'2025 Bucheon International Film Festival' Achieves 89% Seat Occupancy... Sell-Out Rate Doubles

The 29th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), held from July 3 to July 13, attracted a total of 54,458 attendees and achieved a seat occupancy rate of 89%.

According to the city of Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, on July 30, this year's festival drew 52,024 offline attendees and 2,434 online attendees, totaling 54,458 participants. Although the total number of attendees decreased compared to 67,213 in 2023, the number of offline attendees increased by about 4,000 from 47,895 in the same year. This is analyzed as a sign of heightened interest and participation in on-site viewing.

Additionally, the seat occupancy rate, which indicates the proportion of seats filled, reached 89% this year, showing a significant increase compared to 60.3% in 2023 and 75% in 2024.

This year's festival featured a variety of unique programs that highlighted the essence of genre films such as horror, fantasy, and thriller. Alongside these, a rich array of side events?including exchanges with international filmmakers, guest visits (GV), and various hands-on experiences?actively encouraged audience participation.

In particular, knowledge-sharing programs such as Mega Talk and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Conference received positive reviews, earning the festival praise for striking a balance between professionalism and popular appeal.

The 29th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) is hosting audience talk sessions (GV) during the event period. Bucheon City

Furthermore, out of a total of 238 screenings this year, 114 were sold out, resulting in a sell-out rate of 47.9%. In comparison, last year saw 72 sold-out screenings out of 286, with a sell-out rate of 25.2%. This year's figure is nearly twice as high as that of the previous year.

These records demonstrate remarkable growth in both offline audience engagement and screening sell-out rates, which the city explained as evidence that the 2025 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival has reached a new level of success.

A Bucheon city official stated, "This year's festival focused on enhancing the audience's viewing experience, which led to meaningful results in both seat occupancy and sell-out rates. Next year, we plan to expand linked programs so that a wider variety of audience groups can participate together."