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Tickets on sale for Busan International Film Festival

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By Kwak Yeon-soo

A poster for the 25th Busan International Film Festival. / Courtesy of BIFF
A poster for the 25th Busan International Film Festival. / Courtesy of BIFF
Tickets for the 25th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) that runs from Oct. 21 to Oct. 30 are on sale, but some screenings have already sold out.

Sales opened at 2 p.m. Thursday but were disrupted for an hour due to strong demand for the limited number of tickets available.

Each invited film will be screened only once during the festival and the number of theaters screening them has been reduced from 37 to six.

This year's lineup features 192 films from 68 countries. Among the highlights will be the screening of Pixar's "Soul," which will be shown in Asia for the first time.

Tickets for "Soul," Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Wife of a Spy," which won the Silver Lion for best director at this year's Venice International Film Festival, and Lee Isaac Chung's "Minari," which won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, have sold out.

"More than Family," in which f(X) member Krystal plays a pregnant college student, also sold out.

"It seems like a lot of people flocked to purchase advance tickets for the opening and closing films as well as those screened at this year's Venice International Film Festival," a BIFF official said.

The festival will open with "Septet: The Story of Hong Kong," an omnibus film by seven renowned filmmakers from Hong Kong: Sammo Hung, Ann Hui, Patrick Tam, Yuen Wo Ping, Johnnie To, Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark. The film portrays Hong Kong's history from the 1950s to the present. It was one of the official selections for this year's Cannes Film Festival.

BIFF will close with the animated Japanese film "Josee, the Tiger and the Fish," directed by Tamaru Kotaro. It is the animated version of Isshin Inudo's 2003 film of the same title.

This year's festival was scaled down due to COVID-19. There will be no events, including opening and closing ceremonies, discussion sessions or outdoor gatherings. Instead, the organizers will focus on presenting the films.

Meanwhile, the Asian Contents and Film Market, the Asian Project Market, Forum BIFF and the Asian Film Awards will be held entirely online.

People can purchase tickets through the website (www.biff.kr) or the app until Oct. 30. To adhere to the government's strict social distancing guidelines, there will be no ticket booths this year.


Kwak Yeon-soo yeons.kwak@koreatimes.co.kr


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