The advance ticket sales for this year’s Busan International Film Festival were disrupted for an hour on Day One due to a heated competition driven by the pandemic-induced cut in the number of tickets available. 

According to the BIFF executive office on Thursday, the pre-event online ticket sales were suspended right after its launch at 2 p.m. after the web site was swamped by buyers and had to resume service at 3 p.m. 

Marking the 25th anniversary this year, the event dubbed as Asia's largest film festival will kick off on Wednesday of next week and screen 192 entries from 68 countries through October 30. 

Arranged under the social distancing Level Two quarantine rules, indoor theaters will accommodate less than 50 viewers per screening and outdoor theaters less than 100. 

Each invited film will be screened only once during the whole festival period while the number of theaters to screen them was also significantly cut from 37 to six.