Zogsool Takes Four Prizes at Busan Vision Awards
Sakhya Byamba's Zogsool collected four prizes at the Vision Awards of the Busan International Film Festival on Wednesday, topping the winners list, according to Variety.
The ceremony took place during the 31st edition of the festival, which opened on Oct. 6 and will close on Oct. 15. The Vision Awards honour new work in the festival's Vision strand for emerging Asian cinema.
Zogsool took the Netpac Award, the Fipresci Award and the Vision of Jiseok Award. It shared a fourth prize, the Hylife Vision Award, with Sailesh Rathnakumar's Selvi.
Rathnakumar's film added a second win of the night. Selvi also received the Taipei Film Commission Award.
Close behind was Jeong Jihye's Full Moon, with three prizes. It won the CGV Award and the K-Movie Award, plus the Songwon Vision Audience Award for Korea.
Park Songyeol's Beyond Love's Horizon won two craft prizes, the KBS Independent Film Award and the Critic b Award. Won Hyangra was named an Actor of the Year for her work in the film, with Kang Seung-ho honoured in the same category for Cosmic Trace.
Oh Sehyeon's Baler also took two awards, the Jeong-in Award and the Citizen Critics' Award. Kim Si-jin's The Flower received the DGK Plus M Award.
In documentary, Yang Bo's Agaar won the BIFF Mecenat Award in the Asian category, while Yi Seungjun's Can I Talk to You? won the same award in the Korean category, according to Variety. Choi Se-dam's A Woman Dancing on the Waves received a special mention.
The short-film Sonje Awards went to Soroush Shahpouri's Fatima in the Asian section and Yun Taerang's Toe's in the Korean section. Jung Jaeseo's The Boy Who Fell to Earth received a special mention.
Other cross-section prizes spread widely. Kumamoto Ryohei's After the Song won the Face of the Future Award. Arvin Belarmino's Ria won The Heart of Eurasia Award. Chen Jianying's There Will Be Snow received the Bishkek International Film Festival-Central Asia Cinema Award, and Darkhan Tulegenov's The Cord won the International Film Festival of India — Vision Asia Award.
Audience prizes went to Shashank Walia's Birds in the Dark for the Songwon Vision Audience Award for Asia, Im Yeonjeong's Recovery for the Documentary Audience Award, and La Bola Negra, directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, for the Flash Forward Audience Award. Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak's Birds of War won the Busan Cinephile Award.
What makes this stand out is the spread. Two titles led the count, but more than 20 films left Wednesday with something. For audiences tracking what travels next, Busan's Vision list is often an early guide to new directors from Korea and across Asia.
The Vision competition this year comprised 23 films, with 12 in Vision-Korea and 11 in Vision-Asia, the festival said in August. The Asian Contents & Film Market, the industry market held alongside the festival, ran from Oct. 10 to Oct. 13.
