Korean drama A Wild Roomer and Indian feature Shivamma have picked up the top awards at the 27th Busan International Film Festival, which today wraps its first fully-fledged edition in three years.
The two titles were named joint winners of BIFF’s New Currents competition, open to first or second features from up-and-coming Asian filmmakers.
Scroll down for full list of winners
A Wild Roomer marks the debut feature of South Korean director Lee Jeong-hong and is an offbeat drama that revolves around a carpenter who becomes close with a young landlord and his wife, spending increasing amounts of time with them while small but strange things start to happen to him.
The New Currents jury, led by Unifrance president Serge Toubiana, said: “We were particularly sensitive to the lightness and subtlety of the director’s view of his characters. Through his innovative cinematography, he creates original circulations between the characters within a house and builds a very contemporary universe.”
Shivamma is the feature directorial debut of India’s Jaishankar Aryar and mainly includes non-professional actors in the story of a school cook who invests her hard-earned money in a network marketing business to raise herself out of poverty – putting her daughter’s marriage at stake in the process. Produced by Rishab Shetty, the Kannada-language feature previously won a WIP Lab award at India’s Film Bazaar in 2021 and was showcased at Cannes’ Marché du Film earlier this year.
The jury praised the director’s “originality and intensity” and said: “Here documentary and fiction meet in an organic and spirited way of making cinema. The generosity of the actors and the scenes create a closeness with this universal story that takes place in an Indian village.”
A Wild Roomer also picked up further hat-trick of prizes including the Netpac Award, Critic b Award and KBS Independent Film Award.
The audience award in the competition section went to The Winter Within, the second feature of Indian filmmaker Aamir Bashir, a decade after his debut Autumn premiered at Toronto. The film is an India-France-Qatar co-production and is about a woman who searches for her missing husband in the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan.
Jiseok winners
At a press conference in Busan on Friday morning, the festival also revealed Iran’s Scent Of Wind and Uzbekistan’s Alteration as joint winners of its new Jiseok competition, open to more established Asian directors with at least three features to their names. Each Kim Jiseok Award, named after the programme director who died in 2017 and had devoted his career to introducing and supporting Asian cinema, comes with a cash prize of $10,000.
Hadi Mohaghegh directed and stars in Scent Of Wind, which opened this year’s BIFF and follows a disabled man going from town to town to replace a broken electrical part and ends up helping and getting help from a variety of people in difficulties. Mohaghegh previously won the New Currents award and Fipresci prize at Busan in 2015 with Immortal.
Alteration marks the latest feature from Uzbekistani director Yalkin Tuychiev and follows a Soviet soldier from Uzbekistan who is drafted into the Afghanistan war, exploring the changes he goes through as he gains enormous wealth from the withdrawal of Soviet forces and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The festival also named Korea’s Kim Youngsung as best male actor for his role in Kim Tae-hoon’s Big Sleep, and Korea’s Kim Geumsoon as best female actor for her performance in Jung Kihyuk’s Star Of Ulsan, which both received their world premieres in the Korean Cinema Today sidebar.
Boost in numbers
The winners will be awarded at the closing ceremony of the festival this evening, which will mark the end of BIFF’s first fully in-person edition since 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic severely impacted attendance and operations.
After just 69 foreign guests attended last year, the festival hosted 752 international visitors this year alongside 3,189 Korean guests. With social distancing restrictions removed, total attendance reached 161,145 representing 74% capacity. The official selection comprised 242 films from 71 countries, of which 88 titles received their world premiere.
On the industry side, the Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) hosted 2,465 badge holders from 49 countries and 1,102 companies . This marked a 12% increase on 2019, when the ACFM was last fully held in-person. There were 942 international visitors and 1,523 Korean guests.
This reflects the increased importance of the ACFM this year for those who do business with Asia, as Hong Kong Filmart took place online again this year as will the upcoming TIFFCOM in Japan, while many from the industry in Asia did not make the trip to Cannes in May.
On the sales front, a total of 72 sales booths represented 272 companies from 22 countries. This was a 36% increase on the 200 companies that attended in 2019.
The inaugural Busan Story Market, billed as the world’s first IP content sales market, saw 1,027 meetings held to discuss 51 Korean and Asian IPs.
The Asian Project Market, which included 29 projects from 14 countries, also clocked a record number of 170 participants from 132 companies, who attended 705 meetings. Myanmar’s Future Laobans by Maung Sun and Indonesia’s Gaspar by Yosep Anggi Neon were previously announced as winners of the APM’s Busan Award and CJ ENM Award respectively.
Busan 2022 award winners
New Currents Award
A Wild Roomer (S Kor)
Dir. Lee Jeong-hong
Shivamma (India)
Dir. Jaishankar Aryar
Kim Jiseok Award
Scent Of Wind (Iran)
Dir. Hadi Mohaghegh
Alteration (Uzbek)
Dir. Yalkin Tuychiev
BIFF Mecenat Award
A Table For Two (S Kor)
Dir. Kim Boram
The Football Aficionado (Iran)
Dirs. Sharmin Mojtahedzadeh, Paliz Khoshdel
Special Mention
Dear Mother, I Meant to Write about Death (US-China)
Dir. Chen Siyi
Sonje Award
Southern Afternoon (China)
Dir. Lan Tian
I’m Here (S Kor)
Dir. Jeong Eunuk
Special Mention
Other Life (S Kor)
Dir. Roh Dohyeon
Actors of the Year
Kim Youngsung, Big Sleep (S Kor)
Kim Geumsoon, Star Of Ulsan (S Kor
KB New Currents Audience Award
The Winter Within (India-Fr-Qat)
Dir. Aamir Bashir
Flash Forward Audience Award
Riceboy Sleeps (Can)
Dir. Anthony Shim
FIPRESCI Award
Thousand and One Nights (Jap)
Dir. Kubota Nao
NETPAC Award
A Wild Roomer (S Kor)
Dir. Lee Jeong-hong
DGK MEGABOX Award
Big Sleep (S Kor)
Dir. Kim Taehoon
Star of Ulsan (S Kor)
Dir. Jung Kihyuk
CGV Award
Greenhouse (S Kor)
Dir. Lee Sol-hui
KBS Independent Film Award
A Wild Roomer (S Kor)
Dir. Lee Jeong-hong
CGK Award
Hail to Hell (S Kor)
Cinematographer: Jung Grim
Critic b Award
A Wild Roomer (S Kor)
Dir. Lee Jeong-hong
Watcha Award
Peafowl (S Kor)
Dir. Byun Sung-bin
Greenhouse (S Kor)
Dir. LEE Sol-hui
Watcha Short Award
Other Life (S Kor)
Dir. Roh Dohyeon
Aurora Media Award
Greenhouse (S Kor)
Dir. Lee Sol-hui
Big Sleep (S Kor)
Dir. Kim Taehoon
Citizen Critics’ Award
Birth (S Kor)
Dir. Yoo Ji-young
Busan Cinephile Award
While We Watched (UK)
Dir. Vinay Shukla
The Choon-yun Award
Baek Jaeho, producer, S Kor
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