11 films from India at Busan this year, festival to show 100 feature films

11 films from India at Busan this year, festival to show 100 feature films

NEW DELHI: 11 films from India will be screened at the forthcoming Busan International Film Festival next month.

 

To be held between 2 and 11 October, the Festival will open and close with two films from Greater China. The festival's opening is the international premiere of Taiwan's Paradise in Service, Doze Niu's coming-of-age drama about a young soldier stationed at a brothel on Kinmen Island. The film is produced by Hou Hsiao-hsien. The world premiere of Hong Kong's Gangster Pay Day by Lee Po-cheung about a washed-out gang boss who turns legitimate by taking over a restaurant, closes the festival. It stars  Anthony Wong and Charlene Choi.

 

This year's festival is screening over 100 Asian feature films among a total of 313 films (features and shorts) from 79 countries. The lineup includes the world premieres of 65 feature films and the international premieres of 33 feature films.

 

Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider, Homi Adajania’s Finding Fanny and Shonali Bose’s Margarita with a straw are among the six films that will be showcased in “A window to Asian Cinema” section.

 

Other films that will screen in the section include: Malayalam film Zahir by Siddharth Siva, Tamil film Goli Soda by Vijay Milton and Adityavikram Sengupta’s Labour of Love that earlier screened at Venice Days sidebar of Venice Film Festival.

 

Omung Kumar’s Mary Kom will be screened outdoors in a special programme titled Open Cinema. The film had its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival.

 

Sunrise by Paris based Indian filmmaker Partho Sen-Gupta will compete in the New Currents section.

 

Our Metropolis by Gautam Sonti and Usha Rao has been shortlisted for documentary competition while Balaka Ghosh’s Foot Prints in Desert will be screened in the Documentary Showcase section.

 

The festival will also screen Gitanjali Rao’s True Love Story that has earlier screened at Cannes Critics Week and has won award for best animation film at Mumbai International Film Festival.

 

The annual Korean Cinema Retrospective is dedicated to veteran director Jung Jin-woo. Hong Kong's Ann Hui is this year's Asian Filmmaker of the Year and her latest film The Golden Era will have a gala screening at the festival.