The case of the Busan International Film FestivalConclusion
It is evident that the BIFF’s regionalization strategy as cultural and industrial practice is insep-
arable from the festival’s rapid expansion. In turn, the BIFF’s rapid growth and expansionism
are linked with the strong commercial imperatives prevalent in the national and regional film
industries as a result of globalization. I have also illuminated how the BIFF has negotiated its own
position within this changing global/local dynamic by examining the festival’s ambivalent and
complex politics in programming both Asian and Korean cinema, in running a project market,
and inspiring urban regeneration. However, the ambivalence towards the politics of simultaneous
regional/national identity precipitated by globalization are intrinsically intertwined. The politics
are frequently at odds with changing political, historical, and economic contexts. From this pers-
pective, new complexities have spawned a drive for the festival to establish a new approach by
expanding its strong regional identity in tandem with a transnational and globalized framework.
Furthermore, the BIFF’s transformation in cultural politics seems to have prompted a shift in East
Asia, with the Hong Kong and Tokyo film festivals attempting to reconstruct their own status
and identity. Indeed, the politics of the cultural industries of East Asia seem to be moving from
the national to the regional in order to participate more fully within a globalized market.
Notes
1 Following the revision of the Korean Romanization system in 2000, “Pusan” became “Busan.” Though
the festival committee decided to retain “Pusan,” and hence the acronym “PIFF” rather than “BIFF.”
However, on account of the constant confusion between the name of the city and the name of the fes-
tival, on February 24, 2011, the official festival name was finally changed to “Busan International Film
Festival” from “Pusan International Film Festival.” All quotations from festival catalogs and newspaper
reports here follow this change to be consistent.
2 This figure includes overseas visitors. In the same year, the Tokyo International Film Festival attracted
around 116,000 people.
3 The rating of A-category for film festivals is determined by The International Federation of Film
Producers Associations (FIAPF). According to the FIAPF, besides Tokyo, there are twelve A-category
festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, San Sebastian, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Cairo, Mar del Plata
(Argentina), Shanghai, Locarno, and Montreal.
4 The PPP is a co-financing and coproduction market for Asian films established in 1998 as a sidebar
event of the third BIFF 1998. It changed its official name to Asian Project Market (APM) in 2011.
5 Introduced in 1966, the Screen Quota system required Korean cinemas to screen local films between
106 and 146 days each year. In effect a trade barrier to protect local films, it is widely presumed that the
strictly enforced system has helped local films to secure screen space and to survive in the highly com-
petitive global film industry. However, the Screen Quota system has been challenged by Hollywood
and put under pressure by the dramatic growth of the local film industry since the late 1990s. As a result,
disagreements emerged, with opponents advocating for a reduction of the quota or the abrogation of
the entire system. Alternatively, Korean filmmakers have vigorously fought to protect the system by
continually protesting against its abolition. Recently, however, as a result of the Free Trade Agreement
between Korea and the United States on April 2, 2007, the quota has been reduced from 146 to 73 days.
6 Japanese cultural products—including films, songs, and TV programs—had been prohibited follow-
ing the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948. This ban was relaxed in the interests of bilateral
relations between Japan and Korea, especially in the wake of President Kim Dae-jung’s visit to Tokyo
in 1998. The first BIFF, in 1996, featured fifteen Japanese films, including the animation feature Ghost
in the Shell (1995) by Oshii Mamoru and Sleeping Man (1996) by Oguri Kohei, the first such public
screenings in Korean film history.
7 Kim Soyoung outlines four factors that have contributed to the rise of film festivals in South Korea.
They consist of cine-mania, the Korean version of cinephilia; the enactment of a local self-government
system; a shift in the site of Korean activism from the politico-economic to the cultural sphere; and the
Segyehwa project (Kim 1998, 185).