The 26th Busan International Film Festival will kick off on Wednesday for a ten-day run in South Korea’s largest port city. 

The opening ceremony will be held at the Busan Cinema Center in Haeundae from 6 p.m. and will be hosted by actors Song Joong-ki and Park So-dam.  

The red carpet event, which did not take place last year due to COVID-19 measures, returns this year as well as the closing ceremony, albeit at a lesser in-person capacity than in past years. 

Over the next ten days, a total of 223 films from some 70 countries will be screened in 29 theaters. Only half of the seats will be filled in accordance with COVID-19 quarantine regulations. 

South Korean director Im Sang-soo's “Heaven: To the Land of Happiness” will be the opening film, while Longman Leung's “Anita” will close out the film festival.