We present the list of winners of the Busan International Kids & Youth Film Festival which took place from July 5th – 12th, 2021 in Busan, Korea.

About the festival:
BIKY is the one of the best festivals that has provided a venue for children and teenagers to communicate through various films from all around world. BIKY has one competition called ‘Ready~Action!’ for films directed by children and teenagers. BIKY aims to discover films by young directors and develop new contents in the relevant fields for the future.

Competition Section Award – National

Pure Wind Award
Ready – Action! 12

Among the students who enjoy playing cell phone games, Se-an is nicknamed as a smart phone game addict. On the day after her mom confiscated her smart phone while Se-an was trying to prepare a presentation on using a smart phone, she heard that she could get 3,000 rubies if she just logs in the game. She found a used smart phone and turned it on in order to get the rubies.

Ready – Action! 15

Leaving a small house on a noisy side of the road for a new place in a quiet forest, a family is building rapport as they are building a house to live in together. But once the house was finished, the house was decorated with new furniture. Gradually, the time with the family disappears. As his brother goes to the army, he realizes that the environment surrounding him is changing.

Ready – Action! 18

Gardening, an daughter who lives alone with her mother Young, meddles in and interferes with young’s daily curfews. Then one day, when Gardening throws away the manuscript of young’s favorite article, Young runs away from home. And a story of Gardening left alone.

Blue Sky Award

Ready – Action! 12

At school, a milk carton falls in front of the teacher. The teacher searches for a culprit, but she can’t find it, and she suspects Jun-hu. Then, Jun-hoo is unhappy and forms a milk bomb investigation team to catch the criminal. The investigation team that went into covert duty eventually catches the criminal.

Ready – Action! 15

“Looking for their own stews.” Boram wants to share her childhood memories about a heart warming stew of their grandmother with her sister Minseo. A warm day and a night in the country side of the sisters who try to hide under good old memories.

Ready – Action! 18

Min-jae was the best coin flipper in school for a while. Currently, he came down from the throne because he is about to be a senior of the high school. In the meantime, somebody takes possession of the throne and harasses the innocent students. Minjae faces his fate to grab the coin again to save his school.

Great Ocean Award

Ready – Action! 12

Jin-gu got his cell phone confiscated because he got only 40 scores on his math test. Jingu envies his friend Sumin, who is good at studying, because there is a condition that he can get his cell phone back if he gets 100 scores on the math test. However, Jin-gu gave up on getting a good score and went to the recycling center to throw away recyclable materials. An old man whom Jin-gu met at the recycling center hears his story, and the grandfather gave him a pencil as a gift. Like what the man asked Jin-gu to do, he wrote Sumin’s name on that pencil, and took a math test. And then, Jin-gu got 100 scores as he could solve all the test questions just like Sumin did.

Ready – Action! 15

Ye-ji, who has been always ostracized, tries to push out bad thoughts while standing on the bridge with her eyes tightly closed, as she has always done. Suddenly, a message arrived on her cell phone with a beeping sound. Someone who sent it to her claimed that he is a ‘guardian angel’ for her. Ye-ji gets to know that the guardian angel who saved her, is Jung-woo, and becomes knowing about him. Why did he approach her? What kind of mind does he have toward her?

Ready – Action! 18

The school captain who wants to do a cigarette business safely using a nice image of the prayer department. The prayer manager who stole the offerings, though he may seem devout and exemplary in school, and a girl who knows all the real secrets of the two. The war of nerve between these three surrounding the prayer department begins.

Competition Section Award – International

Magic Film Award

Ready – Action! 12

Children love to fantasize, play and have fun. In the cartoon about Pablo Picasso, we fantasize, studying the biography of the artist and his creativity of different periods. We play by bringing characters from his paintings to life. We have fun and feel sad along with our heroes. As a result, fantasy is intertwined with reality, and we learn to understand art.

