The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, or BiFan, formerly known as Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival or PiFan, is an international film festival held annually in July in Bucheon, South Korea. Inaugurated in 1997, the festival focuses on South Korean and international horror, thriller, mystery and fantasy films, with particular attention to Asian cinema from East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is a non-competitive international film festival, with partial competition, awarding a number of awards.

History

The inaugural festival was held in 1997. Until 2015, it was known as the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival, or PiFan. The festival faced a boycott in 2005 to protest what was seen by critics as meddling by Bucheon mayor Hong Geon-pyo. A rival event called RealFanta was organized that year on the same dates as BiFan by former festival director Kim Hong-joon. The festival returned in 2006 without any dispute under the direction of veteran filmmaker Lee Jang-ho and a new programming team. Since then, editions of the festival have included the following:

Program

The festival's programming consists of following sections:

Awards

The festival is a non-competitive international film festivals with partial competition. It gives away following awards:

Other genre film festivals