Actors Park Byungeun and Han Sunhwa are hosting the opening ceremony of the 26th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. The 26th BIFAN opening ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. on July 7 at Bucheon City Hall Lawn Square. The film festival announced, "As it will be held face-to-face on the outdoor stage for the first time in 3 years, a new type of opening ceremony will be held to announce the new journey."

Actor Park Byungeun, who made his debut in 2002 with Sex is Zero, solidified his presence to the audience through the role of a cold-blooded Japanese military officer in the movie Assassination. Since then, he has been active in movies and TV dramas such as The Great Battle, Jo Pil-ho: The Dawning Rage, and the Netflix series Kingdom. Actor Han Sunhwa debuted as a singer of SECRET, a K-pop girl group, and began her acting career in 2013 with the TV series AD Genius Lee TaeBaek. Since then, she has been building her own character by starring in the movies such as Cinema Street, Tomb of the River, and Drinker City Women, the original TVing series. 

The 26th BIFAN will be opened with Men (Directed by Alex Garland) and closed with NEW NORMAL (Directed by Jung Bumshik). Men is a horror drama that expresses the patriarchy of men with the director's own imagination. It is the new film of A24 that produced well-made horrors such as Hereditary and Midsommar. NEW NORMAL is a suspense film that combines the dangers and fears hidden in our daily lives after the Pandemic, starring Choi Jiwoo, Lee Yumi, Choi Minho, Pyo Jihoon, Jung Dongwon, Ha Dain, etc. Both the opening and closing films sold out in a minute when the online reservation began on June 28. 

This year, BIFAN is introducing Halloween in July, a new event for citizens’ participation. Shin Chul, Chairperson of the festival, said, "We will try to establish Halloween in July, which combines Korea's representative fairy tale ‘Princess Bari’ and BIFAN's creative imagination, as a festival that many Koreans and the world can participate in and enjoy. Also, we hope to provide new energy and a thrilling sense of freedom to the citizens and audiences who have spent a long time of patience due to the Pandemic." 

The 26th BIFAN will be held for 11 days from July 7 to 17 by mixing online and offline formats, screening 268 films from 49 countries.