Busan Film Festival Apologizes for Mishandling Executive Departure, Harassment Claims

Johnny Depp has just delivered an unexpected performance in the opening trailer for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) currently underway in the Czech Republic.

Amid Amber Heard’s return to the spotlight, the actress has also returned to social media.

Oh Seok-geun, director of Busan International Film Festival’s industry platform, Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), has resigned from his post, the latest in a string of resignations to rock the festival. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Oh Seok-geun, head of the Asian Contents and Film Market in Busan, has resigned. Oh’s exit follows the resignation earlier this week of Busan International Film Festival chairman Lee Yong-kwan and the earlier departure of festival director Huh Moonyoung. “I submitted my resignation to the BIFF. I decided this was the best choice I could make. I hope my decision will help solve the BIFF situation,” Oh told Variety. A spokesman for the festival confirmed that Oh had tendered his resignation and said that the organization will frame its response next week.

Will Tizard Contributor Spa town Karlovy Vary is known for more than healing waters to emerging filmmakers and producers from Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Those on track to reach global audiences are well acquainted with the festival’s industry section, headlined by the Eastern Promises collection of development and marketing workshops and mentorship programs. Aside from packed panels and talks by international veterans, such as the masterclass by indie mogul Christine Vachon of Killer Films, one of the industry program’s most buzzworthy events is the regionally focused Midpoint Institute Feature Launch. This year-round training platform took off more than a decade ago to support emerging talents by helping them to integrate their projects into the marketplace. It provides them with international collaboration and networking opportunities which, as Sona Morgenthalova, Feature Launch program coordinator for Midpoint, says, have proven highly effective.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lee Yong-kwan, one of the original founders of the Busan International Film Festival, says he is stepping down as the event’s chairman – this time with immediate effect. He says the move is intended to defuse a morass of factional infighting and political interference surrounding Asian’s most prominent film festival. A festival spokesman told Variety that the board of directors “has decided to persuade the chairperson to return. So, the resignation has not been accepted yet.”

This year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) will close with the UK premiere of British Iranian filmmaker Babak Jalali’s well-received Sundance pic Fremont.

Taipei Film Festival is aiming to shine an international spotlight on Taiwanese actors through a new initiative, Top Talents, that will showcase nine actors including major stars Kai Ko and Chen Bolin. 

South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival has moved to resolve its ongoing management crisis by confirming that managing director Cho Jongkook has been dismissed and will be replaced by deputy director Kang Seung-ah. 

