The Busan International Film Festival opened its 31st edition Tuesday with a star-heavy ceremony, as Michelle Yeoh collected the Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award at the Busan Cinema Center.
Fan Bingbing, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alfonso Cuarón, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Lee Chang-dong, Na Hong-jin and Hyun Bin joined Yeoh on the red carpet. Actress Kim Minha, who stars in the Apple TV series Pachinko and the opening film The Table: Day and Night, hosted the evening. The city’s mayor, delivering his first opening-night address, urged international guests to catch “Busan sickness,” his name for the pull that keeps visitors returning.
Yeoh, making her first trip to the festival in 15 years, said Busan has “grown into a truly global gathering” for Asian cinema. She will present My Grandmother Is the Cube King during her visit. Hong Kong director Ann Hui received the Camellia Award, and former festival chairman Kim Dong-ho received an honor of his own.
The festival runs through Oct. 15 and screens nearly 250 titles from 59 countries, its biggest selection since 2019. The scale reflects the status Busan has gained this year, when the international producers’ federation FIAPF named it a top-tier festival and the Academy made its Best Film winner eligible for Oscar submission in the international feature category.
Kim Jong-kwan’s The Table: Day and Night, a quiet drama about conversations inside a café over a single season, played to roughly 5,000 viewers after the ceremony. Korean press noted it is smaller in scale than the last two opening films.
Visitors will find plenty beyond the opener. Fan Bingbing stars in Wayne Wang’s Diary of a Mad Old Man, and the festival’s Carte Blanche section screens her 2016 film The Handmaiden. Kore-eda presents Look Back, and Koji Fukada brings Nagi Notes.
One planned appearance fell through. The production company behind the thriller The Assassins canceled the cast’s ceremony attendance and an outdoor stage greeting with director Heo Jin-ho and actors Yoo Hae-jin, Park Hae-il and Lee Min-ho. Organizers gave no reason.
