PEACHES Wins Top Prize in NAFF Project Market

The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) wound its 25th edition to a close on July 18, and it was the Korean-Thai co-produced horror film The Medium, directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun in Thailand and produced by Director Na Hongjin, which took home the main prize in the Bucheon Choice competition, the Best of Bucheon Award. As a director, Na won the same prize in 2016 for The Wailing.

Lee Haven Jones won the Best Director Award for the Welsh language horror film The Feast, Hsu Fuhsiang took home the Jury Prize for the Taiwanese film Treat or Trick, and the Audience Award went to the NIMBY - Not In My Backyard from Finnish director Teemu Nikki. As the winner of the Best of Bucheon Award, The Medium was automatically selected as this year’s closing film.

Meanwhile, the top prize winner in the Korean Fantastic Features competition was Lee Jinho’s Actionhero, which earned a total of four accolades, including the main prize, an Acting Award (for Lee Sukhyeong), a Watcha New Talent Award and the CGV Award. Cho Kyoungho’s Good Deal was also a multiple award winner, taking home the Best Director Award, the Audience Award, and one of the Watcha New Talent Awards. Show Me the Ghost won the Nonghyup Award as well as an Acting Award for Kim Hyunmok. Kim’s co-star Han Seungyeon and Park Xiyeon of Dieter Fighter received special mentions in the acting category.

The Méliès International Festivals Federation (MIFF) Award for Best Asian Film was won by At the End of Evin from Iran filmmakers Mohammad Torabbeigi and Mehdi Torabbeigi, while the NETPAC Award went to Yamaguchi Junta’s Japanese comedy Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes.

In the Bucheon Choice: Shorts competition, the Best Short Film prize went to Theo Rhys’ Stuffed from the UK, and in the Korean shorts competition, the top prize went to Pitch Black from director Lee Junsup.