Awards

Bucheon Choice: Features

• Best of Bucheon: The Last Stop in Yuma County (Directed by Francis Galluppi)
• Best Director Choice: Strange Darling (Directed by JT Mollner)
• Jury’s Choice: Suffocating Love  (Directed by Liao Ming Yi)
• Audience Award: The Last Stop in Yuma County (Directed by Francis Galluppi)

Bucheon Choice: Shorts

• Best Short Film: I’m Not a Robot (Directed by Victoria Warmerdam)
• Jury’s Choice for Short Film: Help, I’m Alien Pregnant (Directed by THUNDERLIPS)
• Audience Award for Short Film: Meat Puppet (Directed by Eros V)

Bucheon Choice: AI Film

• Best AI Film: Where Do Grandmas Go When They Get Lost? (Directed by Léo Cannone)
• Best Technical Achievement: Snowfall (Directed by Bae Jun-won)

¡Ø Jury’s Special Mention: Latex Kid (Directed By Fran Gas), One More Pumpkin (Directed by Kwon Hansl)

• Audience Award: Snowfall (Directed by Bae Jun-won)

Korean Fantastic: Features

• Korean Fantastic Film: Esper’s Light (Directed by Jung Jae-hoon)
• Korean Fantastic Best Director: Idiot Girls and School Ghost: School Anniversary (Directed by Kim Min-ha)
• Fantastic Actors: Kim Daegun The Tenants,  Park Ju-hyun You Will Die in 6 Hours
• Korean Fantastic Audience Award: You Will Die in 6 Hours (Directed by Lee Yun-seok)
• Nonghyup Award: Base Station (Directed by Park Syeyoung, Yeon Yeji)

¡Ø Jury’s Special Mention: Pig That Survived Foot-and-Mouth Disease (Directed by Hur Bum-wook)

• Watcha’s Pick: Idiot Girls and School Ghost: School Anniversary (Directed by Kim Min-ha)

Korean Fantastic: Shorts

• Best Korean Short Film : Lovers on Friday Night Directed by Park Yong-shin)

¡Ø Jury’s Special Mention: Circle (Directed by Joung Yumi)

• Audience Award for Korean Short Film: MM, UH, OH, AH (Directed by Choi Na-hye)

Méliès International Festivals Federation(MIFF) Award for Best Asian Film

• Steppenwolf (Directed by Adilkhan Yerzhanov)

NETPAC Award

• Who’ll Stop the Rain (Directed by Su I-hsuan)

Odd Family Award

• Pigsy (Directed by Chiu Li Wei)

Bucheon Choice Jury (Feature)

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  PARK Joong-hoon

  Park Joong-hoon made his debut as the lead in the movie Kam-Bo in 1986 while studying Film at Chung-Ang University. He went on to appear in over 40 films, including Springtime of Mimi and Cheol-Su (1987), Chil-Su and Man-Su (1988), My Love, My Bride (1990), Two Cops (1993), Nowhere To Hide (1999), Radio Star (2006). In 2002, he became the first Korean actor to appear in a Hollywood film through The Truth About Charlie directed by Jonathan Demme who also directed The Silence Of The Lambs . He earned a master’s degree in Drama Education from New York University in 1991. In 2013, he made his directorial debut with the film Top Star and hosted the talk show The Park Joong-hoon Show on KBS. He has an unparalleled record of winning Best Actor awards, including at the Grand Bell Awards, the Blue Dragon Film Awards, the Baeksang Arts Awards, the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards, as well as Asia Pacific Film Festival, Deauville Asian Film Festival, and New York Asian Film Festival.

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  KIM Seonah

  Kim Seonah is currently an associate professor in the school of theater and film at Dankook University and serving as the president of the Women In Film Korea also. She has been an active producer for the past three decades, having participated in several successful films such as Oneday (co-producer, 2016), Rikidozan: A Hero Extraordinary (2004), Save the Green Planet! (2003), One Fine Spring Day (2001), I Wish I Had a Wife (2001), Phantom the Submarine (1999), Motel Cactus (1997), Final Blow (1996), Millions in My Account (1995) and VR film Bloodless (2017, Best VR Story / Venice international film festival).

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  SABU

  SABU was born in 1964 in Wakayama Prefecture. He worked as an actor before he debuted as a director with D.A.N.G.A.N. Runner in 1996 and got his work screened in the Panorama category at Berlin International Film Festival and won Best New Director Award at Yokohama Film Festival, which made SABU, a new prominent video creator, well-known to the whole world. After that, he subsequently released films such as Postman Blues (1997), The Blessing Bell (2003), Dancing Mary (2020), firmly establishing himself as a leading Japanese director and receiving continuous invitations from international film festivals. In 2023, he directed his first Korean film, Under Your Bed .

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  Jason TAYLOR

  Jason Taylor is an award winning film, television, and broadway producer. He has co-produced several blockbusters, including X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men:Days Of Future Past (2014) and X-Men:Apocalypse (2016). In addition to Hollywood blockbusters he also as a wealth of experience in the documentary and independent space. In 2018 he launched Futurism Studios with the Finnish video game documentary The Name of The Game and Australian science fiction sleeper 2067 . During the pandemic, he followed up the successful collaboration with Australian outfit Arcadia with horror satire crowdpleaser, Sissy (2022 BIFAN selection). Active as a producer and executive for north of two decades, a selection of other credits include U Want Me 2 Kill Him? , The Taking of Deborah Logan and the revolutionary short form YouTube series H+ . On Broadway, Tony nominated & Juliet is in it’s second smash year and about to tour the United States.

