The curtain came down on the 30th edition of the Busan International Film Festival last Friday night with a closing ceremony that doubled as an awards gala, bringing the event’s first-ever competition to a close. The newly launched Busan Award crowned veteran Chinese-Korean auteur Zhang Lu’s Gloaming in Luomu as best film, while Taiwanese screen star–turned–first-time filmmaker Shu Qi took home best director honors for Girl, a coming-of-age story based on her childhood.
Over the course of the 2025 event, there were 329 films, including 90 premieres, screened across 31 screens in seven theaters in this South Korean port city. And, in keeping with the occasion of marking three decades, the stars came out to play.
Local icons Lee Byung-hun, Blackpink’s Lisa and Han Hyo-joo shone on opening night. International A-listers including Guillermo del Toro, Michael Mann, Juliette Binoche, Milla Jovovich and creator-of-the-hour KPop Demon Hunters’ Maggie Kang soon followed suit.
The international industry turned out en masse to get a feel for things on the ground in Korea, and across Asia, and to make sure the parties in and around the beachside Haeundae district were overflowing.
The Hollywood Reporter was onsite all the way, and we’re leaving – eventually – with a few things on our minds.
Changes Were the Talk of the Town
Eyebrows had been raised with BIFF’s decision to introduce the likes of best film, best director and best actor to the festivities and join the competition among the world’s top competitive film festivals.
BIFF wants to chart fresh horizons after 30 years, and who can fault that thinking given an already loaded yearly festival schedule? At the very least, the Busan Awards got people talking – with “passion and heat,” according to new festival director Jung Hanseok.
“When people heard [about the changes] the usual reaction was ‘Well, that will be challenging,’ which usually means they think you can’t pull it off,” said the festival’s new program director Karen Park. “But we’ve got people talking, which means we’ve got them engaged.”
There have been other tweaks across the program, too, including the new (and quickly sold out) Carte Blanche section, which started by inviting filmmakers and writers to pick any film they liked to screen and discuss, but now hopes in future editions to involve artists and entertainers. Highlights included KPop Demon Hunters’ Kang selecting the Bong Joon Ho monster classic The Host, and Bong himself turning his attention to Aoyama Shinji’s thriller Eureka.
“I think we answered a lot of doubts and showed that we are not afraid of facing changes or making new adjustments to survive through this era,” said Park.
Creativity Shows That Korean Content Is Still King
Busan opens the eyes of the world to what’s going on across Korea each year, and once again the program demonstrated the depth of talent and creativity the market boasts.
Director Yoo Jaein’s debut En Route To (from Hive Filmworks Inc) is a case in point. It tackles a complex, sensitive topic — a schoolgirl falls pregnant to a teacher and decides to keep the child — with remarkable candor (and, at times, humor). And in Lee Ji-won (playing the girl’s irrepressible friend) it has surely unearthed a star.
Other low-key standouts included Lee Kwang-kuk’s Beautiful Dreamer (M-Line Distribution), a sensitive look at grief and the struggle toward acceptance. Those looking for commercial flair were well served by two smart, stylish thrillers: the soon-to-be-released Boss (Finecut International) – all ’90s style and slippery men in shiny suits from Ra Hee-chan – and Lee Kwan’s Project Y (Plus M Entertainment), which pairs Han So-hee and Jun Jongseo as wronged women out to set their world right.
The numbers might be down in Korea, but the industry remains in good hands.
Reza Rahadian Leaves Fans and Critics Wowed
While the marquee awards were announced Friday night, the tradition of handing out prizes at Friday morning’s closing press conference continued — as did BIFF’s ability to surprise.
Enter Reza Rahadian. One of Indonesia’s most bankable stars — he’s won five of the country’s Oscar-equivalent Citra Awards — Rahadian brought his debut On Your Lap (Gambar Gerak Film) to BIFF for its world premiere, and it duly collected four of the awards voted on by audiences and critics.
It’s a nuanced, tender film that follows a single mother’s plight as she struggles to make ends meet in a coffee shop with questionable serving practices, while looking for love. Word quickly spread of its power, and of the performance of its star Claresta Taufan, who won BIFF’s rising star award, with audiences drawn to what programmer Park Sungho called “a poignant gaze into a woman’s intimate struggle and her fragile hold on hope in the face of crisis.”
Indonesian cinema is a growing presence across international festivals, and Rahadian’s obvious talent, and the film’s quality, are sure to help it gain further traction.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Respite, however brief it may prove, from the gloom of Korea’s falling box office and production figures arrived with the news that audiences came to BIFF in droves.
Total admissions of 175,889 were up by around 20,000 from last year, and at the concurrent Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), the 30,006 attendees represented a 13.5 percent year-on-year boost.
Inside the cinemas, tickets were at a premium and major events, such as the Imax premiere of del Toro’s Frankenstein, came with the kind of fanfare most festivals pine for.
BIFF wants more of the same, but could do with a little help.
The 30th edition was supported by a 20 percent subsidy from the Korean government, down about four percent from last year. “To make the festival bigger — to lift it to a global level — we need more support,” said BIFF chairperson Park Kwangsu.
Over to the suits.
Bi Gan’s Impassioned Plea Rallies the Troops
If there were still any doubters about the power, and, indeed, the future of cinema, Bi Gan had a quiet word.
The Chinese auteur brought his Cannes winner Resurrection (Prix Spécial) to town, a lyrical paean to 100 years of filmmaking in his homeland and another sign that the country’s directors continue to expand their horizons in subject matter and style.
The film is a “big cinema” experience, and BIFF provided plenty of those, often with stars in attendance and eager to dive into audience Q&A sessions that ran overtime. Gan soaked it up, and then found a way to sum up the experience.
“I believe that being able to sit with many people in a theater and watch a movie together is a very special thing,” he said. “Dreaming is usually done in one’s own space. However, movies are a feeling of many people dreaming together.”