Naman Ramachandran UPDATED: Suspended RTE director general Dee Forbes has resigned. Forbes said in a statement on Monday: “I regret very much the upset and adverse publicity suffered by RTE, its staff and the unease created among the public in recent days. As director general, I am the person ultimately accountable for what happens within the organisation and I take that responsibility seriously. I am tendering my resignation to RTE with immediate effect.” PREVIOUSLY: Irish public service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTE) has suspended its director general Dee Forbes, a former high-level Discovery executive, over an ongoing scandal around an overpaid TV host.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Egyptian producer, director and mentor Marianne Khoury has been appointed artistic director of the El Gouna Film Festival in a clear sign that the prominent Arab event is aiming to make an ambitious comeback for its sixth edition following a one year hiatus.  The fest, launched in 2017 by Egyptian telecom billionaire Naguib Sawiris – whose brother Samih built the El Gouna resort in a swathe of Egypt’s desert near Hurghada, a tourist town 250 miles south of Cairo – was cancelled in 2022 after being held successfully for five years. Khoury will replace Amir Ramses who stepped down as El Gouna’s artistic director at the end of its fifth edition before the event took a one year pause. Ramses subsequently took the reins as artistic director of the Cairo Film Festival, which is Egypt’s oldest and preeminent film event.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Some 18 film industry guilds and trade associations are calling for urgent structural reform of the Busan International Film Festival. They point out that this year’s edition of the festival is looming less than 100 days away. The festival’s management has made a succession of management missteps in recent weeks, including one that resulted in an official apology. At the beginning of May, a decision to split the festival’s senior management in two by creating a new position for Cho Jongkook, was followed by consternation among guilds and the resignation of festival director Huh Moonyoung.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor U.S. actor Robin Wright will be awarded the President’s Award at the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s closing ceremony. In honor of Wright, it will screen “The Princess Bride.” Wright is best known for her performance in Netflix series “House of Cards.” She earned three Golden Globe nominations and a win in 2014. She earned five Screen Actors Guild award nominations for the show, and received five consecutive Emmy nominations. In 2017, Wright played Lieutenant Joshi in “Blade Runner 2049,” and Amazon warrior General Antiope in “Justice League” and Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman.” The following year, she reprised her role as Antiope in “Wonder Woman 1984.” She will be seen this Fall starring opposite Millie Bobby Brown in the fantasy film “Damsel,” and co-starring with Tom Hanks in “HERE,” directed by Robert Zemeckis.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor The 69th Taormina Film Festival boasts an impressive lineup of Italian and world premieres as it seeks to reboot and re-establish its status as a date to watch on the festival circuit. Located in the historical Sicilian town – its visibility recently getting an unlooked for boost with the second season of HBO’s ”The White Lotus” – will be hosting a series of screenings. The outdoor Teatro Antico will provide a suitably antique background for the Italian premiere of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” with Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, and Mads Mikkelsen in attendance. The directorial debut of Italian artist Marco Perego, “The Absence of Eden,” will receive its world premiere. The film stars Perego’s wife Zoe Saldaña, Garrett Hedlund and Adria Arjona. The thriller tells the story of an undocumented immigrant fleeing a drug cartel whose path crosses with a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in a crisis over the moral dilemmas of his job. An unlikely alliance forms as the two endeavor to save the life of a young girl.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Killing Romance,” one of the most creative Korean films of the past year, has been set as the opening night title for the upcoming New York Asian Film Festival. The deliberately multi-genre picture tells the tale of a beautiful movie star with dubious acting skills (portrayed by Le Ha-nee) who suddenly quits the industry and retires to newly-married life that turns out to be anything but bliss. When she decides to return to acting she teams up with a fan and an absurd plot to kill her absurdly rich husband. The film is directed by Lee Won-suk who previously attended the NYAFF with his first film, “How to Use Guys With Secret Tips,” in 2013 and returned with his second feature, the big-budget period drama The Royal Tailor, which earned the audience award at NYAFF in 2015.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Physical 100,” the first unscripted Korean show to top Netflix’s non-English global charts, is being given a second season. The show falls between a talent contest and a survival competition with 100 contestants, including Olympians, professional fighters, bodybuilders and former soldiers, through a series of quests to challenge their strength, endurance, agility, balance and willpower, and to develop the perfect physique. Controversially it mixed men and women and amateurs and professionals. The show incorporated a plaster cast of each contestant’s torso. This was destroyed with a sledgehammer when they were eliminated.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Seoul Metropolitan Police on Tuesday raided the offices of Korea’s three leading multiplex cinema operators and three film distributors. “The six entities are accused of obstructing the business of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) by falsely counting the audience numbers for Korean films,” a spokesman for the police is reported to have told Korean media, according to the semi-official Yonhap news agency. The raids were conducted by the force’s anti-corruption and public crime investigation team. Local media named the companies visited by the police on Tuesday as cinema chains CJ CGV, Megabox and Lotte Cinema, and distributors Showbox, Lotte Entertainment and Kidari.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Scottish actor Ewan McGregor and Swedish actor Alicia Vikander will be honored at the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where they will receive the President’s Award, and present their latest films. The festival will open with “Firebrand,” in which Vikander has the leading role of Katherine Parr. McGregor will present “You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder,” in which he stars alongside his daughter Clara McGregor. McGregor’s role in Danny Boyle’s dark comedy “Shallow Grave” (1994) earned him an Empire Award for best British actor, and their next joint film, “Trainspotting” (1996), was an international sensation. McGregor and Boyle teamed up again for the 1997 romantic comedy “A Life Less Ordinary,” in which McGregor appeared alongside Cameron Diaz.

Naman Ramachandran International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has appointed former BFI London Film Festival director Clare Stewart to the position of managing director, taking over from Marjan van der Haar. Stewart was most recently interim CEO at Sheffield DocFest and commences in the role at IFFR on June 21. IFFR has a dual leadership structure where the managing director and festival director oversee the commercial and creative elements of the organization respectively, working in partnership. Stewart previously consulted with the IFFR board of directors in 2021 in its first phase of re-evaluation prior to her joining DocFest, with a focus on the IFFR program structure and content strategy.

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has appointed Clare Stewart to the post of Managing Director, taking over from outgoing Managing Director Marjan van der Haar.