‘The Passport,’ ‘Please Bear With Me’ Score Prizes at Bucheon’s NAFF Project Market

The Bucheon film festivals Network of Asian Fantastic Films project market wrapped up three days of meetings and pitching sessions on Monday with a prize ceremony that disbursed cash, post-production support and invitations to related genre film events.

The Passport, a Tamil- and English-language Malaysian project about an Indian rockstar who is forced to confront cultural expectations and her interactions with an imaginary friend, won the headline Bucheon Award for director Ananth Subramanian and producer Bel Choo Mun. It was both a popular choice among other NAFF participants and the unanimous decision of the jury.

The numerical winner was Please Bear With Me, which saw director Gabriela Serrano and producer Gale Osorio from the Philippines collect three prizes. The project is a sci-fi and social issues mash-up about a call center operative who gets paid in dream-time and uses it to relive her glory days as a pop star. A clearly-surprised Serrano used her second visit to the stage to explain the films origins as a deep frustration with seeing Filipina women stuck at the bottom of society and yet apologizing for their ambitions.

While the BiFan Industry Gathering wrapped on Monday, the wider BiFan festival continues till July 7.

Network of Asian Fantastic Films 2023 Project Market Awards Bucheon Award (KRW15 million)

Passport Dir. Ananth Subramaniam. Prod. Bel Choo Mun (Malaysia)

Korean Discovery Award (KRW15 million)

The Grotesque Train Dir. Tak Sewoong. Prod. Kwon Jiyong (Korea)

Asian Discovery Award (shared)

A Woman in Flames Dir. Nakagawa Natsuki. Prod. OGAWA Shinji (Japan)

Please Bear With Me Dir. Gabriela Serrano. Prods. Gale Osorio, Keith Deligero (Philippines)

NAFF Award (shared)

Parasomnia Dir. Rafki Hidayat. Prod. Kevin Rahardjo (Indonesia)

Planet Dir. Fredrik S. Hana. Prod. Julia Joner (Norway)

NAFF Korean Award (KRW10 million) (shared)

Idiot Girls and School Ghost: School Anniversary Dir. Kim Minha. Prod. Park Sejoon

Show Me the Liver Dir. Kim Jeongho. Prod. Son Seunghyeon

TAICCA Award ($10,000)

Sesame Has Its Soul Dir. Oscar Duong. Prod. Hang Trinh (Korea, Vietnam)

DHL Award ($5,000)

Lake of Stars Dir. Jake Wachtel. Prod. Visal Sok (Cambodia)

VIPO Award (JPY500,000)

Maiden Home Dir. Sinn Kirin. Prods. Thim Kian Cheng, Saurav Ghimire, Grgoire Graesslin.

(Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia)

Post-Production support

Mocha Chai Award (Post-Production Support)

Please Bear With Me Dir. Gabriela Serrano. Prods. Gale Osorio, Keith Deligero (Philippines)

In-kind support

Blood Window Award (Invitation to Ventana Sur)

Planet Dir. Fredrik S. Hana. Prod. Julia Joner (Norway)

Sitges FanPitch Award (Invitation to Sitges)

Please Bear With Me Dir. Gabriela Serrano. Prods. Gale Osorio, Keith Deligero (Philippines)