Busan Film Festival to Proceed This Year Without an Executive Chairman Again

Acting Team of Park Dosin and Kang Seunga

[Photo by Yonhap News]

This year, the Busan International Film Festival will be held without an executive chairman.

The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) announced on the 29th that senior programmer Park Do-shin has been appointed as vice executive chairman, and together with vice executive chairman Kang Seung-ah, they will serve as co-acting executive chairpersons.

The Busan International Film Festival Executive Recommendation Committee (hereafter the Recommendation Committee), established to appoint the new executive team and board members, recently announced again that no suitable candidate was found in the second public recruitment for the executive chairman position and submitted a statement to the secretariat declaring its dissolution.

The Recommendation Committee stated, "Although many outstanding individuals from the film industry and other fields participated in both the first and second recruitment rounds, it was very difficult at this point to select a suitable candidate in light of the new leap and direction of the Busan International Film Festival."

Starting its activities with the first meeting on December 29, 2023, the Recommendation Committee held seven meetings and appointed Chairman Park Kwang-soo, Asia Contents & Film Market Chairman Kim Young-duk, board members, and auditors, but failed to find a suitable executive chairman. They conveyed the opinion that it would be preferable to reorganize the Recommendation Committee centered on the newly appointed chairman and board to proceed with the appointment of the executive chairman and then concluded their activities.

The newly appointed vice executive chairman Park Do-shin began working at the Busan International Film Festival in 2001 as a contract staff member and has served as program director, publicity director, senior programmer, and director of the Jiseok Research Institute, working at BIFF for 24 years.

The 29th Busan International Film Festival will be held for ten days from October 2 to 11 at the Busan Cinema Center and surrounding areas.