Stuart Gordon's King Of The Ants and Ahn Byung-ki's Bunshinsaba have been selected tobookend the 8th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan), whichruns from July 15-24 in South Korea.

The world premiereof Bunshinsaba marks the third time thata film by Ahn will close the festival, with previous works A Nightmare and Phonewrapping up the 4th and 6th PiFan festivals respectively.

This year's editionfeatures special sections devoted to early Japanese animated works from1924-1955, the New York-based Troma Studio, German director Jorg Buttgereit,and classic Shaw Brothers films from Hong Kong. In addition, veteran Korean director Yu Hyun-mok's avant-gardefeature An Empty Dream (1965) will be"creatively restored" with a new final reel, and screened for thefirst time in 40 years.

As South Korea'ssecond major festival after Pusan, PiFan is also expanding its links with theEuropean Fantastic Film Festival Federation (EFFFF), of which it is asupporting member.

An EFFFF prize forbest fantastic Asian film will be introduced for the first time, in addition tothe regular Puchon Choice feature and short film competition sections.

In total, 261features and shorts from 32 countries will be presented during the ten-dayevent, which includes two days of "post-festival" screenings afterthe July 22 closing ceremony.

Puchon Choice feature competition
Aaltra (Belgium/France), Benoit Delepine/GustaveKervern
Arahan (Korea), Ryoo Seung-wan
Gagamboy (Philippines), Erik Matti
Good Life Delivery (Argentina),Leonardo Di Cesare
The Green Butchers (Denmark), AndersThomas Jensen
Little Men (Kazakhstan/France),Nariman Turebayev
My Suicide (Thailand), ThosapolSiriwiwat
Nina (Brazil), Heitor Dhalia
The Taste of Tea (Japan), IshiiKatsuhito
Undead (Australia), Peter and MichaelSpierig