The 21st Busan International Film Festival was held from October 6 to October 15, 2016 at the Busan Cinema Center and was hosted by Sul Kyung-gu and Han Hyo-joo.

A total of 301 films from 69 countries were screened at the festival, including 96 world premieres and 27 international premieres.

[1][2][3] A new Vision-Director Award was given to two promising directors of newly produced independent films in the Korean Cinema Today-Vision section, who have shown the most outstanding production skills.

The winner will get a cash prize reward of 5,000 USD sponsored by MEGABOX.

[4] Five major South Korean domestic filmmakers' groups, including the Producers' Guild of Korea and the Directors' Guild of Korea, have boycotted this year's festival over a bitter dispute with the municipal government of Busan since the screening in 2014 of a controversial documentary about the Sewol ferry disaster in spite of the opposition from Busan mayor and BIFF organizing committee Chairman Suh Byung-soo.