Alfonso Cuarón to Make First Korea Visit at Busan Film Festival
The two-time Academy Award-winning director will attend the 31st Busan International Film Festival, lead a filmmaking master class and join a special IMAX presentation of Gravity.
Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón will make his first visit to Korea next month as a guest of the 31st Busan International Film Festival, adding one of world cinema’s most acclaimed directors to the event’s international lineup.
Festival organizers said Friday that Cuarón will attend the opening ceremony and lead a master class focused on his filmmaking. The program will also include a special IMAX screening of Gravity, the 2013 space drama that earned him his first Academy Award for best director. He later won the directing Oscar again for Roma, released in 2018.
The visit will also bring a family collaboration into the festival program. Cuarón is due to be joined by his son and frequent collaborator Jonás Cuarón, who co-wrote Gravity. Jonás Cuarón’s latest feature, Campeón Gabacho, will have its Asian premiere in Busan as part of the World Cinema section. The film was co-produced with his father.
Cuarón’s appearance gives Korean audiences an opportunity to hear directly from a filmmaker whose career has moved across languages, genres and production scales. His international breakthrough came with Y Tu Mamá También in 2001. He later directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004 before reinforcing his reputation as a major visual stylist with Children of Men in 2006, a film known for its extended, uninterrupted takes.
The Mexican director is the latest high-profile guest confirmed for this year’s festival. Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh is also set to return to Busan for the first time in 15 years. Yeoh, who won the Academy Award for best actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once, will receive the festival’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year award.
The 31st Busan International Film Festival is scheduled to run from Oct. 6 through Oct. 15 at the Busan Cinema Center and other venues across the southern port city. The announcement places both generations of the Cuarón family in the same festival edition, but in distinct roles: the elder director looking back on an internationally recognized career and his son presenting a new feature to Asian audiences. Cuarón’s master class, the IMAX screening of Gravity and the Asian premiere involving both father and son broaden a program designed to connect Korean audiences with prominent figures and new work from global cinema.