Applications for the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Project Market (APM) are now open until Monday, June 15.

Initiated in 1998 as the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP), the first co-production market in Asia, APM links new film projects by emerging and established directors with global film investors, producers and distributors. Every year, creative feature film projects selected by APM are given the opportunity to take their new projects forward with potential investment and co-production partners. APM celebrated last year’s edition by arranging 796 official business meetings, a record-breaking result, with the participation of 141 related companies.

APM has selected 585 projects for over the last 22 years, and about 245 projects have been completed.
Projects from previous editions have shown great achievements. Early films by director Bong Joon Ho, who made history at the Academy Awards 2020, such as The Host (Korea/APM 2004) and Snowpiercer (Korea/APM 2009) were projects officially introduced by APM to the global film industry professionals.

Another notable point is that the opening and closing films of the Busan International Film Festival 2019, The Horse Thieves. Roads of Time (Kazakhstan/APM 2017) and Moonlit Winter (Korea/APM 2018), respectively, were both official projects of APM.

Many other projects discovered by APM received well-deserved recognition at major film festivals as well. The Science of Fictions by director Yosep Anggi Noen (Indonesia/APM 2014) received Special Mention within International Competition section at the Locarno Film Festival 2019, and Jinpa by director Pema Tseden (China/APM 2014) won the Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay at the Venice International Film Festival 2018.

In addition, Suk Suk by director Ray Yeung (Hong Kong (China)/APM 2017) was an official selection of the Berlin International Film Festival 2020, Bombay Rose by director Gitanjali Rao (United Kingdom, India, France, Qatar/APM 2015) was screened at the Toronto and Venice International Film Festival 2019, and Manto by director Nandita Das (India/APM 2015) was selected for the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival 2018.

APM discovers film projects ranging from large-scale commercial to low-budget independent films in Asia and throughout the world. Business meetings for investment and co-production opportunities are slated to be held from Sunday, October 11 to Tuesday, October 13 in Busan.

With the world facing an unprecedented crisis related to COVID-19, also known as the novel coronavirus, the Busan International Film Festival and APM will put health and safety of the audiences and film industry professionals as a top priority and continue to plan and prepare for the event, while at the same time closely monitoring developments related to the coronavirus and film industry situations around the world.


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