Busan Film Festival 2026: 6–15 Oct Guide

Busan in October is a film festival with a market attached, and in 2026 the market is also a technology schedule. The 31st Busan International Film Festival runs from 6 to 15 October 2026 in Busan, South Korea. Its official industry market, the Asian Contents and Film Market, runs 10 to 13 October at Exhibition Center 2, BEXCO. Inside that market, InnoAsia occupies the same four days and the same building, and the festival’s own press note names Amazon Web Services, Kling AI, Google DeepMind and Alibaba Group among the participants. That pairing — a public festival fortnight and a closed industry market with cinematic AI on the programme — is the reason the dates are worth a page of their own.

Verification note: Festival dates are on biff.kr (6–15 October 2026). ACFM and InnoAsia dates and the BEXCO Exhibition Center 2 venue are in BIFF’s InnoAsia press release and in Variety’s report of the same announcement. The company list in the next section follows that press release. Asian Movie Pulse’s September note adds the New Currents jury names, Thailand as Country of Honor, Japan as Producer Hub focus, and a count of 64 ACFM programmes. An opening-ceremony minute was not in the pages used here, so none is printed. Ticket prices are not printed. This is not a film review and not a betting market on awards.

Festival and market sites that can show a public fortnight and a trade window without merging them are a build we recognise. See AI development and web development. TheTriFusion is not an accredited BIFF sales desk.

The two calendars inside one city

• Festival: 31st Busan International Film Festival, Tuesday 6 October through Thursday 15 October 2026
• City: Busan, South Korea
• Market: 21st Asian Contents and Film Market, Saturday 10 October through Tuesday 13 October
• Market venue stated for InnoAsia: Exhibition Center 2, BEXCO
• InnoAsia: the same 10–13 October window, framed by the organisers as cinema and technology together
• Korea time: KST, UTC+9, which does not change with European daylight saving

India is ninety minutes behind Korea. A 10:00 a.m. KST panel is 8:30 a.m. IST. A 7:00 p.m. KST screening is 5:30 p.m. IST. Those conversions are the offset, not a published call sheet. The festival has not, in the sources used here, issued one national “opening minute” that this page can repeat. The schema on this article marks the opening day in Korea. It is not a red-carpet alarm. If BIFF publishes a ceremony time, use that time and retire the guess you were about to make.

BEXCO is the market floor named for InnoAsia. The festival’s screenings are a wider map. The ACFM contact page lists a Busan office at BIFF Hill, Busan Cinema Center, in Haeundae-gu. That is an office address on the market site, not a claim that every film plays in one hall. Check the daily schedule on biff.kr before you tell someone the movie is “at BEXCO”.

What InnoAsia says it is doing

BIFF’s release describes InnoAsia as a place where cinema and technology are supposed to develop side by side, from brand-film work to microdrama. The 2026 participant line that Variety and the festival both printed includes AWS, Kling AI, Google DeepMind and Alibaba Group. The longer AI-technology list in the same release includes BytePlus, Alibaba Cloud, Netflix’s VFX studio Eyeline Studios, MegazoneCloud, OPIM Digital, the Korean Film Archive platform i.AM, Kling AI and Inshorts. On the production side it names France’s Atlas V and Korean companies including Mateo AI Studio, MBC C&I, Climax Studio, For Entertainment, K-Dragon and MooAm. Microdrama platforms named there include Mango TV, FlickReels and Vigloo.

Programmes the release actually describes, rather than a vibe, include Kling AI co-hosting a session called “New Cinematic Possibilities: Reimagining Filmmaking with Kling AI” and a networking reception with ACFM. AWS and MegazoneCloud are tied to an “AWS Awards” linked to startup pitching, with winners chosen after a proof-of-concept process and offered AWS cloud vouchers. The release also points at sessions on production practice, foundation models, and copyright in a period of AI change, with Alibaba Cloud and Kling AI among the names attached to that conversation. Asian Movie Pulse counted 44 organisations across 11 InnoAsia programmes, inside a wider ACFM slate of 64 programmes in seven categories.

That is a market programme. It is not a promise that Google DeepMind will premiere a film, and it is not a consumer ticket to a model demo. Industry accreditation is how ACFM usually gates the floor. If you are a viewer who only wants public screenings, the festival schedule is your document. If you are a producer who wants the market, the ACFM accreditation page is your document. This blog is neither badge.

