Busan International Film Festival
Busan’s ten-day festival brings Asian premieres, independent discoveries, public audiences and a parallel film market into one coastal city.
2026 dates
- Venue
- Busan Cinema Center and other selected theaters
- Where to plan around
- Centum City, Haeundae-gu; additional festival locations to be confirmed
- Access
- Public screening tickets and opening and closing ceremony access are released separately. ACFM at BEXCO requires professional registration.
- Official information
- Visit Busan International Film Festival ↗
The Banquet note
BIFF opened in 1996 as South Korea’s first international film festival and has occupied the Busan Cinema Center as its architectural home since 2011. Its programme gives Asian cinema several ways to be seen: Competition is reserved for Asian films, Vision concentrates independent Korean and Asian work, and A Window on Asian Cinema ranges from established directors to emerging talent. The New Currents Award now recognizes a promising debut drawn from Competition or Vision. That structure makes discovery and audience encounter the festival’s centre of gravity.
The industry works in parallel rather than in public view. From 10 to 13 October, the Asian Contents & Film Market brings producers, sales companies, financiers and platforms to BEXCO; its Asian Project Market develops feature projects before they reach the screen. For visitors, geography matters just as much. Centum City is the efficient base for screenings and the market district, Haeundae offers a waterfront hotel base on the same metro line, and Nampo preserves BIFF Square and the festival’s historic downtown memory.
Plan it well
Stay in Centum City for maximum screening efficiency or Haeundae for a broader hotel and dining base. Treat Nampo as a separate outing because the cross-city trip requires a metro transfer. Watch the official site from late August for the lineup and ticket release, then book opening, closing and high-demand screenings promptly.