NEW DELHI: 27 film projects, including 14 documentaries, are recipients in the latest round of the Busan International Film Festival‘s Asian Cinema Fund.
The awards are divided into three categories, supporting script development, post-production and documentaries. There were a total of 438 submissions, up 10 per cent on last year, including 60 projects from India, 50 from China and 26 from Philippines.
In the Script Development Fund there are three South Korean projects and four Asian projects. The South Korean selection was particularly competitive this year with an 87 per cent increase in submissions from local film-makers.
The three local directors - GOH Tae-jeong, KIM Geon and SHIM Hyeon-seok - have a track record as short film directors and will develop their first feature films with the fund.
The festival has a broad definition of Asia, which includes Syria, awarding a script development fund to Soudade Kaadan‘s The Day I Lost My Shadow. The three other Asian projects originate from India, Philippines and Indonesia.
Five projects have been selected for the Post-Production Fund, three from South Korea and two from Asia.
They include, from Mongolia, Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig‘s Yellow Coltand from Thailand, Lee Chatametikool‘s Concrete Clouds (pictured). The latter has now completed shooting and is expected to be completed by October.
The South Korean projects - from Seo Ho-bin, Lee Yu-bin and Kim Jae-han, a former assistant director of Hong Sang-soo - are described as "artistically ambitious and clearly focused".
There are 14 recipients within the Asian Network of Documentary Fund, of which five are South Korean projects, including new films by established film-makers IM Heung-sun and Kim Tae-il.
Established Asian documentary film-makers with support for their new documentary projects include China‘s DU Haibin, Singapore‘s Tan Pin Pin and Japan‘s Nakamura Takayuki.