Names that are easy to over-read

A later ACFM page listing conference participants also shows strings such as Google Cloud, Midjourney and OpenAI alongside Alibaba, AWS and Kling AI. A participant grid on a market site can change between a September press release and October. If you are printing a “who is there” box, date it. The names this guide treats as confirmed by the festival’s own InnoAsia release are the ones in that release, led by AWS, Kling AI, Google DeepMind and Alibaba. Extra logos on a webpage should be checked on acfm.kr the week you travel.

The festival around the market

Asian Movie Pulse reported that the New Currents jury for this edition brings together Indian director Rima Das, Chinese producer Shan Zuolong and Korean actor Shim Eun-kyung. New Currents is a competition section. The jury names are a programming fact. They are not a prediction of the winner, and this page will not guess the winner. Thailand is described in that report as the inaugural Country of Honor, and Japan as the Producer Hub focus country. Those are market themes for 2026, useful if you are deciding which national pavilion to walk, useless if you are deciding which public film to see on a Wednesday night.

Public films, guests and red-carpet lists move until the festival opens. A title that was “expected” in August can drop out in October. Bookmark the official daily grid. Do not buy a flight on a single unofficial premiere rumour. Busan is a real city with real hotels, and a rumour is a bad reason to lock a non-refundable rate.

Why a film festival is also an AI story

Indian producers and post houses already use generative tools in commercials and in trailers. A market that puts AWS, a video model company, a research lab and a Chinese cloud group in one hall is a place those companies will be compared in public, which is rarer than a keynote. The questions on the programme, as the organisers describe them, are practical: how a set uses a model, who owns an asset, what a microdrama platform buys, and how a voucher or a proof-of-concept turns into a production. They are not a tutorial in bypassing a safety filter, and this page will not become one.

For anyone building software around that workflow, the useful souvenir from Busan is a name and a session title, not a scraped model. If you need a product that logs rights and versions instead of a folder of anonymous clips, that is ordinary studio software. It is closer to the work described on our AI development page than it is to a festival tote bag.

Other October screens already on this site are not BIFF. Jailer 2 is a theatrical date. The Social Reckoning is another release, not a Busan section. Edgerunners 2 is Netflix later in the month. A “what to watch in October” list can hold all four only if each line has its own city.

Travel notes that stay inside what is known

Korea does not observe European daylight saving, so the UTC+9 offset is stable across these ten days. India stays at UTC+5:30. The United Kingdom goes back to GMT on 25 October, which is after BIFF closes, so a UK viewer converting a Busan evening during the festival is still on BST: KST is eight hours ahead of BST. After 25 October that gap becomes nine hours. Do not reuse a November conversion on a 12 October screening.

Flights into Busan are usually via Gimhae, and some itineraries land in Seoul and continue by the KTX. This page does not quote a fare. It does not quote a hotel. Accreditation deadlines, if you need a market badge, are on acfm.kr and they move. A blog published on 26 September is already late for some early-bird windows and early for the final grid. Check the source site, not a repost.

A checklist

• Festival: 6–15 October 2026. Market and InnoAsia: 10–13 October, BEXCO Exhibition Center 2.
• Do not put a public screening and a market meeting in the same calendar block unless the schedule says they share a room.
• Quote AWS, Kling AI, Google DeepMind and Alibaba from the festival release. Date any longer logo list.
• Do not announce a New Currents winner. The jury is the fact. The prize is later.
• Ignore unofficial “full film” links. Premiere theft is not a guide.
• Convert KST to IST by subtracting ninety minutes, then confirm the session actually has a clock.

The canonical page is https://thetrifusion.in/blog/busan-film-festival-2026-oct-6-15-guide. For a festival or market site that can hold a public programme and a trade programme without mixing the badges, contact TheTriFusion or book an appointment.

FAQ

When is the Busan International Film Festival in 2026?

6 to 15 October 2026, the 31st edition, in Busan, South Korea.

When is the film market?

The Asian Contents and Film Market, including InnoAsia, runs 10 to 13 October 2026 at Exhibition Center 2, BEXCO.

Which technology companies are named?

BIFF’s InnoAsia release names Amazon Web Services, Kling AI, Google DeepMind and Alibaba Group among the participants, plus a longer list of AI, VFX and microdrama companies. Check acfm.kr before you travel in case the grid changes.

What time is the opening ceremony in IST?

An opening-ceremony clock was not in the sources used for this guide, so none is printed. Korea is ninety minutes ahead of India. Use the official daily schedule for session times.

Who is on the New Currents jury?

Asian Movie Pulse reported Rima Das, Shan Zuolong and Shim Eun-kyung. That is a jury list, not a winner.

Does this page link to pirated films?

No. Use the official festival and Netflix or other licensed services for anything that later streams. Unofficial full copies are not part of this guide.