Korean Fantastic Jury (Feature)

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  KIM Dong Hyun

  KIM Dong Hyun is the festival director of the Seoul Independent Film Festival (SIFF). As a screening planner specializing in film festivals, she has played a central role in the growth and development of Korean independent films. In addition to the film festival, she has involved in various fields such as production, distribution, and policy. Kim has distributed and marketed a number of independent films that were screened at SIFF. Beginning with the documentary Jam Docu GangJeong (2011), she has produced films including Cinema with You (2017), A Midday Picnic (2018), and Citizen Pane (2022). Currently, She teaches independent film studies at the School of Film, TV, and Multimedia at Korea National University of Arts and Yonsei University Graduate School of Communication & Arts.

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  KIM Young-min

  While working as a producer in the Korean film industry for the past 20 years, he has participated in the production of more than 20 films and series at SidusFNH, Studio Dream Capture, MCMC, MAP, and Dmix Studio. Among them, Secretly Great (2013) and Pamyo(aka.Exhuma) (2024) achieved great success, breaking records at the Korean and overseas box office. Since 2011, he has been giving lectures on producing films and series at various universities in Korea and is also focusing on nurturing new producers.

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  SONG Kyung Won

  He is the editor-in-chief of the weekly film magazine <Cine21>. He is a film critic and a film journalist. He made his debut as a film critic in 2009 by winning the ‘Cine 21’s Film Critic Award’ and completed Ph. D. Degree in Film Theory at Dongguk University Graduate School of Digital Image & Contents in 2012. He joined Cine21 as a staff reporter in 2012 and has been serving as the editor-in-chief since 2023. He co-authored Producer (2019) and The Ripple of the Mind Stays Within Us (2021), and authored Lee Chung-ho: Critique of a Comic and Webtoon Artist (2019) and The Stains Spread and Became a Film (2024). He appears on Blossom Creative's YouTube channel Moviessom and Haery Kim's podcast Quiet Life. In addition to films, he critiques various forms of visual culture and arts, including games and animations.

Bucheon Choice Jury (Shorts)

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  Sabrina BARACETTI

  Sabrina Baracetti, born in Udine in 1967, is the founding member and President of the Udine Far East Film Festival. She also leads the cultural organization C.E.C., an arthouse exhibition company, and consults for the distribution company Tucker Film. Additionally, she co-founded and consults for Ties That Bind and serves on the Board of Directors at Friuli Cinematheque. Baracetti graduated in 1994 with a thesis on Vito Pandolfi’s film "Gli Ultimi," aiding its restoration in the late 90s. Active since 1991 in programming and promoting C.E.C., she became its president in 1995. In 1998, she coordinated a retrospective on Hong Kong cinema, which evolved into the Udine Far East Film Festival in 1999. She has served on many festival juries and as a nomination advisor for the Asian Film Awards.

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  Vivian SUNG

  In 2014, Vivian Sung launched her career as an actress with the film Cafe. Waiting. Love .In the following year, her performance Our Times won her a nomination for Best Leading Actress at the 52th Golden Horse Awards, and these two romantic movies catapulted her into stardom. In 2021, shec ollaborated with director Giddens Ko on Till We Meet Again , which became another box-office success in Asia. A fluent English speaker, shebegan taking part in the international co-productions in 2021, including For My Country directed by the French director Rachid Hami. This year, she will star in the Korean film The Secret House , and this will be her first Korean speaking role.

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  Jason YU

  He discovered a passion for storytelling in a college literary writing course. After his military service, he developed a deep interest in films, joining a film club and creating eight short films. His short film The Favor won Best Korean Short Film at the 22nd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. With experience as an assistant director on films like Secretly Greatly and Okja, and as a subtitle translator for Burning, he wrote and directed his first feature film, Sleep. This mystery-thriller captivated audiences with its intriguing storytelling, earning awards such as the Emerging Raven Award at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and the Best Screenplay Award at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

Netpac Award

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  Mevlut AKKAYA

  Mevlut Akkaya is an award-winning producer and director of stage and screen and has been an active member of the international entertainment community for over 15 years. After graduating the film school, he wrote and directed the film A Jazz Story , featuring jazz legend Gary Bartz. The film has been shown in many international film festivals. Akkaya’s most notable films include Act of Vengeance, When Comedy Went to School, The Doorman, he also co-produced, the international festival’s favorite, Berlinale Crystal Bear winner, Night of Silence . In addition to his roles as a director and a producer, heMr. Akkaya is a prominent figure in many film festivals as a jury member and advisor.

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  Donsaron KOVITVANITCHA

  Donsaron Kovitvanitcha is a prominent figure in Thailand's independent film scene. He works as a film writer, critic, journalist, and film festival programmer. In 2022, he became the festival director of the World Film Festival of Bangkok, Thailand's longest-running international film festival. As an independent film producer, he focuses on nurturing new Thai talent. His productions include Nontawat Numbenchapol’s Boundary (2013), Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s Die Tomorrow (2017), Anucha Boonyawatana’s Malila: The Farewell Flower (2017), and Wattanapume Laisuwanchai’s Phantom of Illumination (2017). In 2022, he produced Sorayos Prapapan's Arnold is a Model Student, which competed at the Locarno International Film Festival.

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  SONG Hyo-joung

  Film critic and Associate Professor at S-LACof Liberal Arts, Daegu University. After winning the 12th 'Cine 21’s Film Award,' she has written for Cine21 and other publications. She has been a jury member and panelist at film festivals like the Jeonju International Film Festival and Seoul International Women's Film Festival. She serves as a permanent writer and programmer for the Indieforum Authors' Association. Holding a Ph.D. in Korean modern literature from Korea University, she researches Korean colonial, liberation, and Cold War cultural orders. As a critic, she engages with the entire system of representation. She co-authored All about the Popular Narrative Genre 1~5 and Obscenity and Purity.