13th Pusan Int'l Film Festival

The spectacular int'l cinema festival Oct. 3-10 attracted greatest crowd this year with films from 60 countries

The 13th Pusan International Film Festival(PIFF) held in Busan closed its 7-day run Oct.10 and will go down as the most successful one in the event's history in terms of the number of viewers and films entered.
The PIFF organizing committee held at a press conference at Haeundae Grand Hotel on Oct. 10, and announced that a total of 315 movies were from 60 countries were presented at the event with 133 of them having world premiers at the festival. Those shown for the first time overseas totaled 48 films and 95 films were shown for the first time in Asia. The number of viewers in the PIFF event totaled 198,818, the largest in the event's history. They watched the films at 37 cinema houses in Busan and its suburbs including Megabox, Plymouth Cinema, Lotte Cinema, and Busan Theater and outdoor cinema facilities.
The international film event's only competitive event 'New Current'chose co-winners of the event: "Members of Funeral"directed by Paek Seung-bin from Korea and "No Defense"directed by Mashihi Ichii of Japan.
The winners reach received $30,000 in cash prizes.
Each movie shown at those cinema houses had 72 percent viewership rate on average, which is lower than 75.8 percent during the event last year. The opening ceremony had the highest viewer attendance rate with 98.2 percent of the seats occupied, the organizing committee said.
In order to improve customer services at the film event, the PIFF allocated only 30 percent of tickets at the cinemas"where movies played, and the rest to be sold through the Internet. The event's organizing committee also expanded the lodging facilities for the viewers who come from outside Busan and allowed a number of cinemas opened all night.
The number of invited guests totaled 9,510, except the journalists of which 4,640 attended the Asian film market, which was part of the event including those representing film companies in Asia, totaling 132 companies from 28 countries in Asia, the organizing committee said,
adding 38 foreign and Korean movies were run from Oc. 3 and 5 for those film market participants.
One of the PIFF events included the Asian Film Fund Forum dedicated to finding sources of investment and able film producers. The movies made in the less known countries for filming making such as the Philippines and Central Asian countries were introduced for the first time.

Busan Firework Festival:
In the meantime, the Busan Firework Festival held Oct. 17 and 18, the fourth annual event, hosted by Busan Metropolitan Government, attracted some 1.2 million watchers as the weekend event at the Gwangan-ri beach near Busan opened its spectacular firecracker show in the evening of Friday, Oct. 17.
On Oct. 18, from 3 in the afternoon to 11 at night, various entertainment and cultural events gave pleasures to Busan citizens and others who came from other parts of the country to watch the great firework.
Along with the firework, such performances as Nanta, a traditional Korean musical instruments ,zings, and movies entertained the audiences from 8 in the evening to 9 p.m. A total of 80,000 pieces of various kinds of fire crackers were shot off into the sky with high-tech equipment, including among them 16-inch firecrackers pieces shot into the sky for 30 times this year, up from 20 times last year, to provide more excitement to the crowd.
What excited the crowd the most was 'Niagra Firecracker'which were fired into the sky each one every 1 km distance on the Gwang Grand Bridge, especially, 25-inch firecracker named "President"Firecracker."
The firework festival took place on the beach of Gwangan-ri, Busan, but it was more fun to watch at nearby beaches as the firework looked more spectacular and the firecrackers exploded high above the sky over the beach
The firework held every year from four years ago took its firm root as an international event as it attracts many foreign visitors in the event every year, Busan City officials said.
They said it was a lot of fun to watch the firecracker show on board a cruiser Tiffany 21, which starts sailing from Haeundae Port at 7 p.m. and can watch the great firework from around 8 p.m. on the third deck of the coastal cruiser.
Another place to watch the entertaining firework was from Geumyon-san, a popular beach near Gwangan-ri beach where the firework took place where some 10,000 watchers were gathered for the firework show. nw

(clockwise) Kim Hyung-yang, director general in charge of culture, sports & tourism at the Busan Metropolitan City Government,; The opening ceremony of the 13th Pusan International Film Festival(PIFF),; and the Busan Firework Festival, both held in Busan.