Selection criteria for the 33rd Busan International Short Film Festival Competition

In selecting the films entered into the 33rd Busan International Short Film Festival’s international and Korean competitions, the 13 members of the preliminary jury followed a strict guideline during the past two months. A total of 4,497 films from 109 countries went through 2 elimination processes. As a result, 35 films have been selected for the International Competition and 17 films have been selected for Korean Competition. These films will advance to the finals. Examination of the distribution by continent shows that Europe, beginning with France and Spain, continues to have the highest number of submissions year to year. Compared to last year, submissions from Austria; a guest country of BISFF and Iran show a three-fold increase, along with entries from Mali, Uganda and so on.

This year, submitted films of International Competition expressed a lot of problems that we face in the present society and approach these issues in a number of ways. The films focus on everyday problems to weighty social issues, such as: problem of refugees, conflict, race, religion, human rights, sexual minority, identity, individual moment of crisis, family, and communication. Many films show perfection of storytelling or technical proficiency. The efforts which have narrowed down the difference between film and reality in an unexpected way can be seen in this section. Also, we can see some films which forward their own principles to show the issues. Lastly, various documentaries exhibited aesthetic potential to share the issue awareness. In terms of genre, Korean films also followed the international trend from last year. Overall, presentation of technology is growing but the attempt for introducing a new subject or the challenge of films for tackling problems have not been many. Unfortunately, in comparison with fiction, the documentaries and experimental films were especially comparatively lifeless both in quantity and in quality.

Following the procedure like last year, the preliminary jury stated that the following two principles (standards) were used in selecting the finalists. The first one is “Short filmness.” The preliminary jury believes that there is a film aesthetic that exists only in short films. Something that would be buried, or that cannot be expressed in a full feature film ? hence can only be truly valuable as a short film; some things are precious and beautiful only because they are expressed as a short film. This first standard holds an importance because it is also the reason for the existence of short film festivals.

The second standard is “issue awareness”.

More weight was given to films with an apparent awareness of an issue. This is because this awareness is what defines the subject and format of a film; giving the film more merit for allowing an issue to create its format rather than simply following a format for the sake of it. We would like to spread our deep gratitude to all who submitted their films. The hours spent while examining your films were long and arduous, but they were also precious moments experiencing new and powerful ventures.

Thank you.

The preliminary Jury Of the 33rd Busan International Short Film Festival