PIFF Premiere Stars

Article from Variety Asia, images from various media sites via empas.com

Pusan honours Rising Stars

Written by Marcus Lim

BUSAN –

Local superstars including Lee Byung-hun and Jung Woo-sung turned up Saturday to honor upcoming talent at the Premiere Star Summit Asia.

The event was an amalgamation of two existing ceremonies, PIFF’s Star Summit Asia, and Premiere’s own annual Rising Star Awards. The merging of both came from budgetary cutbacks, and to prevent the sponsorship overlaps of previous years.

“The festival organization chose and invited Star Summit Asia guests, while Rising Star Awards winners were selected by Premiere. I think the merged events have more synergy effects than ever.” Soyoung Sohn, the international coordinator of APAN told Variety.

The Rising Star Awards winners were selected through polls from professionals and observers of Korean film industry and online votes by audiences.

Korean actors Ha Jung-woo for “The Chaser” and Soo Aae for “Sunny” received the 4th Rising Star Awards while the director award went to helmer Won Shin-yun for “Seven Days”.

Others that were honoured include Choung Kyung-ho, Best actor for “Sunny”, and Chung Yeo-won, who won the best actress award for “Two Faces of My Girlfriend”.

The star-studded event saw notable Korean celebrities like “The Good the Bad and the Weird” helmer Kim Ji-woon, and actors Lee Byung-hun and Jung Woo-sung joining in the festivities.

Korea’s top

GBW at 13th PIFF Open Talk

Article from the Korea Times with GBW Oct 4 – Open Talk photo-captures from various media portals via empas.com

13th Pusan Film Festival Opens on October 2nd

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

Asia’s Largest Cinema Event Kicks Off: Movie-lovers and citizens gather at the Pusan (Busan) International Film Festival (PIFF) opening square at Nampodong, Wednesday evening to celebrate the pre-event of the festival. Asia’s largest cinema event marks its 13th year and will run for nine days until Oct. 10, with more than 300 films from 60 countries being presented to movie fans. / Yonhap

BUSAN ― The 13th Pusan (Busan) International Film Festival (PIFF) kicked off Thursday evening with the world premiere of “The Gift to Stalin” here in this southern port city. It is Asia’s largest cinema event, featuring a record number of 315 films from 60 countries including 48 international premieres over the nine-day run until Oct. 10.

The opening ceremony at the seaside Yachting Center brought together cineastes and film buffs from near and far for “The Gift to Stalin” by Rustem Adbrashev. This is the first time for a small film from Kazakhstan to open PIFF, and what had been considered an “experimental” choice on the part of organizers proved to be a success as it set a new online sellout record of 90 seconds. The newly inserted system of allotting on-the-site reservations for those aged 50-plus and not Internet-savvy was also helpful to some, though PIFF needs to promote it better in future festivals.

While news of the death of top star Choi Jin-sil Thursday morning had many of the local press flocking back to Seoul, the festivity was well spotlighted. It also took place under pleasant autumn weather conditions ― unlike last year, when rain and the “political” postponement by the sudden appearance of presidential candidates muddled the show.

Actors Jung Jin-young, who starred in the record-breaking film “King and the Clown” and most recently “Sunny,” and Kim Jung-eun, heroine of the 2007 hit “Forever the Moment,” hosted the event.

Special guests of PIFF include the makers of the opening film, esteemed director Wang Kar-wai from Hong Kong and major international festival directors, including Thierry Fremaux of Cannes, who has been visiting annually since the sixth season of PIFF, and Geoffrey Gilmore of the Sundance festival, among many others.

The star-studded roster includes Korea’s top stars Hyun Bin and Lee Bo-young, who star in the closing film “I Am Happy,” as well as “Modern Boy” cast Park Hae-il and Kim Hye-soo, hallyu superstar Lee Byung-heon, “Crush and Blush” heroine Kong Hyo-jin and veteran actor Ahn Sung-ki. Also joining the festival are Japanese soap star Juri Ueno, who has a solid fan base here for “Nodame Cantabile”; China’s “little empress” Li Xiaolu; ethnic Korean actors Aron Yoo and Moon Bloodgood; Lun-mei Kawi from Taiwan and Chiu Tein-you from Hong Kong.

PIFF closes Oct. 10 with the premiere of the South Korean film “I Am Happy.” Directed by Yoon Jong-chan, it is about a dejected patient and heartbroken nurse who meet in a psychiatric ward.

For more information, visit www.piff.org (Korean and English).
Credits: hyowlee@koreatimes.co.kr

LBH & GBW at 13th PIFF Open Talk – Saturday, October 4

For more Byunghun pics at the Open Talk