US horror Obsession and Cannes award-winner Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma are among the international competition titles selected for the 30th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan, July 2-12).
Some 11 features will compete for the top prize in the Bucheon Choice: World – Features section, newly rebranded as part of a wider restructure of the programme at the leading genre festival in South Korea.
The strand is dedicated to presenting the Korean premieres of features by emerging directors and spans Asia, Europe and North America.
Curry Barker’s Obsession premiered at Toronto and is a psychological horror about a hopeless romantic who courts supernatural trouble when he breaks the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win over his crush. The feature directorial debut of Barker was acquired by Focus at TIFF.
Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma marks the second feature from Jane Schoenbrun, director of I Saw The TV Glow. The film, which won the Queer Palm at Cannes last month where it premiered as the opening film of Un Certain Regard, follows a queer filmmaker hired to make the latest instalment of a slasher series and the actress who played a key role in the original franchise. The UK-Canada production stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson.
Titles from Asia include Burn, a portrait of anxious youth from Japan’s Makoto Nagahisa that generated buzz at Sundance; and Zsazsa Zaturnnah, an animated musical comedy adapted from a cult comic that became a pop culture hit in the Philippines.
Set to world premiere at Bifan are Japanese horror Cursed Meme by Kan Yamamoto and Niko, a Korea-Taiwan co-production directed by Julien Birban Levy and set in a reimagined future Seoul.
Further festival favourites include Australian romance-horror Leviticus by Adrian Chiarella, which played in the Midnight section at Sundance; and Marion le Coroller’s body horror Species, which premiered in Midnight Screenings at Cannes.
Also in the lineup are Paul Urkijo Alijo’s The Night (Gaua), which channels Basque mythology and witchcraft legend; Hanna Bergholm’s folk horror Nightborn, starring Rupert Grint; and Irish folk horror Hokum, the latest film Damian McCarthy, whose previous feature Oddity proved a hit at Bifan in 2024.
Bucheon Choice World: Features 2026
Burn (Japan)
Dir. Makoto Nagahisa
Cursed Meme (Japan)
Dir. Kan Yamamoto
Hokum (Ire-UAE)
Dir. Damian McCarthy
Leviticus (Australia)
Dir. Adrian Chiarella
The Night (Sp-US)
Dir. Paul Urkijo Alijo
Nightborn (Fin-Fr-UK-Lith)
Dir. Hanna Bergholm
Niko (S Kor-Tai)
Dir. Julien Birban Levy
Obsession (US)
Dir. Curry Barker
Species (Fr-Bel)
Dir. Marion le Coroller
Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma (UK-Can)
Dir. Jane Schoenbrun
Zsazsa Zaturnnah (Phil-Fr)
Dir. Avid Liongoren
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