On October 8, the 14th Pusan International Film Festival, or PIFF, opened in Busan. (Yes, the city takes a different official spelling than the film festival. Blame inconsistent Romanization.)

As the largest film festival in Korea, it drew a large list of attendees, as you can see from the long list of red-carpet walkers. It was definitely a star-studded opening night, and even included one familiar Hollywood face (Josh Hartnett).

This year’s PIFF features its largest lineup to date, screening 355 films from 70 countries, and closes on the 16th.

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Aw, isn’t little Wang Seok-hyun cute?

September 5 saw the end of the 17th Chunsa Film Festival and its closing-night awards ceremony, which was held in Icheon, Kyunggi-do. The winners list was dominated by the popular, recently released sports film Take Off [국가대표, or National Athlete], although vampire film Thirst did well, as did lush period piece Portrait of a Beauty.

Full winners list below:

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All right, we’ve seen MBC’s Acting Awards (met with much criticism) and SBS’s awards, so now we close out the broadcast station awards with the 2008 KBS Acting Awards.

No real surprise (or controversy) for KBS’s Daesang, awarded to veteran actress Kim Hye-ja for her role in the popular series Mom’s Dead Upset. Personally, I don’t know that Kim was outstanding in that drama specifically, but there’s no doubt she’s built up an impressive, long-running career and therefore this was probably more of an opportunity to give her a lifetime-achievement-ish Daesang.

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