Koji Fukada, Makbul Mubarak & Rima Das Among Filmmakers With New Works Selected For Busan’s Asian Project Market

Busan International Film Festival has announced the 30 projects selected for this year’s Asian Project Market (APM), including new projects from leading Asian filmmakers such as Japan’s Koji Fukada, Indonesia’s Makbul Mubarak and India’s Rima Das.

Fukada, whose previous films have premiered at Cannes (Harmonium, The Real Thing) and Venice (Love Life), will present Japan-France co-production Nagi Notes, produced by Osanai Terutaro. 

Mubarak, whose Autobiography premiered at last year’s Venice before embarking on an awards haul across Asia, is bringing Watch It Burn, produced by Indonesia’s Yulia Evina Bhara, one of the producers on this year’s Cannes Critics Week winner Tiger Stripes. 

Das is a Busan regular who has also had films play in Toronto (Village Rockstars, Tora’s Husband) and Berlin (Bulbul Can Sing). She will present Malti My Love, which she will also produce,  just as the self-taught filmmaker has produced, written, directed and edited all her previous films. 

In addition to Fukada’s project, this year’s APM line-up includes several co-productions between Asia and Europe or Canada, including Kim Quy Bui’s Mr Van, a collaboration between Vietnam and Germany; Hasei Kohki’s Japan-France co-production Sol; and Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana, a collaboration between the Philippines, Singapore and the UK. 

The latter project is produced by Jeremy Chua, whose producing credits include this year’s Cannes Camera d’Or winner Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell. 

Meanwhile, Iraqi filmmaker Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji will present Iraq-Canada co-production, Madness And Honey, produced by Maytham Jbara. 

BIFF also noted that it received a large number of submissions from China and Hong Kong this year, while the volume of Taiwanese