Curtain falls on Pusan film fest

The 13th Pusan International Film Festival, which featured 315 films from 60 countries, wraps up its nine-day run today in the southeastern port city of Busan with the closing film "I Am Happy," directed by Korean filmmaker Yoon Jong-chan.

Thanks to festival's growing influence as a venue for premiering Asian films, PIFF broadened its scope by selecting a Kazakh film "The Gift to Stalin," and screened 133 world and international premieres, a record.

However, there were some concerns about whether the festival would attract as much publicity as it wanted, due to last Thursday's shocking suicide of Choi Jin-sil, one of Korea's most iconic actresses.

A host of Korean actors who planned to participate canceled their appearances in Busan.

The festival suffered a couple of technical problems last week. At the opening ceremony, some of the microphones and speakers did not work, interrupting operations, and on Saturday a power generator at an outdoor theater broke down, prompting complaints from moviegoers.

But the festival managed to regain normal operations over the weekend. One positive development came from the Asian Film Market, the festival's film marketplace that has gone through an extensive overhaul this year.

Thanks to an aggressive promotion and operations upgrade, 12 Korean movies were sold at the Asian Film Market. "Secret Sunshine," which earned its star Jeon Do-yeon the best actress award at last year's Cannes Film Festival, and "The Good, The Bad, The Weird," a Korean blockbuster featuring big-name actors, were among the films sold to European and Asian countries.

Another positive result from Busan was that Kim Dong-ho, who has been serving as the chief organizer of PIFF for the past 13 years, received the Nielsen Impact Award from the New York-based Nielsen Company. The Hollywood Reporter, the media conglomerate's film industry newspaper, presented the award.

"We are pleased to present this award to Kim Dong-ho for the impact he has personally made in bringing Korean films to the world, and, in doing so, bridging cultures and promoting tolerance and understanding," said Eric Mika, publisher of the Hollywood Reporter.

As part of efforts to bolster Busan's role as a hub of films in connection with PIFF, the city began the construction for a film center, "Dureraum," which means "together" in Korean, a project that is estimated to cost 162.4 billion won ($133 million). The center, designed by Austrian architect Coop Himmel, will sport six theaters, a museum, exhibition halls and other auxiliary facilities in order to serve as a key venue to educate young filmmakers attending PIFF as well as the Asian Film Academy, which is part of the festival.

Some of Asia's most celebrated stars, including many leading Korean actors, joined the festival. The guest list includes top Japanese actress Juri Ueno, who is widely popular both in Korea and Japan for her comic role in the Japanese television drama "Nodame Cantabile," and Li Xiaolu, one of the four little empresses of China.

Many directors and programmers from the world's major film festivals, including Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux and Sundance festival director Geoffrey Gilmore also dropped by at the festival.

Leading Korean actors Cho Jae-hyun and Ye Ji-won will host the closing ceremony to be held at the Yachting Center at 7 p.m. today. About 5,000 patrons are expected to join the closing show where "I Am Happy," starring Hyun Bin and Lee Bo-yeong, will be screened, and the winner of the New Currents, the festival's sole competition section, will be announced.