13th Pusan International Film Festival

The fest will run from October 2 to 10 in Seoul. This fest has the following awards given to Korean and Asian films, documentaries and shorts.

New Currents Award, the only competitive section of PIFF, promotes emerging film talents from Asia by selecting best new films in the section
First introduced in this year, PIFF Mecenat Award is granted to the best Korean and Asian documentary films from Wide Angle section.
Sonje Award: This award is given to the best Korean and Asian short films in Wide Angle section.
FIPRESCI Award, Netpac Award and the KNN Award (voted by the audiences)
The Asian Filmmaker of the Year
Korean Cinema Award

To learn about the juries go here.

The fest has the following programs.

A Window in Asian Cinema (50 films from 23 countries)
New Currents (14 films from 9 countries)
World Cinema (68 films from 38 countries)
Wide Angle (70 films from 24 countries)
Open Cinema (9 films from 8 countries)
Flash Forward (10 films from 14 countries)

Korean Cinema Today:
Panorama (12 films)
Vision (8 films)

Korean Cinema Retrospective:
Han Hyung-mo: The Alchemist of Popular Genres (7 films)
Archeology of Korean Cinema: Kim Ki-young (2 films)

Midnight Passion (12 films from 10 countries)

Special Program:
Retrospective on Taviani Brothers (8 films)
Romanian New Wave (12 films)
Superheroes in Asia (11 films)
Ani Asia!: A Leap of Asian Feature Animation 3 (9 films from 7 countries)
2008 Asian Omnibus Collection (7 films from 6 countries)
Music Videos by Asian Film Directors (14 films from 7 countries

Opening film: The Gift to Stalin, Rustem Abdrashev, Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland
Closing film: I Am Happy, Yoon Jong-Chan, Korea

Gala Presentation
Ashes of Time Redux, Wong Kar-wei, China, 2008
Dada’s Dance, Yuan Zhang, China, 2008
Make Yourself at Home, Sohn Soo Pum, USA and Korea, 2008

It’s impossible to list the films as will showcase 315 films from 60 countries, with 85 World Premieres, 48 International Premiers and 95 Asia Premiers. So, if you want to learn about the films, shorts and documentaries please browse the site that the home page is here.

But as you probably have guessed the program that really interested me is the Romanian New Wave that has many short and medium length films, but here are the full-length features that I have not seen yet.

Crossing Dates, Anca Damian, Romania, 2008, 100min (International Premiere)
Hooked, Adrian Sitaru, Romania, 2008, 84min
Occident, Cristian Mungiu, Romania, 2002, 100min
Stuff and Dough, Cristi Puiu, Romania, 2001, 90min
The Flower Bridge, Thomas Ciulei, Romania and Germany, 2008, 87min