Busan Business; India Becoming The New China; Southeast Asian Festival Circuit
After six weeks on the road, I’ve heard a lot, watched a lot, learned a lot, and just had to buy a new MacBook Air after my old one decided to die of exhaustion. Although I’m not far behind it, I’m sharing a few thoughts on what I’ve discovered in the past few months.
1. Busan Was Busy But How Much Business Was Getting Done?
As the first in-person market in Asia since the start of the pandemic, the Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM, October 8-11) at this year’s Busan International Film Festival was a frenzy of pent-up face-to-face meeting activity. According to figures released by the organisers, the attendance rate was the highest since the market was launched in 2006 – 1,059 companies and 2,185 industry participants from 48 countries. Europe’s film industry was physically back in Asia for the first time since the start of the pandemic, under the umbrella stands organised by European Film Promotion, UniFrance and Film Export UK. With Hong Kong Filmart taking place virtually for the past three years, and Tokyo’s TIFFCOM also opting to stay online again this year, this was the first opportunity many people had to press the flesh since 2019.
