It is with an immense sense of pride that we can now announce that the Busan International Short Film Festival has been designated an OSCAR®-qualifying festival by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, joining a list of prestigious festivals such as Cannes Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival or Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

As such, recipients of the festival’s qualifying awards (Grand Prix for Best Picture in International Competition and Grand Prix for Best Picture in Korean Competition) will be eligible for consideration in the Animated Short Film/Live Action Short Film category of the Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the movies comply with the Academy rules. We are particularly pleased that this will ensure that at least one Korean short film every year will get a chance to be considered, and we hope that it will help a new generation of Korean filmmakers to reach wider audience, reputation and success.

This excellent news marks a months-long process during which the Academy reviewed our festival, our programming policy and our organization. It is a great achievement for our team which strives every year to bring the best short films to Busan audience, and we think that it will cement the reputation of our festival as a world-renown event.

Thus, the Busan International Short Film Festival becomes the first OSCAR®-qualifying festival in South Korea and one of very few such festivals in Asia. We couldn’t be more excited for our upcoming 35th edition, which will take place at the Busan Cinema Center from April 24th until 29th, 2018.

We would like to thank the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences for choosing to trust us, our partners from Festival Regard Saguenay International Short Film Festival and from Show Me Shorts Film Festival who nicely advised us, and the numerous filmmakers who joined their recommendation letters to our application.