The Busan International Film Festival opened its doors on Wednesday for another impressive showcase of global cinema, running through September 26 with screenings spread across multiple venues throughout the city. As Asia's premier film festival enters its third decade, it continues its mission of bringing the world's most celebrated and talked-about films to Korean audiences for their first local screenings.
This year's festival lineup features several standout selections that have already made waves at major international film festivals. Three films in particular represent essential viewing for cinema enthusiasts, with tickets currently available through the official BIFF website. Each of these productions has earned significant recognition at prestigious festivals including Cannes, Venice, and Locarno.
"It Was Just an Accident" arrives in Busan as perhaps the year's most significant cinematic achievement, having claimed the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. This latest work from Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi represents his first film to win cinema's most prestigious prize and marks his first production since his release from detention in Iran in 2023. Panahi has channeled his personal experiences of imprisonment into a work that is both deeply personal and politically charged.
The film begins with what appears to be a minor roadside incident but gradually evolves into a complex examination of revenge and justice. The story follows five former political prisoners who believe they have identified the guard who tortured them during their imprisonment. However, since all of them were blindfolded during their interrogations, none can be completely certain of the man's identity. This uncertainty forms the foundation of a gripping thriller that unfolds with increasing suspense, punctuated by moments of dark comedy and intense confrontations as the former captives become captors themselves, wrestling with profound moral dilemmas.
Panahi's relationship with the Busan International Film Festival spans decades, having attended the festival's very first edition in 1996. He returns this year as an honored guest, and the festival is presenting an Asian Cinema retrospective of his works, including "This Is Not a Film," the remarkable 2011 documentary that was smuggled out of Iran hidden on a USB drive inside a birthday cake. "It Was Just an Accident" will screen on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Lotte Cinema Centum City.
"The Voice of Hind Rajab" emerged as one of the most emotionally powerful films at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize. Director Kaouther Ben Hania's devastating docudrama reconstructs the final hours of six-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in January 2024. The film's impact extends far beyond its festival recognition, sparking important conversations about conflict and human tragedy.
The film builds its narrative around actual emergency call recordings obtained from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, who remained on the phone line with the trapped child as she desperately pleaded for help from inside a car where her family members had been killed. Venice Festival audiences sat in stunned silence through the agonizing reconstruction as the film transformed the hours-long phone call into a powerful act of witness and testimony. The very existence of this film feels like an act of resistance against forgetting. "The Voice of Hind Rajab" screens on Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Korean Community Media Foundation, with an additional screening on September 25 at 4:30 p.m. at Lotte Cinema Centum City.
"Two Seasons, Two Strangers" provides a quieter but equally essential counterpoint to the political urgency of the other selections. This Golden Leopard winner from the Locarno International Film Festival represents director Sho Miyake's adaptation of two manga stories by acclaimed artist Yoshiharu Tsuge. The film serves as a meditation on loneliness and human connection, unfolding across two distinct seasonal settings: summer by the sea and winter in the mountains.
The story follows Li, a Korean screenwriter living in Japan, portrayed by actress Shim Eun-kyung as she struggles with creative block and personal isolation. Audiences watch as she writes a seaside romance between two young loners, then follow her own journey to a snow-covered mountain village where she discovers unexpected kinship with a grumpy local innkeeper played by Shinichi Tsutsumi. Miyake demonstrates remarkable formal control throughout, using an Academy-ratio frame to capture both the impressionistic rush of ocean waves and the muffled crunch of snow underfoot.
Korean audiences will particularly appreciate seeing Shim Eun-kyung, who became familiar to local viewers through her role in the 2014 hit "Miss Granny." Since 2019, she has been building her career in Japan, and she brings a lived-in naturalism to this role, navigating between languages and cultures with the same gentle grace that defines Miyake's overall filmmaking approach. "Two Seasons, Two Strangers" has multiple screening opportunities: Friday at 12:10 p.m. and Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Busan Cinema Center, with an additional screening on September 24 at 8 p.m. at Lotte Cinema Centum City.
