BIFF Square in Nampo-dong is the pedestrian street at the center of the Busan International Film Festival and one of Busan’s most active year-round street food destinations. Here is the complete guide to visiting.
BIFF stands for Busan International Film Festival, held annually in early October and is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. BIFF Square is the outdoor pedestrian street in the Nampo area that forms the festival’s public hub, with handprint ceremonies, outdoor screenings, and the concentrated energy of a major international cultural event. Outside the festival period, the square is still worth visiting for its street food, the Gukje Market, and the Jagalchi Market steps away.
Getting to BIFF Square
Nampo Station on Busan Metro Line 1. Exit 6 leads to the square in about a 3-minute walk. Alternatively, Jagalchi Station (Line 1) Exit 7, then walk north about 5 minutes.
During BIFF (Early October)
The Busan International Film Festival runs for approximately 10 days in early October. BIFF Square becomes the public center of the festival with outdoor screening zones, the Celebrity Handprint Ceremony (Korean and international film directors and actors press their hands into cement blocks along the Walk of Fame), pop-up merchandise stalls, and the overflow energy of a festival that attracts the Korean film industry’s most prominent figures.
Film screenings during BIFF take place at multiple theatres across Busan, not just at BIFF Square itself. Tickets for screenings must be purchased separately through the official BIFF website, which opens ticket sales several weeks before the event. The square itself is free to attend. See Busan in October for tips on visiting Busan during this period.
Year-Round: Street Food
Outside of October, BIFF Square is still worth visiting for its concentration of street food vendors. The most famous is ssiat hotteok (씨앗호떡): a thick sweet pancake filled with seeds and nuts (sunflower seeds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds) rather than the plain sugar syrup version found elsewhere in Korea. The BIFF Square ssiat hotteok stalls, particularly the one near the cinema, are considered among the best in Busan. The queue is usually 10 to 20 minutes long but moves quickly. About 2,000 won each.
Other street food: tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), fish cake on a skewer dipped in broth (eomuk), and seasonal snacks. The evening, from around 5 pm to 9 pm, is the most active time for street food.
The Walk of Fame
Along the BIFF Square pavement, cement blocks preserve the handprints of Korean and international filmmakers who have attended the festival. The blocks include directors, actors, and film personalities. Notable names include Quentin Tarantino, Hong Sangsoo, Im Kwon-taek, and many prominent Korean film figures. Looking for specific names can be a game for film enthusiasts.
Gukje Market
Directly adjacent to BIFF Square, Gukje Market (국제시장) is a large covered traditional market featured prominently in the 2014 Korean film ‘Ode to My Father’ (also known as Gukje Market), which dramatizes the refugee families who set up markets in the Nampo area after the Korean War. The market sells clothing, accessories, imported goods, and food—a genuinely working market rather than a tourist-facing one.
