Busan Film Festival Unveils 23 Vision Selections, Spotlighting New and Established Voices Across Asia
The Busan International Film Festival has named 23 features for its 2026 Vision Korea and Vision Asia sections, bringing first-time film-makers and mid-career directors from across the continent into the same spotlight (The Hollywood Reporter). The announcement on 24 August 2026 fills two sections introduced just last year as part of a broader overhaul that also gave Busan its first formal main competition (The Hollywood Reporter).
Vision Korea selected 12 films. The roster runs from Park Kun-young's Things I Left at the Theater, a drama about a film journalist hunting for an old friend's short film, to Jang Woojin's Cosmic Trace, which follows two people reflecting on love and fate at the boundary between life and death (The Hollywood Reporter). Kim Miyoung, who won Busan's DGK Megabox Award in 2023 for A Lonely Island in the Distant Sea, returns with Some Detective, about a writer confronted by figures from her past. Both Some Detective and Shin Dongmin's Not For You received post-production support from BIFF's Asian Cinema Fund in 2026 (The Hollywood Reporter).
The full Vision Korea lineup also includes BALER (Oh Sehyeon), Beyond Love's Horizon (Park Songyeol), The Birds (Sohn Hyun-lok), Earbug (Kim Hyomi), The Flower (Kim Si-jin), FULL MOON (Jeong Jihye), Nothing Has Happened Yet (Shin Sun), and Space (Park Hong-min) (The Hollywood Reporter).
Vision Asia picked 11 films spanning Vietnam, Japan, India, Thailand, Kazakhstan, and beyond. Vietnamese film-maker Nguyễn Hoàng Điệp, whose debut Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere premiered in Venice Critics' Week in 2014 before screening at Busan, brings 1982, the story of a bankrupt filmmaker searching for her missing mother and uncovering family secrets (The Hollywood Reporter). Filipino director Arvin Belarmino's Ria is a folk-punk drama about a musician fighting to preserve her home and music. Mongolia's Sakhya Byamba, who won Busan's New Currents Award in 2013 for Remote Control, returns with Zogsool, a satire set around an isolated gas station during the early days of COVID-19 (The Hollywood Reporter).
Thai actor Inthira Charoenpura makes her directing debut with Bua, co-directed by feature newcomer Phensiri Klangsurin. The Vision Asia list also includes After the Song (Ryohei Kumamoto, Japan), Birds in the Dark (Shashank Walia, India), and The Cord (Darkhan Tulegenov, Kazakhstan) (The Hollywood Reporter).
The Vision program grew out of a section formerly called Korean Cinema Today – Vision, which traditionally focused on emerging Korean film-makers. When Busan expanded the remit to cover all of Asia in 2025, it also broadened the eligibility to include mid-career directors alongside newcomers (The Hollywood Reporter).
The festival itself runs 6–15 October 2026, with the Asian Contents & Film Market — Busan's industry marketplace where sales agents and buyers trade rights — held 10–13 October (The Hollywood Reporter). Kim Jong-kwan's The Table: Day and Night, a Seoul café-set romance and a loose follow-up to his 2016 feature The Table, opens the festival on 6 October at the Busan Cinema Center, with star Kim Minha hosting the opening ceremony. Michelle Yeoh will receive the Asian Filmmaker of the Year honour, Hong Kong director Ann Hui takes the Chanel-backed Camellia Award, and festival founder Kim Dong-ho receives the Korean Cinema Award (The Hollywood Reporter).
Busan will unveil its complete official selection on 1 September 2026 at its opening press conference in Seoul (The Hollywood Reporter).
