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Waves of shock and disbelief rolled through the Korean movie industry around the new year when the director of the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival [PiFan], and subsequently the festvial staff members, were fired. Since then movie personalities such as Park Chan-wook and Choi Min-sik [OldBoy] have vowed to boycott PiFan. Well, they may have found another festival to go in place of PiFan.

Seven PiFan exiles, including former director Kim Hong-joon, in what could be interpretted as a giant 'Eff You' to PiFan, are creating their own festival, titled "The Real Fantastic Film Festival." It will take place at the Hollywood Theater in Seoul on July 14-23, the same time as PiFan, and will show about 50 films.

"We just wanted to maintain and share the personality and achievement of PiFan with moviegoers through this new film festival," Kim Hong-joon said. "We are not trying to make moviegoers boycott PiFan, but the new festival is a symbolic gesture to let people know about problems that the festival has and should resolve."

"The number of films we will screen is about 50, which is one-fourth of PiFan, and we expect to attract only one-twentieth of the budget of PiFan," said Kim Young-duk, former programmer of PiFan. "But we will maintain the essence of the character of the previous PiFan."

The organizers will run the new film festival with the financial aid of private companies and the support of volunteers. It will be interesting to see if the number of big Korean stars like Park and Choi, who vowed to boycott PiFan, will also offer their support for RF3 [which I just made up and will now patent accordingly].

"If we can’t attract a minimal budget and support from moviegoers, though neither of which seems impossible now, we can’t hold the festival. But if we can make it successful, we will think about a better festival in the future", Kim said.

We'll be keeping a close eye on both festival lineups once they are announced. Comparisons will be unavoidable now and time will only tell who will offer the better festival - PiFan or RF3?

via TheKoreaTimes.