South Korea's largest annual horror and fantasy film festival opened on Thursday, resuming on-site events that were suspended due to COVID-19.

Around one-thousand-500 people, including local politicians, film industry officials, directors and actors attended the opening ceremony for the 26th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival(BIFAN).

Two-hundred-68 films from 49 countries will be featured at this year's eleven-day festival, which highlights movies in the horror, thriller, mystery and fantasy genres. All invited titles will be screened at five venues, as well as on the domestic online streaming platform Wavve.

The horror film "Men" by English filmmaker Alex Garland will open the festivities, and South Korean director Jung Bum-shik's thriller "New Normal" is set to close the event.

In a bid to realign the definition of "film," the festival will present a special award to the mega-hit Netflix Korean drama series "Squid Game."