Busan International Film Festival - Support comes at Berlin to resist the demands of the Busan City Government

The international outrage at the actions of the Busan Metropolitan City Government in attempting to impose government censorship  and to sack the director of the Busan International Film Festival continue apace. At the Berlin Film Festival an international demonstration of support for BIFF and its director Lee Yongkwan was mounted and has now been reported upon in the widely read international trade journals T The international outrage at the actions of the Busan Metropolitan City Government in attempting to impose government censorship  and to sack the director of the Busan International Film Festival continue apace. At the Berlin Film Festival an international demonstration of support for BIFF and its director Lee Yongkwan was mounted and has now been reported upon in the widely read international trade journals Variety and Screen Daily. If you need any background about the issues you can go to this post by Tony Rayns first published on the Film Alert blog in late January 2016.

Among international Festival Directors standing up in Berlin in solidarity with their BIFF colleagues were Venice Festival director Alberto Barbera, Cannes Critics' Week artistic director Charles Tesson and Toronto Festival director Piers Handling. There have been similar shows of support  at the Rotterdam Festival, the Vesoul International Festival of Asian Cinema and at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival.