Busan’s Vision Awards go to emerging South Korean helmers

PanARMENIAN.Net - The 2015 Busan International Film Festival's (BIFF) Vision Awards stayed close at home, with prizes going to world premiere pieces by noted emerging South Korean filmmakers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

O Muel took home two trophies for Eyelids, the CGV arthouse award (distribution and screening opportunities via CJ Entertainment) and Directors Guild of Korea award (about $5,000). He shared the latter prize with another Korean film, The Boys Who Cried Wolf, by Kim Jin-hwang. O is well known for his award-winning Jiseul, which premiered at Busan in 2012 and won the grand jury prize at Sundance.

Busan citizen critics handed the citizen critics' award (about $10,000) to Alone by Park Hong-min. This is the second time Park is taking home the honor since 2011 for Fish, which, since debuting at Busan, was invited to compete at Rotterdam and Vancouver Film Festivals.

The Busan Cinephile Award, another prize given by a non-professional jury, went to The Other Side by Roberto Minervini (Italy, France). Local film students are responsible for choosing the winner of the $5,000 cash award.

The big $20,000 prize for promoting independent cinema, the daemyung culture wave award, was awarded to Overman by Seo Eunyoung (Korea), while Communication & Lies by Lee Seung-won (Korea) picked up the NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) awar,d aimed at expanding the distribution and screening of Asian films.

The FIPRESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique) award for experimental films went to Immortal by Hadi Mohaghegh (Iran).