You do not need a Korean phone number, a Korean card or anyone in Korea to buy a ticket to Asia’s biggest film festival. You need an email address and to be awake at 14:00 Korean time on the right day.
The 31st Busan International Film Festival runs 6 to 15 October 2026, opening on a Tuesday for the first time, with 315 films from 59 countries and 95 world premieres. Almost every seat is sold online, in advance, in two rounds. The box offices during the festival sell only what is left and what gets cancelled.
The two on-sale days
Everything opens at 14:00 Korean time, which is 06:00 in London and 01:00 in New York.
Thursday 17 September. The opening and closing ceremonies, Open Cinema, which is the outdoor programme in the 4,000-seat theatre under the roof, Midnight Passion, Actors’ House and Community BIFF.
Monday 21 September. General screenings, Master Class and Cine Class. This is the round that matters for almost everyone, because it is nearly all of the 315 films.
The full timetable has been public since 11 September, so you can have your screening codes written down before the queue opens. The rule is two tickets per screening code, and booking a different code means re-entering the queue, so decide what you want before you sit down.
Setting up the account
The ticket site is ticket.biff.kr, which sends you to a page with two doors. Take the one marked Non Resident Ticket Booking (ENG).
An account is an email address and a six-digit number you choose as a password. The site emails you to confirm the address. Two rules from the login page itself: an account from last year does not work this year, so register again, and one email address gets one account.
Registration opened on 16 September, a day before the first sale. Do it now, not at 13:59 on the day.
What it costs
| Programme | Price |
|---|---|
| General screenings, Cine Class | 10,000 won |
| Actors’ House, Master Class | 15,000 won |
| Midnight Passion | 20,000 won |
| Opening and closing ceremony | 30,000 won |
Open Cinema is not in the festival’s price table; take the figure from the booking screen. Seniors over 65 and people with disabilities get 3,000 won off with ID.
The festival says cards are accepted online and does not publish which networks. If you are booking from abroad, buy one cheap general screening the moment the 21 September round opens and confirm your card goes through before you chase anything scarce.
Reading the timetable
The screening grid uses a code for language, and it is the single thing that decides whether your evening works.
- No code means English subtitles with Korean dialogue. Most Korean films sit here.
- KE means Korean subtitles plus English subtitles, or English dialogue.
- KN means Korean subtitles on a film in a language that is not English, with no English subtitles. Skip these unless you speak the language.
- KK means Korean subtitles on Korean dialogue, so no English either.
- NO means no dialogue.
GV next to a screening means a guest visit, usually the director or cast on stage after the film. Ratings show as ALL, Under 12, Under 15 and Under 19.
Getting in
The ticket is a mobile ticket on the booking site. If you want paper, show the mobile ticket at a BIFF Ticket Box during the festival. The main one is outdoors at the Busan Cinema Center, open 08:30 to 20:30 every day from 6 to 15 October; the others are inside the partner cinemas and open on their own days and hours.
Box offices during the festival sell same-day and next-day general screenings only, from whatever is unsold, and the desk for that is set up for people who cannot book online rather than as a plan.
The Cinema Center is in Centum City. From Centum City station on line 2, exit 6, it is about a nine-minute walk, and the city’s own directions say so. CGV Centum City and Lotte Cinema Centum City, the other big venues, are the multiplexes in the same district. The outside-Seoul transport guide has Busan’s fares and the transfer rule, and your Seoul T-money card works here.
Cancelling
Online or at a ticket box, up to 60 minutes before the screening.
| How far ahead | General tickets | Opening and closing ceremony |
|---|---|---|
| Six days or more | free | free |
| Five to three days | 1,000 won | 3,000 won |
| Two days to 60 minutes | 3,000 won | 9,000 won |
A cancellation on the day you bought is free in the middle band but not in the last one.
What is on
The opening film is Kim Jong-kwan’s The Table: Day and Night, four couples in one café across a summer and an autumn. The closing film had not been announced when this was checked. The guest list runs to Michelle Yeoh, Isabelle Huppert, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Fan Bingbing, Majid Majidi and Ann Hui, and there is a 14-film competition for best Asian film, an animation focus and, inside Midnight Passion, an all-night animation strand.
Community BIFF, the second round’s oddest entry, is 69 films and audience-run events in the old city centre around Nampo-dong rather than in Centum City, which is a different subway line and a different evening.
If the festival is the reason for the trip, Busan from Seoul puts it inside the October run of events, and the K-pop ticketing guide covers the other kind of Korean on-sale you might be fighting the same week.
The festival dates, the two on-sale rounds and their times, the non-resident booking path and its email-only account, the price table, the two-per-code limit, the cancellation bands, the ticket box list and hours, the on-site sales rule and the senior and disability discount are from the festival’s English ticket guide and the login page of its booking site, read on 16 September 2026. The subtitle and marker codes are from the legend on the festival’s English screening schedule, read the same day. The timetable release date of 11 September and the box office policy are from the festival’s booking announcement as reported on 2 September 2026. Film counts, the opening film and the guest list are from the lineup announcement of 1 September 2026 as reported in the Korea Herald. Directions to the Cinema Center are from the Busan city tourism site. The festival does not state which card networks its site accepts, which is why this page tells you to test with a cheap ticket rather than promising.
