The Puchon International Film Festival (PiFan)’s Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF) has announced this year’s It Project line-up of 21 selections from 13 countries.

These include Greek filmmaker Costas Zapas’ Frankenstein: A Death Odyssey and Kei Ishikawa’s comic fantasy Baby, a Japan-Poland co-production.

Scroll down for full list

“Making the selection was a challenge this year with 141 project submissions - more than a 60% increase on last year,” says NAFF managing director Thomas Nam.

Korean projects include Two Weddings And A Funeral director Kim Jho Gwang-soo’s period piece Secret Detective & Vampire; 2011 PiFan Audience Award winner Ji Ha Jean’s Re: Make; and Teenage Hooker Became Killing Machine director Nam Ki-woong’s Capsule.

Director Dain Said is teaming with producer Nandita Solomon again on Malaysian mystery Interchange. Their previous film, Bunohan, sold to Universal Pictures for several territories including UK, France, and Australia before premiering at Toronto.

Other Asian projects include Paul Spurrier’s Thai horror-fantasy The Forest and Chris Chow’s psychological thriller Cherry Returns, a Hong Kong/China project.

American co-directors Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, whose Resolution was a buzz film at Tribeca last year, will participate on a sci-fi Western titled Showdown At The Cataclysm, which Nam describes as “heavily influenced by Korean revenge films and set in an unknown world which could be a futuristic Singapore, Hong Kong or elsewhere in Asia.” One of the main characters is also Asian.

“We’ve always selected projects from Europe and the US as long as they were Asian-themed or had Asian characters or other production elements whether it was an Asian production partner or location,” says Nam.

Costas Zapas, upon whose works the Thessaloniki International Film Festival held a retrospective last year, is bringing a Greece/Germany co-production dealing with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. “It has a different interpretation that can be geared towards Asian financiers, and could be shot in Asia,” Nam says.

Due to hold its sixth edition this year, It Projects boasts several previous selections that have come to fruition including Arvin Chen’s Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, which was in Tribeca and Berlin; Joko Anwar’s Modus Anomali; which went to SXSW and Sitges; and Jeon Kyu-hwan’s The Weight, which went to Venice.

NAFF is also in the midst of planning a 19-project Filipino Spotlight with the Film Development Council of the Philippines, to be announced at a later date.

The event offers one-on-one meetings with investors and co-producers, forums, and prizes with cash and post-production support.

NAFF will run July 21-24 during PiFan which runs July 18 – 28.

Full list of It Projects

(title-country
director-producer
production company)

Asylum (Korea/USA)
Lim Kyoungtack, HAN Mantack
Filma Pictures, Kimple Pictures

Baby (Japan/Poland)
Kei Ishikawa, Weronika Czownowska
EasyBusyProductions, NHK Enterprises

Building Waves (Singapore)
Ric Aw, Joanna Ng
The Creative Room

Capsule (Korea)
Nam Ki-woong, Jeon Youn-chan
Tong

Cherry Returns (Hong Kong/China)
Chris Chow, Mathew Tang
Movie Addict Productions

The Escape (Indonesia)
Nicholas Yudifar, Shirley Tamara
GoodNews Film, Traffic Production

The Forest (Thailand)
Paul Spurrier, Piyawat Dangdej
Commercial Films Siam

Frankenstein: A Death Odyssey (Greece/Germany)
Costas Zapas, Gregory Athanasiou
Minus Pictures, Oticons

Glutton (USA)
Kevin Lewis, George Lee
Venture 3D

Green Field No.1 (Taiwan)
Chung Lee, Tony Yang
Alkemi Films

Interchange (Malaysia)
Dain Said, Nandita Solomon
Apparat

The Night Of The Doll Festival (Japan)
John Williams, Mai Nakanishi
100 Meter Films

Nowhere Man (Korea)
Lee Soo Youn, Kim Eun Hwi
MM Pictures

Oh My Love (Korea)
In Jinmi, Jackson Lee
Mountain Pictures

Re: Make (Korea)
Ji Ha Jean, Kim Hwa-beom
Spinach N Bean

The Salaried Man Slaughter (Korea)
Ko Hyun-chang, Stanley Kwak
Indiestory

Secret Detective & Vampire (Korea)
Kim Jho Gwang-soo, Dave Kim
Rainbow Factory

Showdown At The Cataclysm (USA)
Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson, Justin Benson
Moorhead & Benson

Todays (Korea)
Cho Il Ju, You Jin Hyun
Tory Pictures

When I Come To Me (Hong Kong)
Suk-ching Lam, Lawrence Lau
Tin Hau

Zombie On The Block (Hong Kong/China)
TBC, Yun Fei Li
Fiction 9

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