A resurgence of Korean horror is being reflected at this year’s Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), which has seen a shift in buyer activity, according to sales agents on the market floor.
Now in its 21st edition, this year’s ACFM opened on Saturday (October 10) at the Bexco exhibition centre in the South Korean port city of Busan and is set to conclude on Tuesday (October 13). Around 1,200 companies from around 58 countries are in attendance, assembling more than 3,000 industry professionals.
Notable is a large delegation of Korean sales outfits showcasing their latest offerings on home turf, who have seen a boost in interest following the massive local box office success of The King’s Warden, which earned nearly $120m (KRW163.2bn) after opening in February.
Horror has also proved successful with the likes of Yeon Sang-ho’s Colony and supernatural chiller Salmokji: Whispering Water, and sellers are riding this wave, which has been further buoyed by US hits Obsession and Backrooms.
One seller noted that there is an inbuilt audience for horror titles which appeals in uncertain times when buyers are on the lookout for “guaranteed hits”. The comparatively lower budget of these safer bets holds potential for higher earnings.
As a result, several Korean stands placed their horror titles front and centre, pushing upcoming films such as Killing Time (Redice Entertainment), Stoneborn (Barunson E&A), The Uninvited (CJ 4DPlex), Devotion (Showbox) and Maiden Home (Plus M Entertainment).
Four out of five major upcoming titles from Contents Panda are horror films, including Jang Jae-hyun’s Vampir, which the sales team said it hoped would continue the success Jang found with Exhuma – Korea’s highest-grossing feature of 2024 and credited sparking renewed interest in local horror.
Peter Lee, Contents Panda’s senior manager for sales and production, suggested that “distributors are trying to take less risk”, however, by narrowing their focus to regional titles. Lee noted that he had been taking more meetings for Asian titles compared to a colleague who is responsible for the company’s film slate outside of Asia.
“If the content is farther from where your business is, the riskier it gets,” said Lee. “They’re trying to find something closer to their culture, geographically closer within the region. That is the trend that I’m seeing. Selling and buying is getting more and more regional.”
While multiple South Korean sales agents reported back-to-back meeting schedules at the market, they also noticed a decrease in the number of buyers compared to last year/ This is perhaps due to the market’s proximity to TIFFCOM, which opens in Tokyo in just over two weeks on October 28.
Rachel Joo, head of sales at Seoul-based M-Line Distribution, noted that attendees came straight to meetings and then left immediately instead of taking the time to explore more of what the market has to offer. “I’m still meeting some new people, but there are less networking opportunities to meet more people more organically, outside of their scheduled meetings, than I expected,” she said.
Festival effect
The market runs parallel to Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) and may have been impacted by BIFF starting a day earlier than usual – on a Tuesday (October 6) – positioning the market further away from the first few days of the festival. Lee of Contents Panda said that heavy-hitter titles such as Hirokazu Koreeda’s Look Back and his company’s own film, Final Interview, premiered at the start so it is possible some industry guests might have already left Busan by the time the market opened.
Conversely, Hong Kong’s One Cool Pictures reported enthusiastic response for its latest title, Dead End, which had its world premiere in BIFF’s Vision-Asia section. “Soi Cheang’s name as a producer helps, but having a premiere at BIFF definitely helped create much visibility for the feature debut,” said Christy Choi of One Cool Pictures.
“Buyers from Europe (France, Germany and the UK) reached out to us directly, which is rare. We have buyers making enquiries from Japan and Korea too and a lot of interest from international festivals.”
Closed-door discussion
Following the launch of industry analysis publication The A Report and conference The A Summit last year, ACFM introduced the inaugural The A Summit: Investor Summit. Almost 30 investors from Korea, Asia, Europe and the US attended a closed-door roundtable, according to ACFM director Ellen YD Kim.
The discussion featured a range of international investment cases, including overseas investment activities by Korea’s CJ; Pathé’s involvement in a project with Barunson; and international participation in CJ’s animated feature Ally, directed by Bong Joon Ho. Participants also shared investment and production experiences related to Showbox titles such as The Medium and Exhuma, while Toei and K2 Pictures from Japan shared their strategies.
“Drawing on their practical experience, participants discussed investment models, cross-border financing mechanisms, and potential structures for international collaboration,” said Kim. “The roundtable aimed to foster closer connections between investors and to lay the groundwork for viable investment structures and future cross-border partnerships.”
No comments yet