BiFan: ‘Worm’ and ‘Soul Searching’ Claim Bucheon’s NAFF Awards
By Sonia Kil
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The genre film project market closed its latest edition on Tuesday with a top prize, worth $13,300 (KRW 15 million) for Abdul Zainidi’s “Worm and the Widow” from Brunei, and Sokyou Chea’s “Soul Searching” from Cambodia.
The three-day NAFF market is part of the B.I.G. industry sidebar to the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan), held in Bucheon, on the outskirts of Seoul. Organizers brokered 495 one-to-one meetings between the 26 projects and some 67 distribution, finance and production companies.
Visahl Furia’s “Bogie No. S4,” a ghostly story set on a train, took the B.I.G NAFF Award with a cash prize of $8,900, as well as the new Blood Window Award. The B.I.G NAFF Korean Award was presented to “Remember, Spring” by Jeon In-hwan with a cash prize of $5,300 (KRW 6 million).
Prizewinners were selected by a jury of veteran producers including Lee Dong-ha, producer of 2016 hit “Train to Busan,” and Tim Kwok of Convergence Entertainment and Hong Kong-based Michael J. Werner. The jurors said that factors including gender, origin and production potential had been taken into consideration.
“Bogie” was part of NAFF’s rotating country focus section, which this year spotlighted projects from India. French project “Matilda Corkscrew,” which won the Mocha Chai post-production award, was sourced from another outreach program Sitges Pitchbox.
Earlier in the week, “11+1” a project about a space mission where the crew finds that they have an extra member, won the concept design award, presented in association with New Zealand’s Weta Workshop.
The 22nd edition of the festival opened last Thursday (July 12) with Koreananimation “Underdog.” It runs till July 22.
2018 NAFF Award Winners
•Bucheon Award (KRW 15 million cash): “Worm and the Widow”. Dir. Abdul Zainidi. Prod. Lee Jung-woo.
“Soul Searching”. Dir. Sokyou Chea. Prod. Rithea Phichith
•B.I.G NAFF Korean Award (KRW 6 million cash): “Remember, Spring”. Dir. Jeon In-hwan. Prod. An Young-jin.
•B.I.G NAFF Award (KRW 10 million cash): “Bogie No. S4”.
•The Color Award (Digital Intermediate): “Superpower Girl”. Dir. Kim Soo-young. Prod. Kim Dong-hwan.
•Mocha Chai Award (Post-production) “Matilda Corkscrew”. Dir. Victor Jaquier. Prod. Jean-François Bigot, Camille Raulo.
•Moneff Award (Editing): “The Saigon Visitor”. Dir. Dave Boyle. Prod. Anderson Le
•Sitges Pitchbox Award: “Siri”. Dir. Woo Mingjin. Prod. Lim Ying Xian.
•Blood Window Award: “Bogie No. S4”. Dir. Visahl Furia. Prod. Yogesh Karikurve, Saugat Bhattacharya.
•DHL Award (KRW 5 million cash): “Sound from the Deep”. Dir. Joonas Allonen, Antti Laakso. Prod. Jupe Louhelainen.
