PIFF Ends on High Note
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'Grain in Ear' Wins Top Prize at Pusan Festival
By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
PUSAN _ Director Zhang Zu's "Grain in Ear", a film dealing with the Korean-Chinese experience, received Friday the New Currents award, the top prize in the sole competition section at the 10th Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF).
Zu, a mainlander of a Sino-Korean descent, tells the story of a single mother of Korean ethnicity making her living by selling kimchi on the streets of a small town in Northern China. The film was previously screened at the Cannes Film Festival in the Semaine de la Critique, and won wide respect from international critics.
Along with Zhang, another happy director was South Korean Yoon Jong-bin, who received four different awards for his directorial debut film, "The Unforgiven".
The film about two friends from middle school who meet again while serving in the military received special mention by the New Currents jury, along with "Silent Holy Stone" by Wanma Caidan of China. Yoon also received the FIPRESCI prize, given out by an organization of international film critics; the NETPAC (Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema) award; and PSB Audience Award, voted on by visitors.
"I'd like to thank all the people for showing a great interest in my film", Yoon said. "I'll work hard to make another good film and return to Pusan with it".
Sunje Award, which gives cash awards of 20 million won for Korean documentary filmmakers in the Wide Angle section, went to Jeong Yong-joo and Kim Yeong-nam, who made "Tea & Poison" and "A Bowl of Tea", respectively.
The New Currents Award and some other awards were presented at the closing ceremony of PIFF, which took place last night along with the screening of the closing film "Wedding Campaign".
Overall, the festival's nine-day run was judged to have gone over well. This year's festival was full of events celebrating its 10th anniversary as well as projects launched to prepare for the next 10 years.
"We find the festival really successful", Kim Dong-ho, festival director of PIFF, said yesterday. "This year's event was especially meaningful as it aimed to deliver our gratitude toward audiences who have supported us in the past 10 years and prepare for take-off in the next 10 years".
Screening a total of 306 films from 73 countries, its most ever, the festival sold 192,970 seats, a record for the event and an increase of about 30,000 from last year. A total of 6,088 accredited guests from home and broad visited the festival as well as 1,559 journalists, including 415 from abroad.
Marking its 10th anniversary, the festival has launched ambitious projects this year, which are expected to brighten its future.
The projects include the Asian Film Academy (AFA), educational program to help promising Asian filmmakers; the selection of constructing site for PIFF Center to serve as the festival venues in 2008; and Busan Film Market, to be launched next year, which is expected to boost the local and Asian film industry.
The PIFF Center model was scheduled to be selected among proposed structures by seven renowned international architects and announced at the closing ceremony, but the selection has been postponed to the end of this year.
Thanks to the success of the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP), which completed on Oct. 12, where film projects are helped to meet investors, Kim forecast the Busan Film Market will be also successful.
In PPP, eight projects won awards to receive investments, including the two winners of the Busan Award; "Fairy Tale of a Picture Tree" by Korean Lee Kwang-mo and "Heartbreak Pavilion" by Thai Thunska Pansittivorakul and Sompot Chidgasornpongse. The two projects will each receive $20,000 from the Pusan local government.
By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
PUSAN _ Director Zhang Zu's "Grain in Ear", a film dealing with the Korean-Chinese experience, received Friday the New Currents award, the top prize in the sole competition section at the 10th Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF).
Zu, a mainlander of a Sino-Korean descent, tells the story of a single mother of Korean ethnicity making her living by selling kimchi on the streets of a small town in Northern China. The film was previously screened at the Cannes Film Festival in the Semaine de la Critique, and won wide respect from international critics.
Along with Zhang, another happy director was South Korean Yoon Jong-bin, who received four different awards for his directorial debut film, "The Unforgiven".
The film about two friends from middle school who meet again while serving in the military received special mention by the New Currents jury, along with "Silent Holy Stone" by Wanma Caidan of China. Yoon also received the FIPRESCI prize, given out by an organization of international film critics; the NETPAC (Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema) award; and PSB Audience Award, voted on by visitors.
"I'd like to thank all the people for showing a great interest in my film", Yoon said. "I'll work hard to make another good film and return to Pusan with it".
Sunje Award, which gives cash awards of 20 million won for Korean documentary filmmakers in the Wide Angle section, went to Jeong Yong-joo and Kim Yeong-nam, who made "Tea & Poison" and "A Bowl of Tea", respectively.
The New Currents Award and some other awards were presented at the closing ceremony of PIFF, which took place last night along with the screening of the closing film "Wedding Campaign".
Overall, the festival's nine-day run was judged to have gone over well. This year's festival was full of events celebrating its 10th anniversary as well as projects launched to prepare for the next 10 years.
"We find the festival really successful", Kim Dong-ho, festival director of PIFF, said yesterday. "This year's event was especially meaningful as it aimed to deliver our gratitude toward audiences who have supported us in the past 10 years and prepare for take-off in the next 10 years".
Screening a total of 306 films from 73 countries, its most ever, the festival sold 192,970 seats, a record for the event and an increase of about 30,000 from last year. A total of 6,088 accredited guests from home and broad visited the festival as well as 1,559 journalists, including 415 from abroad.
Marking its 10th anniversary, the festival has launched ambitious projects this year, which are expected to brighten its future.
The projects include the Asian Film Academy (AFA), educational program to help promising Asian filmmakers; the selection of constructing site for PIFF Center to serve as the festival venues in 2008; and Busan Film Market, to be launched next year, which is expected to boost the local and Asian film industry.
The PIFF Center model was scheduled to be selected among proposed structures by seven renowned international architects and announced at the closing ceremony, but the selection has been postponed to the end of this year.
Thanks to the success of the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP), which completed on Oct. 12, where film projects are helped to meet investors, Kim forecast the Busan Film Market will be also successful.
In PPP, eight projects won awards to receive investments, including the two winners of the Busan Award; "Fairy Tale of a Picture Tree" by Korean Lee Kwang-mo and "Heartbreak Pavilion" by Thai Thunska Pansittivorakul and Sompot Chidgasornpongse. The two projects will each receive $20,000 from the Pusan local government.
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