Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has announced the 29 projects selected for this year’s Asian Project Market (APM), a core strand of the festival’s industry activities, including new works from Thailand’s Aditya Assarat, China’s Wang Qi, Vietnam’s Le Bao and Myanmar’s Maung Sun, whose producer Ma Aeint is currently in prison in Yangon.
Ma Aeint, who previously produced Maung Sun’s award-winning Money Has Four Legs, was recently sentenced to three years in jail with hard labour by Myanmar’s military junta, which took over the country in a brutal coup in early 2021. She was charged with “causing fear, spreading fake news or agitating against government employees”. She is attached as a producer to Maung Sun’s new project, Future LaobansThe drama is described as “a drama about the” “international dimension of organized crime.”
Assarat is a Thai director who has won numerous awards (Hi-so, Wonderful TownAfter ten years of focusing on the production, co-managing and contributing to omnibus projects, he is now directing feature-length films. His latest project is entitled The Thonglor Kids, produced by Singapore’s Fran Borgia, to APM.
Wang Qi was awarded a Kim Jiseok Special Mention The Bargain at last year’s BIFF, is bringing a project called Red River. Le Bao, whose feature debuts Taste(2021), played in Berlin, Busan. Tonight, the Sea is Calm, a project that juxtaposes stories of Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees and boat people from Vietnam.
The list includes female Asian directors, including Afghan filmmakers Sahraa Karaimi and her feature debut Hava, Maryam, and Ayesha(2019) Played in Venice, and Roya Saat (A Letter to the President); along with Iran’s Dornaz Hajiha, whose debut As a Fish On The Moon played at this year’s Karlovy Vary, and who is bringing an Iran-China-Hong Kong co-production to Busan (see full list of projects below).
Korean projects include Day of Dongkyeong, directed by Kim Se-in, who won five prizes including the New Currents Award at last year’s BIFF for The Apartment with Two Men.
This year’s APM decided to exclude non-Asian projects in order to “provide more focused support for Asian projects”The selection criteria was also tightened to include filmmakers who have helmed at least one feature-length film and producers who have been involved in the production of at minimum one feature film.
Three films supported by the Asian Cinema Fund’s Script Development Fund will also be included as APM projects as BIFF moves towards strengthening ties among its various strands. New project awards are also being introduced from sponsors including Taiwan’s TAICCA, Japan’s VIPO and Cambodia’s Kongchak Studio.
APM 2022 will take place as an in-person event for three days from October 9-11 during the Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) in the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO).
ASIAN PROJECT MARKET 2022 LINE-UP:
20th Century Girls, dir: Choi Jinyoung, prod: Kim Sungwoo (Korea)
Beyond the Frame, dir: Lee I-Hui, prods: Estela Valdivieso Chen, Hazel Wu (Taiwan)
Day Of Dongkyeong, dir: Kim Sein, prod: Jang Jiwon (Korea)
Diaphanous, dir: Dornaz Hajiha, prod: Isabelle Glachant (Iran, Hong Kong, China)
Erinyes, dir: Jung Wonhee, prod: Jero Yun (Korea)
Future Laobans, dir: Maung Sun, prods: Maung Sun, Ma Aeint (Myanmar)
Gaspar, dir Yosep Noen, prods Yulia Eva Bhara, Cristian Uell (Indonesia).
Hana, dir. Lee Dong-eun. Prod. Choi Sun-hee. Korea
In The Land Of Brothers, dir: Raha Amirfazli, prod: Adrien Barrouillet (France, Iran)
The Kid, dir: Oh Seongho, prod: Kwun Jungin (Korea)
Last Shadow at First Light, dir: Nicole Midori Woodford, prod: Jeremy Chua (Singapore, Japan, Slovenia)
The Life I Stole, dir Sugua Putri purnama, prod Tan Cher Kian (Malaysia).
Loop Out, dir: Kim Dukjoong, prod: Jung Hyunjung (Korea)
My Kabuliwala, dirs: Balaka Ghosh, Sahraa Karimi, prods: Maxine Williamson, Kumud Ranjan, Defrim Isai (India, Australia)
My Sunshine, dir: Hiroshi Okuyama, prod: Nishigaya Toshikazu (Japan)
Only One of a Kind, dir: Iram Parveen Bilal, prods: Apoorva Bakshi, Abd Aziz Merchant, Iram Parveen Bilal (Pakistan, U.S.)
People’s Violence (working title), dir: Mori Tatsuya, prod: Kobayashi Sanshiro (Japan)
Rashid, dir : Prithvi Konanur and Thejaswi Koanur (India).
Red River, dir: Wang Qi, prods: Clarissa Zhang, Pan Yan (China)
Safa, dir: Maksud Hossain, prods: Maksud Hossain, Trilora Khan, Barkat Hossain, Tanveer Hossain (Bangladesh)
Tonight the Sea Is Calm, dir: Le Bao, prod: Lai Weijie (Singapore)
Sima’s Song, dir: Roya Sadat, prod: Alba Sotorra (Spain, Netherlands, France)
Soldier Of Love, dir: Farkhat Sharipov, prods: Dina Zhumabek, Julia Kim (Kazakhstan)
Something About Us, dir: Jungeun, prod: Park Doohee (Korea)
The Thonglor Kids, dir: Aditya Assarat, prod: Fran Borgia (Thailand, Singapore)
Tiger’s Pond,dir: Natesh Hedge, prod: Rishab Setty (India).
Turning Pages (working titles), dir: Eugene Suen, prod: Kim Heejeon (Korea, U.S.)
The Way to School, dir: Chung Jiyoung, prod: Jeong Sangmin (Korea)