Bangladesh drama The Wrestler and Japanese feature September 1923 have won the top awards at the 28th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, October 4-13).
The two titles were named joint winners of BIFF’s New Currents competition, which includes first or second features from rising Asian filmmakers.
At a press conference in Busan today (October 13), the festival also revealed Sri Lanka’s Paradise and Kyrgyzstan’s Bride Kidnapping as joint winners of the Kim Jiseok Award, open to more established Asian directors with at least three features to their names.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The Wrestler marks the debut feature of Toronto-based Bangladeshi filmmaker Chowdhury and centres on an eccentric old fisherman who trains rigorously in a traditional form of wrestling, boli khela, before taking on the village champion.
The New Currents jury, led by Korean director Jung Sung-il, said: “The film was like a fantastic single-round match, magically depicting an exciting narrative.”
September 1923 is the narrative feature debut of Mori, an established Japanese documentary maker whose first film A played the Berlinale in 1999. Marking 100 years since Japan’s Great Kanto earthquake, this historical feature dramatises a massacre that followed the natural disaster. The jury praised “the bravery to face history that had been forgotten”.
The film was selected for Busan’s Asian Project Market last year and was released in Japan by Uzumasa on September 1.
From BIFF’s Jiseok strand, Paradise is directed by Sri Lankan independent cinema pioneer Vithanage, known for Death On A Full Moon Day, August Sun and Flowers Of The Sky. His latest centres on an Indian couple who travel to Sri Lanka to celebrate their wedding anniversary, but after their possessions are stolen, conflicts reveal troubles in their relationship.
Bride Kidnapping is a drama that exposes the widespread practice of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan. Director Abdykalykov’s credits include 2015’s Heavenly Nomadic and he won the Fipresci prize at BIFF in 2019 with Running To The Sky.
The awards, which will be presented at the closing ceremony of the festival this evening, were evenly spread across the categories.
The actors of the year awards when to Jang Sung-bum from Park Hong-jun’s Work To Do and Oh Minae from Lee Mirang’s Concerning My Daughter – both South Korean features that screened in the Korean Cinema Today: Vision strand.
The KB New Currents audience award went to South Korea’s Heritage by Lee Jong-su, about a man who opts out of military service and the social worker assigned to him, while the Flash Forward Audience Award went to French drama The Dreamer by Anais Tellenne, which premiered at this year’s Venice in the Horizons Extra strand.
BIFF announced the winners of its New Vision Awards yesterday, which included Thailand’s Solids By The Seashore and Korean family drama House Of The Seasons.
Festival and industry figures
According to a report published by BIFF, attendance reached 142,432 across the 10-day festival. This was down 13% on last year’s attendance of 161,145.
However, last year’s festival screened 242 films while the official selection this year was down to 209, due in large part to budget cuts associated with several top-level resignations that saw sponsors withdraw support. It meant that occupied seats were actually up this year to 82% from 74% in 2022.
BIFF hosted 891 international visitors and 2,903 Korean guests.
On the industry side, the Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) hosted 2,479 badge holders from 49 countries and 918 companies.
On the sales front, a total of 98 sales booths represented 271 companies from 23 countries. A total of 32 companies joined for the first time, including the pavilion of Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan and Austria.
The second Busan Story Market, billed as the world’s first IP content sales market when it launched last year, saw 1,000 meetings held to discuss 50 original IPs from Korea and Asia.
The Asian Project Market, which included 30 projects from 13 countries, led to a record-breaking 826 meetings – up 17% year-on-year. It comprised 140 companies and 196 participants. APM award winners were announced earlier in the week.
Busan 2023 award winners
New Currents Award
The Wrestler (Bang-Can)
Dir Iqbal H. Chowdhury
September 1923 (Japan)
Dir Tatsuya Mori
Kim Jiseok Award
Paradise (Sri Lanka-India)
Dir Prasanna Vithanage
Bride Kidnapping (Kyrgyz)
Dir Mirlan Abdykalykov
BIFF Mecenat Award
The Voices Of The Silenced (S Kor-Japan)
Dir Park Soo-nam, Park Maeui
Republic (Sing-China)
Dir Jin Jiang
Sonje Award
Mydear (S Kor)
Dir Jeon Dohee, Kim Sohee
21 Weeks Later (Iran)
Dir Nasrin Mohammadpour
Special Mention
Everybody’s Gotta Love Sometimes (Fr-My-Indo)
Dir Sein Lyan Tun
Actors of the Year
Jang Sung-bum, Work To Do (S Kor)
Oh Minae, Concerning My Daughter (S Kor)
KB New Currents Audience Award
Heritage (S Kor)
Dir Lee Jong-su
Flash Forward Audience Award
The Dreamer (Fr)
Dir Anais Tellenne
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