The Busan International Film Festival is looking to build on its growing international stature, festival director Jung Hanseok said ahead of its 31st edition.

The Busan International Film Festival is expanding its global profile, festival director Jung Hanseok said ahead of its 31st edition. File Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI UPI BIFF director Jung Hanseok speaks at a press conference in Seoul on Sep. 1. File Photo by Yonhap UPI

BUSAN, South Korea, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- The Busan International Film Festival is looking to build on its growing global stature while staying true to its role as a launchpad for Asian filmmakers, festival director Jung Hanseok said ahead of the fest's 31st edition.

With its flagship Competition section entering its second year and new Academy recognition giving its top winner a route to Oscar consideration, BIFF is expanding the opportunities for films showcased in Busan to reach audiences worldwide.

Jung, who took the reins of the festival last year, said confidence in the Competition had "built very quickly" among leading Asian filmmakers.

"The films selected and awarded in the inaugural edition generated considerable attention, and many went on to gain further recognition through releases in their home countries and abroad," he told UPI in a written interview.

The festival opens Tuesday with Kim Jong-kwan's The Table: Day and Night and runs through Oct. 15 in the southeastern port city.

This year's Competition brings together 13 films, including three entries from Korea: Lim Hayeon's Beach Fictions, Kim Jung-hoon's horror film Shaving and Youm Kyubock's animated feature Long Long Night.

Other entries include Iranian director Majid Majidi's Midday Meal; Between Two Lovers by Japanese filmmaker Hirose Nanako, a former assistant director to Koreeda Hirokazu; and Chinese director Gu You's The First Taste of Loneliness.

"As we prepared this year's edition, we were pleased to see that the filmmakers behind the kind of top-level films we hope to attract were approaching the Competition much more proactively and positively than they did last year," Jung said.

BIFF's international standing got a boost this year with recognition by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations as an "A-list festival."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also designated the Busan Award for Best Film as a qualifying award for international feature film submissions.

BIFF joins Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance and Toronto under the expanded eligibility rules. A qualifying non-English-language film can now be submitted by winning a designated festival award, alongside the longstanding route of selection by a country or region.

For Jung, the section's credibility rests on its films.

"These 13 films should not simply be a collection of titles," he said. "Together, they should represent the leading edge of Asian cinema today."

Jung spent six years as BIFF's Korean cinema programmer before becoming director, and identifying emerging talent throughout Asia remains central to his agenda.

"Even with a Competition devoted to Asian cinema, we felt there needed to be further space for discovery," he said.

The festival's Vision section features 24 films, divided equally between Asian and Korean selections, most of them world premieres. It focuses more closely on emerging and independent filmmakers, Jung said, with many of last year's selections subsequently invited to other festivals.

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This year's BIFF comes as South Korea's film industry continues to grapple with rising production costs, reduced investment and the growing influence of streaming platforms and AI.

Despite those pressures, box-office revenue rebounded in the first half of 2026 after several difficult years, rising 41.9% from a year earlier to about $399 million.

Domestic films drove the recovery, led by hits such as The King's Warden, the highest-grossing Korean film of all time. Local productions earned about $255 million, up 81.7%, approaching pre-pandemic levels, while admissions rose 74.9% to 37.37 million.

"Cinema attendance has been gradually increasing, so I think we can say there has been some recovery," Jung said. "At the same time, we are still seeing existing theaters close, and production conditions for small- and mid-scale films cannot improve overnight."

Meanwhile, Jung described streaming platforms as a "partner in tension" with the traditional film industry.

"Uncritically celebrating streaming platforms, or demonizing them outright, does little to help us navigate the film world we live in today," he said.

"So for now, I think it is more useful to pay attention to specific cases in which this relationship produces something meaningful."

Jung pointed to Netflix's backing of celebrated filmmaker Lee Chang-dong's Possible Love, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice last month and is screening at BIFF.

Netflix, he said, was embracing the artistic qualities associated with traditional cinema while giving Lee an opportunity to make a project conventional investors had repeatedly rejected.

"Rather than rushing to judge the gains and losses in this paradoxical and tense relationship, I think we need to observe it with a cool head for the time being," Jung said.

On artificial intelligence, he was more blunt.

"Personally, I am opposed to AI," he said. "I am on Bong Joon Ho's side. He has said, 'I want to be a director who does what AI cannot do.'"

But Jung said his responsibilities as festival director required him to understand its development. BIFF still receives relatively few submissions making substantial use of AI, he added.

This year's Forum BIFF discussion series will explore AI and creativity alongside filmmakers' rights, public support and the disappearance of mid-budget films. Sessions will include screenings of AI-made and AI-assisted work.

The festival has also weathered its own upheaval, as management disputes and sexual harassment allegations involving former director Huh Moon-young rattled the organization in 2023.

Jung said BIFF had "completely moved beyond that period of turmoil" and was operating smoothly under its new leadership.

Amid a shifting landscape for both the festival and the wider industry, Jung said BIFF's core purpose has not changed.

"Our basic principle remains the same: to select films that represent the very best of contemporary Asian cinema," he said.