"Always," the opening film of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), sold out in 7 seconds after the online ticket sales opened on Monday afternoon, raising expectations even higher for the successful hosting of Asia's top film festival.

The 16th edition of the festival, formerly known as the Pusan International Film Festival, will take place from Oct. 6 to 14 in the South Korean port city of Busan, with 307 films from 70 countries showing.

This year's record broke the previous record of being sold out in 18 seconds, set in last year for "Under the Hawthorn Tree", the festival's opening film by the Chinese director Zhang Yimou.

"Always", directed by South Korea's Cannes Jury Prize winner Song Il-Gon, is a romance about an ex-boxer and a telephone operator who is slowly losing her sight. The film stars South Korean movie star So Ji-sub and actress Han Hyo-joo.

Tickets for the closing film, "Chronicle of My Mother" based on a work by Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue, were also sold out in a mere one minute, 23 seconds.

Directed by Harada Masato, the movie depicts a mother's unconditional love for her son by focusing on a famous writer who learns to make amends with his mother, who suffers from dementia.

In addition to the change to its name, this year's festival will welcome a new home as well as a new director.

Busan Cinema Center, which cost 167.8 billion won (157 million U.S. dollars) and took three years to construct, will be used as the official screening venue of BIFF every year upon its opening this month.

Founding Director Kim Dong-ho announced his retirement last year and the succeeding Lee Yong-gwan will helm the upcoming edition of the festival. Lee recently told a press conference that the festival is now facing a new era with many changes.

"We're in the post-Kim Dong-ho era, and it's not the era of Lee Yong-kwan or anyone else, it's the era of the new Busan Cinema Center and of us continuing the great mountain of accomplishments that Kim Dong-ho has established," Lee said.

The festival's Gala Presentation, a lineup of new films by high- profile directors, will feature seven new films by renowned directors in Asia. The included films are Besson's "The Lady", Johnnie To's "Life Without Principle", Peter Chan's "Wu Xia", and Bong Joon-ho's "The Host 3D" the 3-D version of the director's famous 2006 movie of the same title.

International stars set to visit Busan this year include French filmmaker Luc Besson, Chinese actress Tang Wei, China's Hong Kong based Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh and French actress Isabelle Huppert.

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