By Xu Aiying and Lee Hana
Video = Busan Independent Film Association's YouTube channel

Busan from Sept. 3-5 will host the fifth annual Busan Inter-City Film Festival.

The city government on Aug. 30 announced that the upcoming festival, organized by the Busan Independent Film Association, will be held at Busan Cinema Center's Cinematheque in the seaside district of Haeundae-gu.

The event showcases movies from domestic and overseas cities and UNESCO Creative Cities of Film that the association collaborates with.

Busan, a UNESCO Creative City of Film, has hosted this festival every year since 2017 under the goal of expanding creative networks in cinema regardless of cultural, linguistic, conventional or religious differences.

Despite difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, some 27 films from 14 cities will be screened at this year's festival, the highest on record. Participating cities include Lodz (Poland), Yamagata (Japan), Rome (Italy), Tainan (Taiwan), Bradford (U.K.), Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Valladolid (Spain), Santos (Brazil), Potsdam (Germany), Galway (Ireland), Busan (Korea), Sydney (Australia), Wellington (New Zealand) and Bitola (North Macedonia).

Making their premieres at the festival are "Summer of Love," funded by the association and directed by Lee Seong-uk, and "Mr. Jang," directed by Jang Byung-ki.

More information on the screening schedule and ticketing is available on the festival website: www.indiebusan.com

The poster for this year's Busan Inter-City Film Festival. (Busan Independent Film Association)