Five Netflix Titles Head to the 31st Busan International Film Festival

Netflix is set to showcase five titles spanning a diverse range of genres at the 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), marking its 10th anniversary in Korea this year with a lineup that reflects the breadth of its upcoming slate. 

The Icons section, dedicated to auteurs who capture the spirit of the times, will present the films Possible Love and Ray Gunn. Possible Love is a story of two married couples — a laid-off worker and his spouse and a documentary filmmaker and her spouse — crossing paths to film a documentary and facing their different lives and hidden desires. Marking acclaimed auteur Lee Chang-dong’s first film in eight years, and starring Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong, Possible Love has already drawn significant international attention, with selections at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, the 51st Toronto International Film Festival, and the 64th New York Film Festival, along with its selection as South Korea’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards. Possible Love poses profound questions about love, loss and hope in our time, inviting audiences to reflect deeply and leaving a lasting impression.

The American animated feature Ray Gunn follows private eye Raymond Gunn as he's pulled into a dangerous murder investigation involving aliens and Venus Nova, a high-profile multimedia star, set in Metrotopia, a sprawling metropolis in an alternate future envisioned through a 1939 lens. Directed by Brad Bird, the acclaimed filmmaker behind The Incredibles, Ratatouille and The Simpsons, the film promises a richly imagined universe packed with high-octane action, with Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson voicing Raymond Gunn and Venus Nova, respectively.

The On Screen section will present the Korean series Dead-End Job and The Blue Road. In the mystery fantasy horror series Dead-End Job, a bizarre temp agency offers jobs that pay fifty times the standard wage, and Hyeok-jun is sent to a series of uncanny work sites, each concealing a nightmarish horror. Directed by Kim Da-min — who wrote A Killer Paradox and directed the festival-acclaimed FAQ — the series stars Lee Jae-wook, Ko Min-si, Kim Min-ha, and Lee Hee-jun, offering a fresh take on eerie mystery.

The Blue Road is an international crime thriller that follows two detectives as they track a series of gruesome cross-border murders, characterized by twisted bodies and mysterious dying messages. Starring Son Suk-ku as a detective from Seoul and Eita Nagayama as a detective from Tokyo, the series follows the unlikely duo as they dig deeper into the mystery behind the murders. Helmed by director Han Jun-hee (D.P.), the series traces the pair's painstaking process of piecing together the truth, driven by a tense narrative and the chemistry between its two leads.

The World Cinema section will present the French film In Waves. Selected as the opening film of Critics’ Week at the 65th Cannes Film Festival and an official selection in the Discovery category at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival, In Waves is an animated feature telling the love story of AJ, a shy teenager, and Kristen, a young surfer who lives for the ocean. As the two fall deeply in love, Kristen is struck by a sudden illness, forcing the teens to face a tragic twist of fate. The feature debut of director Phuong Mai Nguyen, the film stars Will Sharpe and Stephanie Hsu as the voices of AJ and Kristen, respectively, portraying with warmth how the young couple find strength in love, friendship, surfing and the ocean as they face the road ahead. 

 Netflix continues its partnership with BIFF through Creative Asia, its flagship campaign dedicated to fostering emerging filmmakers across Asia Pacific. Now in its third year, the program will take the form of an immersive, multi-zoned hub. Each zone will offer diverse programming — Masterclasses, Industry Panels, and Workshops — all designed to nurture and connect with the next generation of Asian storytellers. Creative Asia 2026 takes place on October 10, at the Grand Ballroom of Dongseo University Centum Campus.

The 31st Busan International Film Festival runs from October 6-15 at and around the Busan Cinema Center.