Busan film fest closes with fanfare

The 10-day Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) closed Saturday after demonstrating its growing stature as Asia's largest film event.

The curtains came down with the screening of "Television," a family-focused movie directed by Mostafa Farooki from Bangladesh.

In a departure from previous events that mostly opened or closed with Korean films, Hong Kong crime thriller "Cold War" featuring some big-name Chinese stars such as Aaron Kwok, Leung Tony Ka-fai and Andy Lau opened this year's festival.

Asian starlets and filmmakers turned out in full force. They include Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, Tang Wei, Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa and actor Kase Ryo.

A total of 304 films from 75 countries were screened at this year's festival, the 17th in its series. Ninety-three of them were world premiers and 39 others international premiers.

A record high number of 223,000 people visited the festival, according to a provisional tally by the organizers.

Both of the two US$20,000 New Currents awards for first-time and second-time Asian directors went to "36," an experimental film by Thai director Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit that tells a story of how we store memories in the digital era and "Kayan," a Lebanon-Canadian co-production directed by Maryam Najafi about a divorcee who runs a restaurant.

In the other competition section, Flash Forward which honors a talented director from outside Asia was given to "Flower Buds" by Czech's Zdenek Jirasky.

This year's Asian Filmmaker of the Year award went to the veteran Japanese director Koji Wakamatsu for his contribution to the advancement of Asian cinema and culture.

BIFF offered retrospective screenings of three films directed by the 72-year-old Wakamatsu -- "Mishima," "The Millennial Rapture" and "Petrel Hotel Blue." (Yonhap News)