asias crisishit top film festival
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

To go ahead next month

Asia's crisis-hit top film festival

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Asia's crisis-hit top film festival

Visitors walk past a banner for the Busan International Film Festival
Seoul - Arab Today

Asia's top film festival will go ahead next month despite a threatened boycott by some local moviemakers seeking guarantees of artistic freedom, its head said Tuesday.

Kim Dong-Ho, chairman of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), urged filmmakers to end their boycott and vowed to guarantee the festival's independence. 

"I'm really sorry for what happened to the festival in the past... I'll do my best to restore the honour of the festival that has been undermined over the past two years", he told journalists.

The prestigious annual festival has been embroiled in a bitter row with the municipal government of the host city Busan since the screening in 2014 of a controversial documentary about the Sewol ferry disaster.

The film criticised the government's handling of the sinking in April 2014 that killed more than 300 people, mostly schoolchildren. 

A flurry of official probes targeting the organising committee and an unprecedented cut in state funding last year was seen as an attack on the festival's independence. It triggered a boycott threat by an confederation of Korean filmmakers' associations. 

In an attempt to smooth things over, the Busan city government -- a major BIFF sponsor -- appointed Kim, the festival's respected former founding director, as new chairman of the organising committee. 

About half of the filmmakers' groups subsequently lifted the boycott.

Kim on Tuesday stressed that the committee in July passed new rules to ensure the event's artistic and political freedom.

Kim, 78, was brought in as chairman to replace Busan city mayor Suh Byung-Soo, who was at the centre of the fight over the documentary "Diving Bell" in 2014.

Suh said it was "too political" to be premiered at the BIFF, although the screening eventually went ahead.

After that, state funding for the 2015 BIFF was nearly halved and the then-festival director Lee Yong-Kwan became the target of a series of probes by state auditors.

Lee was eventually forced to step down in February after Suh refused to renew his contract. 

The measures prompted hundreds of local directors, actors and producers to stage street rallies in protest at what they described as a state attempt to "tame" critics including artists. 

More than 100 prominent cineastes including the directors of the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals also issued an open letter in February denouncing "political pressure" on BIFF programmers. 

The 21st festival will open for a 10-day run on October 6, with 123 world and international premieres and 178 other films set to be screened.

Its opening film will be South Korea's "A Quiet Dream" by Korean-Chinese director Zhang Lu, which humorously tells the story of a young woman who supports her bedridden father by running a small bar.

"The Dark Wind" by Iraq's Hussein Hassan, about a woman engaged to her lover but captured and sold as a slave by the Islamic State group , has been selected as the closing film.

Source: AFP

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

asias crisishit top film festival asias crisishit top film festival

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

asias crisishit top film festival asias crisishit top film festival

 



GMT 15:46 2018 Wednesday ,12 December

Festive Fashion by Dubai-based designer ASMARAÏA

GMT 09:00 2018 Wednesday ,12 December

May tours Europe in desperate bid to save Brexit deal

GMT 13:29 2018 Friday ,14 December

Turkey targets military over alleged Gulen links

GMT 09:12 2018 Wednesday ,12 December

Ford trains 1,600 motorists in Mideast, Africa in 2018

GMT 10:03 2018 Monday ,10 December

23 Palestinians arrested in West Bank

GMT 09:47 2018 Monday ,10 December

Russian ex-policeman convicted over 56 murders

GMT 19:01 2018 Thursday ,04 October

LEAD S. Korean firms offer aid for quake-hit Indonesia

GMT 11:02 2018 Tuesday ,11 December

ASE opens trading on lower note

GMT 14:08 2018 Friday ,14 December

Bank of Russia raises key rate

GMT 17:37 2017 Thursday ,04 May

Heba Rosas reveals foods that improve mood

GMT 05:35 2017 Thursday ,23 March

ECB: Protectionism may raise trade deficits
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2025 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2025 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday