Christine Haroutounian’s Black Star Angel scooped the highest prize at Busan’s Asian Undertaking Market on Tuesday (September 23) on the closing night time of the Asian Contents & Movie Market (ACFM).
The Armenia-US challenge picked up the APM Busan Award, which features a $15,000 money prize.
Additional winners included Yoon Eun-kyoung’s Gochi from South Korea and Eve Baswell’s Heaven Assist Us! from the Philippines, which each received two awards apiece.
Scroll down for full checklist of winners
Black Star Angel marks the second characteristic of US-Armenian filmmaker Haroutounian, whose debut After Dreaming premiered at this yr’s Berlinale. It’s government produced by Cannes award-winner Carlos Reygadas.
Set between Jerusalem, Armenia and Paris, the story will comply with a girl who enlists in a battle after her life begins to crumble. Producers are Haroutounian and Maxwell Schwartz of Mankazar Movie, a manufacturing firm based mostly in Yerevan and Los Angeles. A shoot is deliberate to start out by spring 2027.
Haroutounian instructed Display in Busan: “Proper now, the funding is coming collectively and [Carlos] is prepared to assist in no matter manner is sensible for the movie… Artistic danger has extra legal responsibility than payoff nowadays so having the popularity and respect of a real artist was very grounding.”
Baswell’s Heaven Assist Us! received each the Kongchak Studio Award, price $25,000 in sound post-production providers, and Sorfund Award, which invitations the challenge to Norway’s Sorfund Pitching Discussion board.
The third movie of the Filipino director revisits the 1981 tragedy of the Manila Movie Middle, which noticed not less than 169 employees fall into the rapid-drying cement of the muse throughout building. Baswel’s brief Walay Balay premiered at Cannes’s Administrators’ Fortnight final yr whereas her 2019 debut Tia Madre was acquired by Netflix Philippines.
“I don’t wish to inform this story for the horror,” she instructed Display of the upcoming characteristic. “I wish to see these employees as they’re in that second — consuming lunch, joking to kill time, navigating their lives on what would unknowingly be their final day.”
Yoon’s Gochi received the CJ ENM Award of $10,000 and Kantana Award, price $25,000 in sound post-production providers. The challenge is a thriller occult horror wherein a journey vlogging couple go to a lakeside village, eat some gochi fish and uncover a weird reality within the village.
It’s produced by Indiestory’s Stanley Kwak. Yoon is thought for The Tenants, which received two awards at Singapore Worldwide Movie Competition in 2023. Her newest characteristic Sisterhood was introduced at this yr’s Cannes market style showcase Unbelievable 7 and screening at Bifan.
The winners have been chosen from 30 initiatives, whose filmmakers attended the co-production and financing platform from September 20-23, assembly with potential companions by way of pitching classes and one-on-one conferences. Organisers stated that 726 conferences happened, comprising 138 professionals from 127 firms.
The awards jury contains Cannes deputy basic delegate Christian Jeune, Choi Yoonhee from South Korea’s Barunson E&A and impartial movie producer Shen Yang.
The business platform ran alongside Busan Worldwide Movie Competition, which is about to host its personal closing ceremony with awards on Friday (September 26).
Asian Undertaking Market 2025 winners
APM Busan Award
Black Star Angel (Arm-US)
Dir. Christine Haroutounian
One Cool Award
The Funeral March (Japan-China)
Dir. Fujita Naoya
CJ ENM Award
Gochi (S Kor)
Dir. Yoon Eunkyoung
VIPO Award
Wake Me Up When the Mourning Ends (Malay-HK-It-Tai)
Dir. Lau Kok Rui
Purple Sea Movie Fund Award
Purchase My Automobile (China-Japan)
Dir. Zhang Yaoyuan
ArteKino Award
Churching Of Girls (Jordan)
Dir. Darin Sallam
Songwon Award
Dance Dance Revolution (S Kor)
Dir. Choi Hana
KB Award
Arrival Of Water (Japan-S Kor)
Dir. Jo Heeyoung
Kantana Award (Image)
Flying Cows (Viet)
Dir. Nguyen Pham Thanh Dat
Kantana Award (Sound)
Gochi (S Kor)
Dir. Yoon Eunkyoung
Kongchak Studio Award
Heaven Assist Us! (Phil)
Dir. Eve Baswell
TAICCA Award
Gilddong (S Kor)
Dir. Park Riwoong
Sorfond Award
Heaven Assist Us! (Phil)
Dir. Eve Baswell
