The 16th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) lineup includes Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya starrer Sanjay Leela Bhansali's GUZAARISH. The festival will be held between 6-14 October, 2011, in the second largest Korean city Busan, earlier known as Pusan. BIFF is fast developing into the Cannes of Asia. This year's programme has a total of 307 films from 70 countries with 135 World & International premieres.
The other Indian films in the line up include URUMI by Santosh Sivan, THE ADDRESS by Madhav Ramdasan, ALMS FOR A BLIND HORSE by Gurvinder Singh, NOBEL THIEF by Suman Ghosh, STANLEY'S TIFFIN BOX by Amol Gupte, and THE TEMPLE by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, all in the festival's A Window On Asian Cinema section that has 49 films from the Asian region. Another Indian film WATCH INDIAN CIRCUS by Mangesh Hadawale will be showcased in the New Currents section.

ALWAYS by South Korean director Song Il-gon will open the festival while the Japanese film CHRONICLE OF MY MOTHER by Harada Masato will close it. The festival's main venue will be the Busan Cinema Center, BIFF's new 9-storey home.

The Gala Presentation section will have seven films by leading directors, including Besson's THE LADY, Johnnie To's LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE, Peter Chan's DRAGON and Bong Joon-ho's THE HOST 3D. The World Cinema section will have 73 films from 40 countries, including Jodie Foster's THE BEAVER, Terrence Malick's THE TREE OF LIFE, Gus Van Sant's RESTLESS, Evan Glodell'sBELLFLOWER, Lars von Trier's MELANCHOLIA and Aki Kaurismaki's LA HAVRE.

The festival also has a section called Korean Cinema Today that will showcase 15 Korean films including the biggest box office hits and most talked-about films of the year like SUNNY, THE FRONTLINE, WAR OF THE ARROWS, and COME RAIN, COME SHINE.

There are other sections like Vision, Retrospectives, and Special Programmes. This year the festival will also launch Busan Cinema Forum, a conference of international film scholars that will have Thailand's Weerasethakul and Yale University film professor Dudley Andrew as the keynote speakers.

The Asian Film Market is an important part of the festival that will now be held at the Busan Bexco Exhibition Hall 1. It has seen good response from the world cinema industry with the number of participants up 30% and exhibitors up 40%. The Market runs between Oct. 10-13, 2011.