We here at The Scariest Things love covering South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) — Life of Mariko in Kabukicho and Best Regards to All were two of the intriguing features we reviewed for it last year — and the fest has just revealed its poster for this year’s edition. Following is the official press announcement.
The 28th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN, Festival Director Shin Chul) unveiled its official poster on May 13th. BIFAN is anticipated to become an even richer festival this year, building on 27 years of experience of programming a wide variety of films and public events. It has stablished itself as Asia’s premier genre film festival.
With new and unconventional images and various interpretations, the new official poster adds fresh stimulation and raises the expectations of an audience eagerly awaiting the festival. While maintaining its identity expressed through the slogan “Stay Strange”, which has attracted interest and love from audiences and citizens over the years, the festival will address the hot topic of the mega trend AI and its impact on filmmaking this year.
The poster’s art director, designer Park Si-young, infused powerful visuals with pink, mint, and refreshing blue tones to express the operational methods of generative artificial intelligence. The bookshelf boxes, composed of the core frame of artificial intelligence, 512 x 512 pixels, are filled with a variety of objects from both modern and ancient times, mirroring how AI assimilates and portrays a vast array of data. The poster reveals the unique colors of BIFAN, which, over the past 27 years, has meticulously curated distinctive genre film programs, providing a content playground for audiences to enjoy, and stimulating sincere moments of exploration.
Park Si-young revealed his intention when planning the poster as follows: “The props and books from various epochs placed in the bookshelves are human-made heritage and learning data for generative artificial intelligence. The first ancient anatomical painting of the human body illustrates how to understand the principles of human beings. All the images and elements used in the poster exist in reality, but they add new combinations and collisions to form a perfectly new image.”
Park Si-young, who expressed important movies by famous directors such as The Wailing, Mother, The Housemaid, The Man Standing Next, Noryang: Deadly Sea, and I, The Executioner with the sensual design of his movie posters, gained early recognition for his groundbreaking poster design for the 8th BIFAN in 2004.
New Section: ‘BIFAN+ AI’! Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival presents a roadmap to explore new future solutions for the film industry!
The 28th BIFAN is rebranding the festival by expanding its scope. In order to promote the coexistence with the AI media revolution and to seek change and development, ‘BIFAN+ AI’ has been added as new official section, enriching the screening programs, competition sections, and actor retrospectives, which have attracted the attention of audiences and filmmakers. Beyond Reality (XR), Industry Program B.I.G., and Goedam Campus, which previously ran as separate sections of the festival, have now been merged to BIFAN PLUS, and the new competition section ‘Bucheon Choice AI Film’ has been established.
“This year, BIFAN will provide a platform for information and experience for creators who have difficulty accessing funds for big productions can utilize AI to produce content with minimal budgets. Based on BIFAN’s experience and international networking, which have supported the exhibition and production of new media such as VR, AR, and XR for many years, we aim to expand opportunities for discovering and educating young talents,” explained festival director Shin Chul the plans for this new section. The remarkable pace of development of generative AI technology in recent years is expected to revolutionize film developing, production, and distribution. This is expected to evolve into a form of convergence that breaks down boundaries between genres such as novels, comics, webtoons, films, dramas, and games, and BIFAN wants to quickly respond and present new solutions to break through the crisis of the film industry.
First: Introduction of the very first international competition section for AI movies in Korea!
The competition section ‘Bucheon Choice AI Film’ which will be established for the first time at a Korean international film festival, will present works of various themes from around the world. In addition to the technical aspects of AI, the winners will be selected by emphasizing the harmony between the artistic value and the message of the film, showcasing the possibilities of AI movies.
Second: International conference on AI film production attended by key makers!
BIFAN will invite international leading professionals in AI film production to speak at a conference. The conference will introduce the impact of AI technology on the film industry and present various international case studies to show new ideas for convergence between the film industry and related industries, such as cartoons and webtoons. Additionally, the conference will provide a platform for presenting and discussing various opinions on global issues surrounding AI, such as copyright or employment.
Third: 48-hour AI film making workshop to be held!
An AI film production workshop, which will be held for 48 hours – two nights and three days – will provide opportunities for individuals or teams of various professions and ages interested in AI film production to collaborate. The participating production teams will complete their films within a limited time frame with the guidance of by world-class mentors and hands-on experience. The films completed during the workshop will be shown at the film festival.
The 28th BIFAN will be held in Bucheon from July 4th to 14th, 2024. BIFAN, which will hold its opening ceremony at Bucheon City’s landmark Bucheon Arts Center for the first time this year, is expected to showcase a diverse range of works from around the world, allowing audiences to experience global trends. Furthermore, the newly launched ‘BIFAN+ AI’ is expected to mark a new milestone of Bucheon City as a hub for the high-tech media industry.
For more information, visit https://www.bifan.kr/eng/