[29th Bu-guk] "Asia's best content market, leap forward again." ACFM opens today (5th).

The 29th Busan International Film Festival opened on the 2nd. The Asia Content & Film Market will be held from Oct. 5-8. ⓒBIFF

Asia Contents & Film Market (ACFM), Asia's top business platform that encompasses planning, production, investment, and copyright transactions targeting source IPs such as movies and video content, webtoons, and stories, will open today (5th).

ACFM, which marks its 19th anniversary this year, is positioned as Asia's premier business platform for planning, producing, investing, trading copyrights and promoting the content industry at the national level. Sales of sales markets, advertisements, badges, and conference slats have grown more than 10% compared to previous years, and interest in Asian project markets and Busan story markets is hotter than ever.

Following the growth of the Busan Story Market, which trades the original IP, this year, a networking platform called "Producer Hub" will be established where global producers share information on film investment, production, filming, and support projects. Korea was selected as the first "country of the year" and will present a variety of programs such as speed meetings, international co-production case studies, producer talks, seminars, and networking events.

In addition, the ACFM conference, which has doubled in size compared to previous years, will diagnose the present and future of the Asian content industry, of which AI conferences are receiving great response as advance reservations close early.

First of all, 253 companies from 30 countries will attend the sales market and exhibition booths. In addition to the European Pavilion of the European Film Promotion (EFP), Italy and the United Kingdom have established their own national pavilion, and national halls such as Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Mongolia will be joined.

Microsoft will also participate in the exhibition booth to demonstrate its programs, including Copilot, and show the convergence between technology and content.

The 29th Busan International Film Festival Official Poster ⓒ BIFF

Busan Story Market, which introduces 47 original IPs (29 in Korea, 18 in foreign countries) selected through public offerings and cooperation with overseas partners, will feature domestic drama producers including SLL, Studio S, Studio & New, Studio Dragon, and Climax Studios, as well as production and investment companies such as NiPictures, Alibaba Pictures, Showbox and Megabox PlusM for business and networking, including video rights transactions by domestic and foreign content-related organizations and various content platforms.

The Asian project market, which is in its 27th year, boasts an astonishing 44% project completion rate, with 304 out of 691 selected over the past 26 years. Among the selected films of all time, eight films will be screened at this year's Busan International Film Festival, including three New Currents, with 778 invitations to major film festivals and 2,036 invitations to all completed films among APM projects.

There will be 13 awards for this year's selection of 30 feature film projects in 17 countries. Attention is focusing on which projects will be honored this year and which works will be completed and presented.

The Asian Film Fund, which supports the incubation, production and completion of Asian films, has 13 works supported by three funds, and the production team of the selected films also participates in ACFM to have opportunities to promote meetings and projects. Busan, a joint growth network of independent filmmakers, will have an opportunity for growth through various market programs, including seven solo sessions unique to platform Busan, with 174 new filmmakers from 28 countries participating.

The newly established Producer Hub will feature 123 global producers from 19 countries through producer recommendations and individual applications through partnership agreements with eight organizations in seven countries. In particular, 47 Korean producers will participate in the selection of Korea as the "National Country of the Year" and co-hosting it with the Film Council. It presents nine sessions and examines the current status of participating producers, including speed meetings and networking runs, as well as support policies from countries such as Korea, Spain, and Hong Kong for international co-production.

At the ACFM conference, 28 sessions, including its own AI conference, will be prepared to present high-quality programs nearly twice as much as in previous years. The AI conference, which will be held under the theme of "Film and Content Industry, Riding the Wave of AI," showed such a strong response that all pre-bookings ran out after the panelists made up of AI experts and industry leaders were released.

In addition, through the Asian OTT Conference, we will have an opportunity to examine the strategies for local OTT to survive in competition with global platforms, as well as the growth potential and story strategies of Asian OTT. In addition, Korea's Film Promotion Committee, the Busan Film Commission, and the Gyeonggi Content Agency, as well as related organizations in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Europe, and Mongolia, have been prepared to look at trends in the film industry around the world, including project pitching by country and introducing policies for cooperation between countries.

The Asia Content & Film Market, which discusses the present and future of the global content industry together, will be held at BEXCO 2nd Exhibition Center in Busan for four days from October 5 to 8.

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