The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Shin Chul, Festival Director of the 2025 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) in South Korea, has announced that one of the finalists to the 29th Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF)’s It Project is a Philippine entry.
Visayan filmmaker Carlo Francisco Manatad’s “Brilliant Melody” is one of the fourteen selections of the NAFF component.
Carlo Francisco is considered as one of the prolific editors and later a distinguished director in the Philippines having done numerous films that have stood out and won in various awards bodies.
Manatad, born in Tacloban City, has several directorial projects under his belt that earned accolades here and abroad, like “Kun Maupay man it Panahon (Whether the Weather is Fine),” a full-length film which bagged the Cinema e Giovantu Prize at the 2021 Locarno International Film Festival, “Jodilerks de la Cruz, Employee of the Month,” a short film which won the La Semaine de la Critique at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, among others.
His editing job for the short film “A Gentle Heart” directed by Chinese artist Qiu Yang won Best Film at the 2017 Cannes.
Carlo Francisco has also worked with director Khavn de la Cruz as editor of “Balanggiga,” “Ruined Heart” and “Junilyn Has.”
It Project is a competitive section, established in 2008, which recognizes the skillful and creative talents of filmmakers all over the world in genre production.
Once a project is chosen, it has the opportunity to seek international investors, producers, marketers, distributors, press and other film professionals through business meetings during the duration of BIFAN.
The other thirteen excellent projects from different countries and their respective directors are “2181 Overture,” China/Canada, Kunlin Wang (dir.); “The 30 Day Farewell,” Taiwan, Yunxi Chang and Chih-Sen Huang (dirs.); “The Ballot or the Bullet,” Taiwan, Siew Hong Leung (dir.); “Bloodstained Painting” Indonesia, Adriyanto Dewo (dir.); “Delivery Man,” Thailand, Puun Homchuen and Onusa Donsawai (dirs.); “Don’t Worry About Vampires,” Taiwan, Hoyu Chen (dir.); “Lives of the Killers” Taiwan, Norris Wong (dir.); “Love is a Monster,” Japan, Ryosuke Hayazaka (dir.); “Lovely Ugly your Friend,” Japan, Yuka Yasukawa (dir.); “Pontianaks in Taiwan,” Taiwan/Singapore/Malaysia, Siu Ming Goh (dir.); “A Twist (s) Tales,” Vietnam, Giang Le Binh (dir.); “Unhearable” Hong Kong, Stanley Wong (dir.) and “Wash Away,” Japan, Yamada Yukihiro (dir.).
Meanwhile, Chul also announced that the Korean masterful actor Lee Byung Hun of the films “Joint Security Area” (2000), “Bungee Jumping of their Own” (2001), “A Bittersweet Life” (2005), “Inside Men” (2015), “Concrete Utopia” (2023), among others will be this year’s Face of Korean Cinema.
Byung Hun has received eighty (80) awards including Grand Bell Daejong, Blue Dragon, Baeksang Korean Association of Critics Award, Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2006 and Best Actor at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2021
Martin Lee, BIFAN Programmer cited: “Lee Byung Hun is the Face of Korean Cinema for his seamlessly crossing genre boundaries and revealing something new with every role.” BIFAN runs from July 3 to 13, 2025. (Boy Villasanta)