The Pusan International FilmFestival is collaborating with JoongAng Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) to setup a Los Angeles edition of the festival and also launch aPIFF-branded cable channel in South Korea.

The two partners, along withthe JoongAng group's LA-based newspaper KoreaDaily, plan to hold the first edition of the tentatively titled "PIFF inLA" in the first half of 2007.

The aim is to bring aselection of titles from the 11th edition of PIFF, which closestoday, to Los Angeles with afocus on the festival's Korean and Asian programming.

LA mayor AntonioVillaraigosa visited Pusan on Oct 18 to commemorate the 40-year sisterhoodrelationship between Pusan and LA - which is home to around one million Koreans- and promised to provide support to the new festival.

The tentatively titled PIFFChannel, billed as only the second film festival-oriented TV channel followingthe Sundance Channel, plans to start by airing around 50 films from the PIFFline-up. JBC said it would "proceed step-by-step in securing high-qualityprogrammes from PIFF" but the two sides said it was too early to discuss thechannel's acquisitions strategy.

JBC will take the first stepby creating a PIFF-branded programming block on its existing culture anddocumentary channel, Q Channel.

In addition, JBC hasestablished the $52,000 (50m won) "JoongAng AND Fund" to acquire Korean andAsian documentaries for broadcast on Q Channel and JBC's History Channel. AsianNetwork of Documentaries (AND) is a local initiative that funds Korean andAsian documentary filmmakers.

JBC, which broadcasts PIFF'sopening and closing ceremonies live on Q Channel, is looking at launching itsown programming platform in the US.