The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) celebrates its 30th anniversary this week, marking an improbable three-decade success story of lifting Korean cinema to global prominence.

Launched in 1996 as Korea’s first international film festival — a “small but prestigious” event with 169 films from 31 countries — BIFF has since exploded into Asia ’s largest cinema showcase.

Over the years, the festival has helped discover many Asian directors now regarded as some of the world’s top auteurs. Filmmakers like Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook and Lee Chang-dong had early works embraced at Busan, alongside regional auteurs like Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda, China’s Jia Zhangke and Iran’s Jafar Panahi — helping to fuel the broader Korean Wave and Asian content’s rise worldwide.

The Busan Inte

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