Ready – Action! 15

In these trying times, a little hope goes a long way. A kid’s sad world brightens up on his birthday when his father tells him that his deceased mother is looking at him from the sky. But on a stormy night, all hope is lost for the kid as he cannot see her. He then uses a little magic to be with her for once and all.

Ready – Action! 18

We start with a boy and a girl travelling on the road in their car. The girl enjoys the music so much she dances slightly and turns up the volume again and again. The boy, however, who drives the car claims he gets distracted from driving because of the loud music and so they fight over the volume button.

Special Award

Asia Tie-up Award

Seo-yeon, a teacher at a rural school, drives a broken car and heads somewhere. The school arrived at is closed. A suspected child abuse lives here.

Asia Tie-up Award

Ready – Action! 12

Nayul transferred to a new school and got excited about the school and new friends. When Nayul got to know that Hayoon, Nayul’s old friend, was in her new class, she was really happy, but Hayoon ignored her. Since then, her classmates, especially Hayoon and her friends, start ostracize Nayul. Can Nayul survive within her class?

Ready – Action! 15

This is a story of a Japanese girl who came to Korea. She accidentally meets a Korean girl and travels Korea together, and they faces the historical truth.

Ready – Action! 18

Special Award – Non-competition Section Award

Finding Myself Feature

Mica, 10, lives with his mother and sick father in a slum in the suburbs of Meknes, which is destined for destruction. A friend of his parents’, a handyman in a tennis club in Casablanca, takes him as his apprentice. Mica finds himself propelled into a whole new world where a new life awaits him. Mr. Slimani, a rich and cultured man and owner of the club, dreams of making his son Omar a tennis champion. To this end, he hires Sophia, a former French champion, as a private trainer. But Omar has very little talent and no passion for the sport. On the other hand, Sophia will eventually notice Mica and take him under her wing….

Finding Myself Short

At the center of this film is the perspective of ‘Me’, as someone who observes what happens. This insecure and confusing sentiment is visualized in a heavy rhythm with a poem of the Korean poet, Baek Seok. (PAK Jeong-min)

Staying Together Feature

Arriving in a new town with his dad, Jim, a gifted 11-year-old boy has to participate in a young scientist competition with his new classmate Emma. Jim convinces her to secretly build a real air balloon. Pursuing his father’s dream of going to space, Jim drags her into an adventure which brings them closer.

Staying Together Short

Catstronaut Pucha travels the galaxy looking for the meaning of life with the help of her AI spaceship. She lands on Planet 206-B hoping to find the answer there, but first meets a space pup, Blip, who is eager to help but accidentally causes her spaceship to take off and land on the other side of the planet!

Embrace the Difference Feature

Jack has a brother, Gio, who has Down syndrome. As a child, Jack believed the tender lie his parents told him, that Gio was a special being with superpowers, as in a comic book. Now that he is about to go to high school, however, Jack no longer believes that his brother is a superhero, in fact, he is almost ashamed of him, especially since he met Arianna, the first love of his life.

Embrace the Difference Short

The story depicts the comparison between the two classes of our society through the eyes of an 10-year-old boy born and brought up in the slums of a city. One day, surprisingly, a trip to a nearby bungalow solves all his problems as he discovers that the mansion is equipped with a swimming pool. But the division between the classes halts his breakthrough in being the ultimate solution.

Beyond the Boundary Feature

Marguerite and Margot are both 12, with each their own family, friends, problems… and era! One lives in 1942 and the other in 2020. But this is without counting on a mysterious magic chest that transports them to each other’s era. Margot and Marguerite have something else in common: their father is no longer there, one vanished during World War II, the other is not living at home. With 70 years apart, they’re embarking in a wild adventure to find their present, explore History and their familie’s memories.

Beyond the Boundary Short

I am so different from my parents or others that I sometimes feel like I live in other dimensions. The gap emerging from such differences creates loneliness and it is so overwhelming for the girl that she throws herself into the wormhole. The vacant face of the girl who encounters utterly incomprehensive events and misaligned conversations, remains long in our minds. (Emily JANG)

For more information about the festival please go to: http://www.biky.or.kr