Alfonso Cuarón to Make First Korea Visit for Busan Film Festival

Alfonso Cuarón is headed to South Korea for the first time, with the two-time Oscar winner set to make a prominent appearance at the upcoming Busan International Film Festival.

Cuarón is expected to attend the festival’s opening ceremony before giving a master class on the artistic choices and filmmaking techniques that have shaped his career. Busan will also present a special Imax screening of Gravity, for which the director won his first Academy Award for best director in 2014 (he picked up a second directing Oscar in 2019 for Roma).

Cuarón will also be attending Busan in support of his son and longtime collaborator Jonás Cuarón, who will bring his well-received latest feature, Campeón Gabacho, to the festival for its Asian premiere. Screening in the festival’s World Cinema section, the film will be followed by a post-screening Q&A. The younger Cuarón co-wrote Gravity with his father and has since directed Desierto and Netflix fantasy adventure Chupa.

Campeón Gabacho stars Juan Daniel García Treviño, Leslie Grace, Rubén Blades, Eddie Marsan, Rosario Dawson and Cheech Marin. The film is described as a playful but pointed portrait of a Mexican immigrant struggling to build a life in the United States. Jonás and Alfonso Cuarón produce alongside Gabriela Rodriguez through Esperanto Filmoj, with Nicolás Celis also serving as a producer.

Cuarón joins a starry international contingent headed to Busan this year. Michelle Yeoh will return to the festival for the first time in 15 years to receive its Asian Filmmaker of the Year honor, while Maggie Gyllenhaal, Isabelle Huppert, Hirokazu Koreeda, Lee Chang-dong and Na Hong-jin are also expected to attend. Chinese stars Zhou Xun and Fan Bingbing and actor-director Shu Qi are among the other prominent Asian guests, while the Korean contingent includes Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, Shin Min-a, Ju Ji-hoon, Lee Min-ho, Hyun Bin and Jung Woo-sung, among others.

The 31st Busan International Film Festival runs Oct. 6-15 at the Busan Cinema Center and venues across the South Korean port city. Chinese director Zhang Yimou will preside over the festival’s main competition jury, joined by fellow filmmakers Bi Gan, Kei Ishikawa, July Jung and others, to select the winners from 13 competition titles. The Asian Contents & Film Market will take place alongside the festival Oct. 10-13.