PUSAN
-- The 13th Pusan International Film Festival wrapped on Friday with top prizes
from its New Currents competition section shared between Korea's "Land of
Scarecrows" and Japan's "Naked of Defenses."
Helmer Roh Gyung-tae's "Scarecrows" is
a collection of stories of isolated people including one about a transgender
woman who wants to become a man. Ichii Masahide's "Naked of
Defenses" portrays a female worker at a plastics factory and delves into her
past memories.
Jury, headed French actress Anna Karina, also made two
special mentions, one for Baek Seung Bin's "Members of the
Funeral" and the other was for Yang Jin's "Er Dong".
At a pres conference Friday morning, PIFF
organizers said that fest had screened 315 feature movies including 85 world
preems, both the largest totals in the fest's 13 year history.
"This year, we tried to introduce films from relatively
unknown territories like Middle Asia, focusing on the Kazakhstan film industry,"
festival director Kim Dong-ho said. "It is also a significant
result that 16 films among the 27 projects funded from Asian Cinema Fund were
screened at this year's festival."
Audience total also hit record levels with a total of
198,818 admissions and a seat occupancy rate of
72.3%.
Total number of guest and business attendees was totaled
11,110, including 3,038 domestic guests, 638 foreign guests, 1,200 'cinephiles'
who the festival invited, 4,640 Asian Film Market guests, and 1,594 members of
the press.
The 4th running of the Asian Film Academy also wrapped
up on Thursday. Headed by Taiwanese helmer Hou Hsiao-hsien as
dean, the teach-in invited 24 individuals from 12 countries to attend 4
workshops and 3 mentoring sessions.
Moving from the metaphorical to the physical, Kim also
outlined the festival's plans to build a permanent home. "The ground-breaking
ceremony of Busan Film Center 'Dureraum' on Oct. 2 was one of the most memorable
moments this year, in that it will be the center of Asian film industry when the
construction is completed," he said.
Pusan
International Film Festival – 2008 winners list
New
Currents Award – joint winners ($30,000)
"Land of Scarecrows" Roh Gyeong-tae
(South Korea)
"Naked of Defenses" Ichii Masahide
(Japan)
New
Currents Award special mentions
"Members of the Funeral" Baek Seung-bin
(South Korea)
"Er Dong" Yang Jin (China)
Sonje
Award ($10,000)
"Andong" by Rommel Tolentino Milo (Philippines)
"Girl" by
Hong Sunghoon (South Korea)
PIFF
Mecenat Award
"Mental" Soda Kazuhiro (Japan)
"Old Partner" Lee
Chung-ryoul (South Korea)
Fipresci Award
"Jalainur" Ye Zhao
(China)
NETPAC
Award
"Members of the Funeral" Baek Seung-bin (South Korea)
"Treeless
Mountain" Kim So-young (South Korea/U.S.)
KNN
Movie Award (Audience Award, $ 20,000)
"100" by Chris Martinez (Philippines)
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