Busan International Film Festival to Provide Exchange Bases for International Film Co-Production

This year, the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) Asia Contents Film Market (ACFM) will provide various exchange bases for international film co-production.

The ACFM ‘Producer Hub’, which is being held for the first time this year, selects a ‘Country of the Year’ every year and introduces the country’s co-production experience, and this time, Korea was selected.

The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) and the BIFF Organizing Committee announced that the two organizations, KOFIC and BIFF ACFM, recently signed a business agreement to co-host the ‘ACFM Producer Hub’.

The Producer Hub Program will be held at BEXCO Exhibition Center 2 in Haeundae-gu, Busan from the 5th to the 7th of next month, the same time as this year’s BIFF.

The event will feature seminars providing practical information on international film co-production case studies, locations, film funds, etc., as well as various side events for networking among filmmakers from each country.

A KOFIC official explained, “We plan to use this event as a springboard to support the successful overseas expansion of Korean films by cooperating with film organizations in various countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the Berlin International Film Festival co-production market, which are experiencing rapid growth in the film industry.”

The KOFIC is co-hosting this event as part of the ‘KO-PICK Showcase’ project, which was first introduced this year to support the global advancement of Korean film intellectual property (IP) and filmmakers.

Han Sang-jun, chairman of the Korean Film Council, said, “It is time for a more advanced and differentiated global market entry strategy that matches the elevated status of Korean films,” and added, “I hope that the producer hub we are opening with ACFM will become a venue for exchanges to help Korean films advance into the global market.”