PUSAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Where: Haeundae, Nampo-Dong

When: October 8-16

The official selection for the 2009 Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) was announced Tuesday morning and is now available to browse through on their website. This year’s lineup shows promise thanks to a solid amount of world-class submissions – a lot of the films that premiered at Cannes in May will make their way to town come fall. I’m writing a feature article on PIFF for the magazine “Busan Haps” that will cover what to see and what to skip in more detail, but here’s a preliminary list of the more exciting fare:

The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Austria) – Cannes 2009 Palme D’or Winner

Like You Know It All (Hong Sang Soo, Korea)

Mother (Bong Joon Ho, Korea) – Cannes 2009 Un Certain Regard

Tales From the Golden Age (Cristian Mungiu…, Romania) – Cannes 2009 Un Certain Regard

Face (Tsai Ming Liang, Taiwan) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection

Bright Star (Jane Campion, UK) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection

White Material (Claire Denis, France) – TIFF 2009, Venice Film Festival 2009

Looking for Eric (Ken Loach, UK) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection

Vengeance (Johnnie To, Hong Kong) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection

Vincere (Marco Bellocchio, Italy) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection

Kinatay (Brillante Mendoza, Philippines) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection, Award for Best Director

Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece) – Cannes 2009 Un Certain Regard Prize

Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, UK) – Cannes 2009 Jury Prize

Yatterman (Takashi Miike, Japan)

Thirst (Park Chan Wook, Korea) – Cannes 2009 Jury Prize

The Time That Remains (Elia Souleiman, UK/ITALY/BELGIUM/FRANCE) – Cannes 2009 Official Selection

PIFF is also running retrospectives on Hong Kong native Johnnie To, and two older Korean filmmakers, Yu Hyun Mok and Ha Kil-Chong.

For a full list of the films to be screened during PIFF, please visit http://piff.org/eng/html/program/prog_view.asp?idx=14001&c_idx=11