Christine HAROUTOUNIAN

Source: ACFM

Christine HAROUTOUNIAN

Christine Haroutounian’s Black Star Angel scooped the top prize at Busan’s Asian Project Market on Tuesday (September 23) on the closing night of the Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM).

The Armenia-US project picked up the APM Busan Award, which includes a $15,000 cash prize.

Further winners included Yoon Eun-kyoung’s Gochi from South Korea and Eve Baswell’s Heaven Help Us! from the Philippines, which both won two awards apiece.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Black Star Angel marks the second feature of US-Armenian filmmaker Haroutounian, whose debut After Dreaming premiered at this year’s Berlinale. It is executive produced by Cannes award-winner Carlos Reygadas.

Set between Jerusalem, Armenia and Paris, the story will follow a woman who enlists in a war after her life begins to crumble. Producers are Haroutounian and Maxwell Schwartz of Mankazar Film, a production company based in Yerevan and Los Angeles. A shoot is planned to start by spring 2027.

Haroutounian told Screen in Busan: “Right now, the funding is coming together and [Carlos] is willing to help in whatever way makes sense for the film… Creative risk has more liability than payoff these days so having the recognition and respect of a true artist was very grounding.”

Baswell’s Heaven Help Us! won both the Kongchak Studio Award, worth $25,000 in sound post-production services, and Sorfund Award, which invites the project to Norway’s Sorfund Pitching Forum.

The third film of the Filipino director revisits the 1981 tragedy of the Manila Film Center, which saw at least 169 workers fall into the rapid-drying cement of the foundation during construction. Baswel’s short Walay Balay premiered at Cannes’s Directors’ Fortnight last year while her 2019 debut Tia Madre was acquired by Netflix Philippines.

“I don’t want to tell this story for the horror,” she told Screen of the upcoming feature. “I want to see these workers as they are in that moment — eating lunch, joking to kill time, navigating their lives on what would unknowingly be their last day.”

Yoon’s Gochi won the CJ ENM Award of $10,000 and Kantana Award, worth $25,000 in sound post-production services. The project is a mystery occult horror in which a travel vlogging couple visit a lakeside village, eat some gochi fish and discover a bizarre truth in the village.

It is produced by Indiestory’s Stanley Kwak. Yoon is known for The Tenants, which won two awards at Singapore International Film Festival in 2023. Her latest feature Sisterhood was presented at this year’s Cannes market genre showcase Fantastic 7 and screening at Bifan.

The winners were chosen from 30 projects, whose filmmakers attended the co-production and financing platform from September 20-23, meeting with potential partners through pitching sessions and one-on-one meetings. Organisers said that 726 meetings took place, comprising 138 professionals from 127 companies.

The awards jury includes Cannes deputy general delegate Christian Jeune, Choi Yoonhee from South Korea’s Barunson E&A and independent film producer Shen Yang.

The industry platform ran alongside Busan International Film Festival, which is set to host its own closing ceremony with awards on Friday (September 26).

Asian Project Market 2025 winners

APM Busan Award

Black Star Angel (Arm-US)
Dir. Christine Haroutounian

One Cool Award

The Funeral March (Japan-China)
Dir. Fujita Naoya

CJ ENM Award

Gochi (S Kor)
Dir. Yoon Eunkyoung

VIPO Award

Wake Me Up When the Mourning Ends (Malay-HK-It-Tai)
Dir. Lau Kok Rui

Red Sea Film Fund Award

Buy My Car (China-Japan)
Dir. Zhang Yaoyuan

ArteKino Award

Churching Of Women (Jordan)
Dir. Darin Sallam

Songwon Award

Dance Dance Revolution (S Kor)
Dir. Choi Hana

KB Award

Arrival Of Water (Japan-S Kor)
Dir. Jo Heeyoung

Kantana Award (Picture)

Flying Cows (Viet)
Dir. Nguyen Pham Thanh Dat

Kantana Award (Sound)

Gochi (S Kor)
Dir. Yoon Eunkyoung

Kongchak Studio Award

Heaven Help Us! (Phil)
Dir. Eve Baswell

TAICCA Award

Gilddong (S Kor)
Dir. Park Riwoong

Sorfond Award

Heaven Help Us! (Phil)
Dir. Eve Baswell

Topics