Section A Two Scenes at the Box Office: Vanishing Mid-Budget Films, Rising Animation
The theatrical landscape is currently being reshaped by two contrasting developments. Mid-budget films, long a vital part of the diversity and circulation of Korean cinema, are gradually losing ground, while Asian animation is drawing new audiences and expanding its presence in the market. By placing these divergent trends side by side, this section examines the industrial conditions and changing audience dynamics that are redefining the theatrical landscape today.
The first session, ‘The Vanishing Middle: Can Mid-Budget Films Cross Borders?’, looks at the production, investment, and distribution structures behind the decline of mid-budget films, while considering whether international co-production can offer a viable way forward and what conditions such a path would require. The second session, ‘The Rise of Asian Animation: What Will It Take?’, takes place in the broader context of this year’s Japanese Animation Special Program at the Busan International Film Festival. Comparing the distinct trajectories of Korea, China, and Japan, it considers what has driven their recent growth and what foundations will be needed for these achievements to develop into sustained industrial momentum. Taken together, the two sessions offer a way to read the shifts now unfolding across the theatrical sector and to consider where new possibilities for the film industry may emerge.
- · Session 1 The Vanishing Middle: Can Mid-Budget Films Cross Borders?
- · Session 2 The Rise of Asian Animation: What Will it Take?
Section B Cinema After AI: Who Makes Films?
Now that generative AI has entered the domain of creation, to whom does cinema belong, and what does it mean to make a film? Around the question of who makes films, this section presents two sessions. The first, ‘The Future of AI Cinema: Can AI and Artists Coexist?’, brings together directors and producers from across Asia who have created works with generative AI, along with others who have faced this transformation in their own fields, to share their experiences and explore how AI and artists may come to coexist. The second, ‘New Creativity in the Age of AI: Questioning the Place of the Human’, co-hosted with Dongseo University, gathers creators and researchers from diverse cultural spheres to reflect on how creativity and the role of the human will be redefined in the age of AI, and on the directions that future creation and education should take. Encompassing this wide-ranging discussion on the present and future of creation, the section seeks to look ahead, together, to where cinema after AI is headed.
- · Session 1 The Future of AI Cinema: Can AI and Artists Coexist?
- · Session 2 New Creativity in the Age of AI: Questioning the Place of the Human
Section C What Sustains Korean Cinema: Creators’ Rights and Public Support
The making of a film and its journey to audiences can only continue upon the rights and compensation that allow creators to prepare their next work, and upon the public support that underpins film festivals. Over the past few years, however, upheavals in the platform environment and fluctuations in support budgets have exposed the fragility of this foundation. This section therefore places the two pillars — creators' rights and public support for film festivals — side by side, to discuss how the institutions sustaining Korean cinema should be designed going forward. First, in ‘We Are All Fighting to Keep Creating: Rights and Sustainability in Film’, organized by the Korean Filmmakers' Solidarity, working film professionals diagnose today's creative environment in their own voices and examine the rights and institutional tasks needed for creation to continue — fair compensation, copyright, and bodies such as a filmmakers' welfare foundation and mutual-aid association. Then, ‘How Should Film Festival Support Change in the New Film Policy Environment?’, presented by the Film Festival Policy Network together with the Korean Film Council , revisits the 2024 cuts to the film festival support budget and the recovery process that followed, exploring a support framework that reflects the public role of film festivals and ways to strengthen the continuity and predictability of policy. Through these two sessions, each setting out from a different field, the section seeks to chart together the principles and design of institutions that can endure amid a changing policy environment.
- · Session 1 We Are All Fighting to Keep Creating: Rights and Sustainability in Film
- · Session 2 How Should Film Festival Support Change in the New Film Policy Environment?
Section D How Does Busan, City of Film, Sustain Itself: Governance and the Green Transition
Sustaining Busan as a city of film requires looking beyond the scale of its film industry to consider how policies are shaped and how the production environment is evolving. With this in mind, this section looks to the future of Busan’s film ecosystem through two key lenses: governance and the green transition.
The first session, ‘New Governance for Regional Cinema: How Can the Field and the Administration Move Forward Together?’, presented in collaboration with the Busan Film Policy Network, explores the relationships and structures needed for the film community and public administration to jointly shape regional film policy. The second session, ‘Green Film Transition: From Carbon Reduction to Sustainable Cinema Ecosystems’, co-hosted with UNESCO Creative City of Film Busan, examines domestic and international approaches to sustainable production and carbon reduction, while considering how these developments can be connected to Busan’s own industry and policy framework.
Through these two sessions, we hope to consider the changes and challenges Busan will face as a city of film and chart the direction needed for its sustainable future.
- · Session 1 New Governance for Regional Cinema: How Can the Field and the Administration Move Forward Together?
- · Session 2 Green Film Transition: From Carbon Reduction to Sustainable Cinema Ecosystems