An Interview with Ellen YD Kim, Director of 2024 Asian Content & Film Market (ACFM)

Ellen YD Kim, Director of 2024 Asian Content & Film Market (ACFM) 

The 2024 Asian Content & Film Market (ACFM), the film market of the 29th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), was held from the 5th to the 8th of October at the Busan Exhibition & Convention Center (BEXCO) Exhibition Center 2. On top of the record market badge sales, the total visitors surpassed 37%pt compared to the previous year. The remarkable success was made by the hands of Ellen YD Kim, the new director of the ACFM who took her role last March. An acclaimed film producer and a previous programmer of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Ellen YD Kim is devoting her admirable expertise to the very market she once worked 18 years ago as part of the founding member. KoBiz interviewed Ellen YD Kim about the success of this year’s ACFM and the plans ahead.

-Can you please share your reflections after finishing your first term as a director of the ACFM?

=It really feels like finishing a 7-month long marathon. With the budget fixed roughly to the same level as that of last year, it's impressive that we still managed to find ways to make stark developments. As I stepped into my role in the middle of the preparation cycle I mainly focused on prioritizing what was possible at the given time frame. I'm already bombarded with sketches for the next year.

-Can you summarize the key statistical success of this year's ACFM?

=Last year's market also garnered historical success, but this year took it much further. Badge registration counts saw a modest increase(6.7%pt), but the number of total visitors increased by 37%pt while we only expected the growth to be around 15%pt. It was also encouraging to see the number of foreign visitors maintain a relatively constant level during the first three days.

2024 ACFM. 

-What were the main reactions and comments from the guests at the ACFM?

=I want to introduce comments from our guests at the AI conference, as more than 90% of them were relatively new to the film market environment. These include CTOs and marketing specialists of notable tech firms, and we also invited the leader of Microsoft’s AI and IP strategic initiatives. I was grateful to hear that our efforts to bring the technological industry and the film industry closer to each other mean a lot to them. Mini Studio AI, an AI solution that creates amiable characters for kids, even expressed their willingness to present their character IPs at the market next year.

-Would this mean that there are plans to expand the AI Showcase the following year, such as treating the AI solutions as one of the goods being sold at the market?

=Let's take the case of Story Protocol, a firm specializing in IP blockchain, for example. In order to activate and expand its blockchain environment, creators that can produce sound IP must first enter the environment. It is a must for tech firms to first seduce the creators and IPs to use their technology and to be part of their environment to reach the full potential of their business model. Hence they naturally appear as a strong buyer and investor in the market. Next year at ACFM we plan to establish a platform where these tech firms can set up their B2B business booths so that people from the film industry can experience the technology and possibly make direct contracts themselves.

-Why is it important for a film market to constantly push its boundaries beyond the traditional players of the market?

=Registering for the market booth and badge means the ACFM is making an active connection with the counterparts, extending our own network database. For example, there are lots of strong media and tech firms in Asia that do not make their way to expensive film markets abroad such as Cannes, but rather choose ACFM as their main hub. These are truly valuable network connections that ACFM boasts. At the same time, we need newer, larger players to fill the space as well to provide a better holistic experience for the participants looking for as many sellers and buyers as possible. The key for a film market to ensure its revenue and success is to maintain a wide, diverse network to be showcased at the venue so that the participants' time here is worth their investment.

2024 ACFM Producer Hub. 

-Producer Hub, a program dedicated for international networking of film producers to foster international co-production, was launched for the first time this year. You also possess a great career as a film producer - did your personal experience and hardships as a producer provide ideas for this program?

=The Korean film industry is still suffering from the depression the COVID-19 pandemic brought. Every film producer I bump into told me that no one tries to invest in a myriad of projects they harvested over the years. Some of them even had to find another side job to maintain their business. I wished to establish a platform that could provide support and hope to these producers. It is imperative for the thriving of the film industry to first give way to the producers, as an initiation of a project means a subsequent hiring of directors, actors, staff and such. Thankfully Korean Film Council (KOFIC) was seeking a similar opportunity, serving as a co-host of this year’s Producer Hub.

-Are there any actual discussions of international co-production being developed from the Producer Hub?

=Producers Guild of Korea (PGK) launched an 'International Co-production Hotline' at the Producer Hub, suggesting a single contact point for foreign producers to make suggestions to Korean producers. It's been less than two weeks since the launch but I heard there are already actual suggestions filling up their mailbox. PGK also formed an MOU with Asosiasi Produser Film Indonesia(APROFI). We heard that they will be hosting their first film market at the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival this December: PGK is in a discussion to send delegate producers or to host a program together.

-There were also a couple of criticisms towards BIFF and ACFM this year, the most frequent one being its unusually lenient approach towards extensive promotions of the global OTT services. As global OTTs are obviously the strongest players in the content market, were there any signals of recovery or steeper depressions from the smaller OTTs at the ACFM?

=Global OTTs from various regions and scales, including iQIYI of China, were here at the ACFM, and we also hosted the Asia OTT Conference as part of our program. Still, I need to make clear that the focus of the conference was more on how the local OTTs can make a stronger case amidst the competition with the global OTTs. Of course we would welcome global OTTs to join the market, but one of the key roles of a film market also lies in protecting smaller players to maintain a healthy competition environment. ACFM is a place where every participant is assigned a similarly designed booth, making it a naturally fair environment for all players to compete.

2024 ACFM Asian OTT Conference. 

-Can you also introduce the success and possible points of improvement on the Asian Project Market (APM) and the Asian Cinema Fund (ACF) - the two key supporters of Asian independent film production?

=Serving as the cradle of Asian arthouse cinema for the past 27 years, APM maintains its own color and tradition. Above the monetary subsidies, the most valuable prize and motivation for the selected directors would be the sense of recognition by the esteemed festival. Still, ACF requires some points of improvement, the most urgent one being the access of funding for all parts of the production pipeline including idea development, filming, and post-production. The ideal case would be a separate funding for all, with each fund naturally supporting and supplementing another. Finding a sponsor for the funding would be the key to this. Another important task would be documentaries. While BIFF has a separate documentary section(Wide Angle), it is true for ACFM that there are not many opportunities for documentary producers or documentary festival directors in the market. Hence there was initially a plan to establish ‘Doc Square’, a platform exclusively for the documentary industry. Although we did not make it this year, we would love to launch this next year to welcome more documentaries into the market.

-Are there other key projects that you wish to launch soon?

=I truly wish to take on the work of gathering the data of the film industry from all across Asia. Industrial data is not only an asset for private businesses but also a fundamental ingredient for policy-makers on a national level. Across 48 countries in Asia, only about a dozen of countries have their box office statistics collected. Korea Box-Office Information System (KOBIS), run by KOFIC, is a rare case of a successful box office database and I am aware that a lot of countries wish to import this technology into their businesses. Hence I am looking forward to utilise ACFM as a platform to gather all relevant industrial data of pan-Asian cinema, concurrently launching an online database or at least releasing a bi-annual report on the industry.

Written by Park Sooyong