceboy Sleeps’ Scoops Top Canadian Film AwardAnthony Shim’s Riceboy Sleeps has won Canada’s biggest film award, the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award. The prize, decided by the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA), comes with a CAN$100,000 ($72,000) cash prize. Riceboy Sleeps beat nominees Clement Virgo’s Brother and David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future. The semi-autobiographical film explores the challenges of living between two cultures through the tale of a Korean immigrant single mother raising her son in Canada. Shot in the Greater Vancouver area and Korea, the feature world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022, winning its Platform Prize, and then played in Busan and a raft of other festivals. The win comes as Toronto-based distributor Game Theory Films gears up for the title’s Canadian release on March 17. The feature will also be released in Korea, Singapore and the US in the coming months.  “The Toronto film community has been so good to us since TIFF where this crazy journey first began and I hope to make more films in the future that will warrant the same type of support,” commented Shim.

Naman Ramachandran Janchivdorj Sengedorj’s “The Sales Girl” (Mongolia), Asif Rustamov’s “Cold As Marble” (Azerbaijan), Ken Kwek’s “#LookAtMe” (Singapore) and Nader Saeivar’s “No End” (Iran) were among the winners at the  Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema on Tuesday. “The Sales Girl,” which played at Busan and won awards at the New York and Osaka Asian film festivals, won the Golden Cyclo, the festival’s top honor awarded by the international jury. “Cold as Marble,” which has played at Talinn Black Nights and the Goa festivals, took home three awards, including the grand jury prize and the Marc Haaz and Netpac jury prizes.

Naman Ramachandran Indian cinema legend Amitabh Bachchan will headline Ribhu Dasgupta’s courtroom drama thriller “Section 84.” The film is produced by Reliance Entertainment, Film Hangar and Saraswati Entertainment in association with Jio Studios. This film will mark Bachchan and Dasgupta’s third collaboration after the critical success of Sony Entertainment Television India’s 2014 miniseries “Yudh” and 2016 film “Te3n.” Bachchan’s last release was Sooraj Barjatya’s “Uunchai,” one of the few box office hits in a 2022 that was otherwise dull for Bollywood.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Martial arts veteran Sammo Hung is to be presented with a lifetime achievement honor at the upcoming Asian Film Awards. The ceremony is back as an in-person event after a two-year absence and shifts back to Hong Kong after previously being held in Hong Kong, Macau and Busan. Hung is expected to accept the award on Sunday March 12 at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. “I’m so happy and surprised that I can still win awards these days, especially an award that affirms my entire performing career,” said Hung in a forwarded statement. He has a career as actor, action choreographer, director and producer that stretches some 60 years.

He’s our hope forever! With news of his plans to enlist, many people fans of BTS are asking: Is J-Hope leaving BTS? 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema has unveiled its 85-title lineup for the edition that starts later this month (February 28 to March 7, 2023). Elements include a 10-film competition section, a 10-film documentary film section, a tribute to the Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu; a thematic section “Asian Diaspora Cinema” offering a panorama of works by directors from Asian countries living in exile; and a Philippines cinema sidebar. Fiction films in competition include: Azerbaijan’s “Cold as Marble,” by Asif Rustamov; China’s “In Our Prime,” by Liu Yulin; Korea’s “A Letter from Kyoto,” by Kim Min-ju; India’s: “Behind Veils,” by Praveen Morshhale; Iran’s “No End,” by Nader Saievar; Mongolia’s “The Sales Girl,” by Sengedorj Janchivdorj; The Philippines’s “Feast,” by Brillante Mendoza; Singapore’s “#LookAtMe,” by Ken Kwek; and Vietnam’s “Memento Mori: Earth,” by Marcus Vu Manh Cuong. The president of the jury is Lee Yong-kwan, president of the Busan film festival.

Naman Ramachandran Singapore-based film production outfit Potocol, whose “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” by Jow Zhi Wei bowed at the Berlin Film Festival’s Generation 14plus competition, has revealed a diverse Asian slate. Potocol’s recent triumphs include Bangladeshi filmmaker Abdullah Mohammad Saad’s Cannes selection “Rehana Maryam Noor” and Indonesian director Makbul Mubarak’s Venice winner “Autobiography.” The company, led by Jeremy Chua who is currently at the Berlinale, has a growing reputation for championing the rise of young filmmakers from across Asia. Potocol has four films in post-production and several more in development. Nicole Midori Woodford’s debut feature “Last Shadow at First Light” is a supernatural road trip drama that follows a Singaporean teenager tracing the footsteps of her missing mother in Japan and explores the ripple effects of a traumatic event subconsciously buried within the family unit.

Naman Ramachandran India’s Clapstem Entertainment, led by director-producer Girish Malik and producer Amardeep S. Reen, has completed film “Band of Maharajas,” which is set for a market screening at Berlin’s European Film Market (EFM). Malik’s directorial debut, ecological drama “Jal” (2013), was in Busan’s New Currents competition. His sophomore feature, refugee and sports themed “Torbaaz” (2020), headlined by Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, was a Netflix original film. His third film “Band of Maharajas” is the story of three clueless young folk musicians from a remote border village in India who undertake an unplanned and unusual journey to Pakistan that changes their lives and music. The film has the tagline “While countries divide us, music unites us.”