5 Awesomely Awesome Things: BIFF Edition

This past week has been very busy and I’m kind of on film overload, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. BIFF is the Busan International Film Festival (which used to be known as PIFF for Pusan). BIFF is one of my favorite Busan festivals and I’m glad I got to enjoy it for a second year. BIFF is something that I think is truly awesome, even if the name makes me think of Back to the Future.

Here is just some of the awesomeness the festival has to offer:

1. The Films:

This one is obvious, but it is still great. When the majority of films shown in your average Korean theater are either Korean with no English subtitles, or big budget American action films, choices can be a bit limited. The films at the festival come from so many countries and talk about so many topics that it’ll make your head spin with multiculturalism. This past week alone I was able to watch movies in Korea, Japanese, Italian, French, and Hindi. I will admit I was burned out by the end of the week, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.

2. Guest Visits:

Guest Visits may be common to film festivals (I’m not really sure since the only International Film Festival I’ve been to is this one), but I think it’s a really great part of the experience. It’s fun to be a little starstruck with visits by Juliette Binoche in 2010 and Priyanka Chopra this year (the lady sitting next to us freaked out when she came out on stage). I also really enjoyed the insight and perspective from directors that shared their films at the festival. Even though I wish some of the interviews had been translated into English too, my rusty French allowed me to understand some of it.

3. Busan on the International Stage:

I love seeing Busan being recognized internationally for more than their large port and being Seoul’s smaller sibling. Busan is my favorite city in Korea and even though less of the movies are shown down in Nampo-dong and most are up in Haeundae, it makes me happy to show off one of my adopted cities. I will say it’s funny to see a bunch of media people at the coffee shops around the cinemas staring very intently at the snacks they just bought.

4. The Ease of It:

I have to say, seeing movies this year seemed a lot easier than my first year. It could be that I just know what I’m doing more now, but it seemed a lot easier. The website was much more English friendly than before and getting tickets also seemed easier. Although I didn’t get to see some of the movies I wanted, I really enjoyed all of it. And even though I’m sad about the Festival being even more centered around Haeundae, the central hub being Centum City is smart and makes snacking in between movies and moving venues really convenient.

5. A Free Movie:

The movies at the festival are pretty reasonable at 6,000 won a ticket, but free is even better. During one of the films the movie had to be stopped for a few minutes because of a speaker issue, but as an apology we were given free tickets to a movie the following night. The screening was outdoors under the giant canopy of the cinema center, plus I thought the movie was great too. It was the best free movie I saw all week.