South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, September 17-26) is undergoing some major changes this year, a special anniversary marking 30 years since its debut edition in the early days of Korea’s modern film industry in 1996.

In addition to increasing the number of overall titles and screening venues, the festival is introducing a fully-fledged competition section for the first time; expanding the Vision section to include Asian films from outside Korea; increasing the number of Special Programmes and relaunching its conference programme Forum BIFF.

The festival also has a new director – former film programmer and critic Jung Hanseok – who took the reins in March, finally bringing some stability to an event that has been through internal wrangling and a series of high-profi

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