Im Kwon-taek is one of South Korea's most renowned film directors. In an active and prolific career, his films have won many domestic and international film festival awards as well as considerable box-office success, and helped bring international attention to the Korean film industry. As of spring 2015, he has directed 102 films.
Bahman Ghobadi is an Iranian Kurdish film director, producer and writer. He belongs to the "new wave" of Iranian cinema.
Hong Sang-soo is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. An acclaimed and prolific filmmaker, Hong is known for his slow-paced films about love affairs and everyday dilemmas in contemporary South Korea.
The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), formerly the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF), held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan, South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festival, held from 13 to 21 September 1996, was also the first international film festival in Korea.
Kurdish cinema focuses on the Kurdish people and culture. The fate of the Kurds as a people without a state shaped their cinema. Kurdish films often show social grievances, oppression, torture, human rights violations, and life as a stranger. Kurdish cinema has a high significance for the Kurds, as it offers the opportunity to draw attention to their own situation artistically. However, because of state repression, most films are produced in exile. The best example of this is in Turkey, where Kurds were not permitted to speak their native language until 1991, which made the development of their films more difficult.
Udaya Prasanna Vithanage is a Sri Lankan filmmaker. He is considered one of the pioneers of the third generation of the Sri Lankan cinema. He has directed eight feature films including Death on a Full Moon Day (1997), August Sun (2003), Flowers of the Sky (2008) & With You, Without You (2012) and won many prestigious national and international awards and have also been commercially successful in Sri Lanka. In his early theatre work, he translated and produced plays by international writers, adapted works of world literature to film. He has battled against the censorship in Sri Lanka and worked as an educator of cinema who has conducted many Master classes in the subcontinent for young filmmakers and enthusiasts.
The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) is a worldwide organization of 29 member countries. It was created as the result of a conference on Asian cinema organized by Cinemaya, the Asian Film Quarterly, in New Delhi in 1990 at the instance and with the support of UNESCO, Paris.
Crossing the Dust is a 2006 film directed by the Kurdish director Shawkat Amin Korki.
Sanjeewa Pushpakumara is a Sri Lankan film director, screenwriter and producer.
Television is a 2012 Bangladeshi drama film based on changing social values and adoption of technology directed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and starring Kazi Shahir Huda Rumi, Chanchal Chowdhury, Mosharraf Karim, and Tisha. The film was selected as the Bangladeshi entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards.
The 18th Busan International Film Festival was held from October 3 to October 12, 2013 and was hosted by Aaron Kwok and Kang Soo-yeon.
The 19th Busan International Film Festival was held in South Korea from October 2 to October 11, 2014, and was hosted by Ken Watanabe and Moon So-ri. A total of 312 films from 79 countries were screened with total attendance of 226,473. Hong Kong director Ann Hui receives the Asian Filmmaker of the Year award. The closing film was Gangster Payday.
The 17th Busan International Film Festival was held from October 4 to October 13, 2012 at the Busan Cinema Center and was hosted by Ahn Sung-ki and Chinese actress Tang Wei, who is the first foreign celebrity to host the event.
The 16th Busan International Film Festival was held from October 6 to October 14, 2011 at the Busan Cinema Center and was hosted by actresses Uhm Ji-won and Ye Ji-won, making it the first year to be hosted by two women.
The 15th Busan International Film Festival was held from October 7 to October 15, 2010, at the Busan Stadium Yachting Center Outdoor Stage, hosted by actors Jung Joon-ho and Han Ji-hye.
Mehmet Aktaş is a Kurdish filmmaker, producer, author and journalist born in Turkey but living in Germany. He is founder and chief executive of the film production and distribution company Mîtosfilm in Berlin.
Yeon Sang-ho is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. He gained international popularity for working his adult animated films The King of Pigs (2011) and The Fake (2013), and the live-action film Train to Busan (2016), its animated prequel Seoul Station (2016) and live-action sequel Peninsula (2020), and first South Korean superhero film Psychokinesis (2018).
Zhang Lü is a Chinese filmmaker. Zhang was originally a novelist before embarking on a career in cinema. His arthouse films have mostly focused on the disenfranchised, particularly ethnic Koreans living in China; these include Grain in Ear (2006), Desert Dream (2007), Dooman River (2011), Scenery (2013), and Gyeongju (2014).
The 26th Busan International Film Festival opened on October 6 at the Busan Cinema Center in Busan, South Korea with South Korean film Heaven: To the Land of Happiness by Im Sang-soo. Park So-dam and Song Joong-ki hosted the opening of the festival, which was streamed live on YouTube.
The 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival took place from August 20 to August 28, 2021, in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.
