Although Typhoon Mitga’s landfall forced organizers to cancel the inaugural ceremony, the 24th Busan International Film Festival kicked off Thursday for 10 days of festivities.

Actors Jung Woo-sung and Lee Hanee hosted the opening event of the festival that will feature 303 movies from 85 countries until next Saturday, including the world premiere of 97 feature films and 23 short films.

The opening film was the world premiere of “The Horse Thieves. Roads of Time” by Kazakhstan’s Yerlan Nurmukhambetov and Japan’s Lisa Takeba at the Busan Cinema Center. 

Films will be shown on 37 screens in six theaters across Busan, with the five others being Lotte Cinema Centum City, CGV Centum City, Megabox Haeundae, Sohyang Theater Centum City and Lotte Cinema Daeyoung.

It was lucky that the opening ceremony took place it all, as the typhoon had been looming over the region for the past couple of days. A typhoon warning was issued in the Busan area at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Bad weather during the BIFF has been somewhat of an unwelcome tradition, as it takes place during the rainy season. Just last year, many of the outdoor events were canceled due to rain and strong winds.

As the typhoon left the Korean Peninsula, the opening ceremony was held as usual.

The notable feature of this year’s festival is a commemoration of the past century of Korean cinema through a special program titled “The 100 Year History of Korean Cinema, 10 Great Korean Films.” Asian Film Market will present “Asian Content Award” for the first time, extending the range to small screens.

Forum BIFF for this year will be discussing issues ranging from the past century of Korean cinema, film trends in Southeast Asia, technological advances and government policies in filming.

Closing the curtains on Friday will be “Moonlit Winter” by Korea’s Lim Dae-hyung, and a wrap-up press conference that will take place at noon the next day.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)