Busan's Film Market Turns 20 With Google DeepMind, AWS and Kling AI at the Table
The Asian Contents & Film Market, the industry sidebar of the Busan International Film Festival, will mark its 20th edition this October with a new program called InnoAsia 2026 — a four-day event built around the intersection of film and emerging technology, running from October 10 to 13 (BIFF press release).
The headline names read like a guest list from two different worlds. Amazon Web Services, Google DeepMind and Alibaba Group sit alongside Kling AI, the Chinese generative-video firm, and BytePlus, the international arm of ByteDance. Netflix's in-house VFX studio Eyeline Studios is on the list, as is the Korean Film Archive's VFX trading platform i.AM. French VR and immersive studio Atlas V, Korean drama producer MBC C&I and Climax Studio — the company behind D.P. and Hellbound — round out the content side, with microdrama platforms Mango TV, FlickReels and Vigloo joining too (Variety).
InnoAsia runs three tracks: technology proof-of-concept and investment, creators and production, and industry and policy. That last track signals the scope — this is not a trade show floor of glossy demos but a programmed market event with policy conversations attached.
For a general audience, the simplest framing is this: a film market is where producers, sellers and buyers gather to finance and sell work that will reach screens in the coming years. ACFM is the Busan festival's marketplace. InnoAsia layers a technology-and-innovation program on top, bringing in companies that build the tools filmmakers increasingly use — from AI dubbing to cloud rendering pipelines.
Seven Korean startups earned slots through an open call run with the Busan Center for Creative Economy & Innovation and AWS. They include Castlink, an AI casting tool from Lumicraft; Pre-Flow, a screenplay analysis tool from Reproduction; and Totus, an AI dubbing system from Voithru. XL8 brings its translation and event captioning tools MediaCAT and EventCAT. MyStarChain's blockchain voting platform MyStarPick and HiStranger's biosignal-reading Insight Flow are also in the cohort (Variety).
Kling AI will co-host two sessions with ACFM: one titled "New Cinematic Possibilities: Reimagining Filmmaking with Kling AI," and a networking reception tied to production needs across Asia. AWS and cloud partner MegazoneCloud are launching new AWS Awards for startup pitching, with winners chosen through a proof-of-concept process and awarded AWS cloud vouchers.
The cross-border pull extends to Europe. Lux AI, a startup from Berlin's European Film Market that builds intelligent lighting tools for virtual production, is travelling to Busan with Tanja Meissner, director of Berlinale Pro and EFM — a link between two of the world's busiest film markets. On the Taiwan side, VFX-efficiency startup imCore joins through a partnership with TAICCA School under the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Variety).
Away from InnoAsia, ACFM has a second new initiative. Global marketing agency Innocean will co-host Cinema by Brand 2026, a short-film competition with the Producers Guild of Korea overseeing selection and production. Filmmakers are called to make 20-minute shorts built around Hanwha Group's "Space Solar Power" concept. First-round picks land in early September, finalists pitch later that month, and winners are named during ACFM itself (Variety).
For an event marking two decades, the signal is clear enough: the market floor is no longer just about finished films and distribution rights. The companies building the production pipeline — the cloud infrastructure, the AI tools, the rendering and dubbing systems — now have their own seat at the table.
