U.S.-based entertainment news media, Variety, will publish a daily newsletter covering the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) starting this year. In 11 years, PIFF has grown to become both Korea and Asia's biggest film festival, expanding rapidly in pace with the Asian film industry as a whole.
Held in the southeastern port city of Busan, PIFF draws attention from Asian filmmakers, critics, journalists and fans, and is quickly becoming the Cannes of Asia. In fact, until now Variety has only published dailies for the World's top three film festivals, Cannes, Berlin, and Toronto. The decision to release a daily during PIFF (Oct. 12-20)indicates a growing international perception of the elevated stature of the festival.
Much of the momentum comes from PIFF's new Asian Film Market, which aims at being a total market, covering financing, production, location scouting, post-production and sales. The film market is scheduled to put on more than 200 industry screenings, with 156 film companies participating. The film market, which will run for four days during the festival, reflects PIFF's renewed emphasis on the commercial side of cinema. Festival organizers said they will promote the event as a venue for those who want to buy and sell high-quality Asian films, as well as bring together investors and filmmakers, so that more projects can receive financing. Variety has announced it will dispatch to Busan a dozen reporters from its headquarters in Los Angeles, as well as additional correspondents and critics throughout Asia, for the production of the daily newsletter.
Nigel D'Sa (KOFIC)
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