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14th Pusan Int'l Film Fest Boasts Huge Line-Up

The 14th edition of the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF), Asia's top film industry event, has announced a record line-up of 355 films from 70 countries, up from 315 last year. Running October 8 – 16 in Busan, Korea's second largest city, PIFF will introduce 98 World Premieres and 46 International Premieres.

Opening the fest is Korean film "Good Morning President" by writer-director Jang Jin, a comedy about 3 fictional Korean presidents including one that is a female and one very young played by Korean wave star Jang Dong-gun. Closing PIFF is the Int'l Premiere of Chinese WW2 political thriller The Message by co-directed by CHEN Kuo-fu of Taiwan and GAO Qunshu of China.

New Currents, PIFF's main competition section contains 12 new Asian films and an international jury headed this year by Jean-Jacques Beineix, French director of Betty Blue. In addition, from this year a new competition section and prize entitled the "Flash Forward Award" will be devoted to finding the best non-Asian film from among 11 up-and-coming filmmakers outside of Asia.

Special Programs this year include a focus on Hong Kong director Johnnie To, screening 10 of his films including Election and his latest, Vengeance. A seminar on To's films will also be held along with a Master Class given by the director in person. Other programs include a Filipino Independent Film Special and Ani Aisa! – presenting 9 new Asian animated features.

Guests include Italian horror maestro Dario Argento and French veteran master Costa Gavras. The two will participate in both a Hand Printing ceremony and a Master Class. Alongside the festival, the Asian Film Market – a multi-platform venue for film industry business, and PPP – a project financing market, will be held Oct. 11 – 14.

PIFF and Asian Film Market will take place in Busan's beach town resort area of Haeundae, with additional public screenings running in the downtown core of Nampo-dong. The festival's English-language website is available at http://www.piff.org/eng. The New Current's line-up of Asian competition films, including 2 Korean films, is as follows:

New Currents

"Dead Slowly" by Rita Hui (Hong Kong)
"I'm in Trouble!" by So Sang-min (Korea)
"Kick Off" by Shawkat A. Korki (Iraq)
"Lan" by Jiang Wenli (China)
"Lost Paradise in Tokyo" by Shiraishi Kazuya (Japan)
"A Man Who Ate Cherries" by Payman Haghani (Iran)
"Mundane History" by Anocha Suwichakornipong (Thailand)
"My Daughter" by Charlotte Lim Lay Kuen (Malaysia)

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