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With its growing popularity and global advances in online distribution, it’s easier than ever to find Korean films these days, yet for many the best avenue to discover them remains film festivals. International film festivals or more specialized events, such as Asian film festivals, generally have a couple of Korean films on the program, but for those with a bigger craving to fill, their best bet is often to head to one of the many Korean film festivals that take place around the world.

Korean Cultural Centers, which are supported by Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, have sprung up all around the world and the majority of them stage some kind of Korean film event, though they are not involved with all of the world’s Korea-specific film events. Korean film festivals are staged every year around the world, in places such as Singapore, Indonesia, Hungary, Nigeria, Poland, Nepal and the United Arab Emirate. Yet among the dozens of events that take place, a quartet of long-standing Korean film festivals tower over the rest of the field, which are the London Korean Film Festival (LKFF), the Paris Korean Film Festival (FFCP), the Florence Korea Film Fest and the Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA). 

Unlike the local box office charts in Korea, which gravitate towards the country’s big-budget and star-driven tentpoles and the world’s international film festivals, which tend to favor the country’s socially-driven or arthouse fare, Korean film festivals normally offer the broadest and most representative picture of the breadth of the Korean film industry. The biggest hits of the day screen alongside festival award-winners and any number of overlooked commercial titles and smaller independent titles that often have never screened outside of Korea. What’s more, the programs of all these events offer great variation, reflecting local tastes, but also the wide scope of the industry's output.

The 10th edition of LKFF, which unspooled over November 2nd to 14th, featured 51 features and shorts from the peninsula, demonstrating that it’s come a long way from its inaugural edition in 2006, which featured just 11 titles. Bookending the event were JK YOUN’s blockbuster melodrama Ode to My Father (2014) and ZHANG Lu’s arthouse film Love and… (2015), which screened as a European premiere.

Last year’s event for the first time introduced new strands on Emerging Directors and Documentaries, and featured an Audience’s Choice lineup, which included the three most popular films among the opening and closing titles of the previous nine editions. Among them were KIM Jee-woon’s The Good, The Bad, And The Weird (2008), LEE Jeong-beom’s The Man From Nowhere (2010) and CHOI Dong-hoon’s The Thieves (2012). The festival also put on retrospectives for red-hot star HWANG Jung-min (Ode to My Father; Veteran, 2015) and film studio CJ Entertainment, which last year celebrated its 20-year anniversary.

Regarding plans for this year, festival producer CHO Hyun-jin related that “Having completed our 10th edition last year, the festival is now in its second decade and so we are seeing it mature into a much anticipated event in London’s cultural calendar. As part of this process we aim to extend the festival in three areas: its geographical boundary, temporal limit and the ways in which we can showcase Korean films. First, from this year, the festival will resume and expand its touring program, going beyond London and touring to a number of key cultural cities in the UK such as Glasgow, Manchester and Sheffield. Secondly, we have started a new program entitled ‘LKFF 2016: Teaser Screening’. This exciting program began in April 2016. Rather than focusing only on the two-week period in November we wanted to present Korean films at prestigious cinemas in London throughout the year. Finally, the festival aims to play a role in the connection between Korean cinema and UK-based distributors/exhibition sectors and film subscription providers. The ultimate goal of this approach is sustainability; the impact of Korean cinema in the UK will be much greater when there is a platform where Korean films can be properly distributed by local film distributors rather than showcased once during an annual festival.”

According to festival director YOO Dong-suk, one of the new features put in place last year was a Korean Short Film Post-production Funding program. Asked about the festival’s role in promoting Korean film in the region, he told us: “If there is one thing I can point out, it's the fact that in France, the number of Korean films distributed has been declining. Last year, only three Korean films were shown in theaters in France. It was the worst year since 2001. In consequence, our festival is becoming more crucial for the fans of Korean films here. There is the demand, and it's not well satisfied.”

Outside of the festival, the FFCP also stages monthly Korean film screenings of notable contemporary Korean films. Screenings this spring include NA Hong-jin’s The Yellow Sea (2010) and PARK Chan-wook’s Old Boy (2003), incidentally just a few days before his new film The Handmaiden premieres down in the south of France at the Cannes Film Festival.

This year's event was bookended by OH Seung-uk's The Shameless, the JEON Do-yeon romantic-thriller which initially screened in the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard lineup last year, and LEE Joon-ik’s hit period drama The Throne (2015), with SONG Kang-ho and YOO Ah-in. The festival gave its Best Film prizes in the Horizons and Independent sections to SHIN Su-won’s Madonna (2015) and PARK Suk-young’s Steel Flower (2016), respectively. Madonna also clinched the Audience Award, while a second place Audience Award went to HONG Won-chan’s Office (2015). The Independent jury also reserved a special mention for HONG Sang-soo’s Right Now, Wrong Then. SHIN previously won the Independent Award with her prior film PLUTO in 2013.

Among the features and shorts screened in Florence in March was a complete retrospective on the work of action filmmaker RYOO Seung-wan, starting from his debut Die Bad (2000), which recently screened in a digitally restored version as the closing film of the Jeonju International Film Festival, and going all the way to last year’s hit action-thriller Veteran, which became the third most successful Korean film of all time.

Each year, the festival stages at least one retrospective for a Korean filmmaker or actor, such as PARK Chan-wook or SONG Kang-ho, and, in recent years, staged genre-focused retrospectives as well, such as ‘K-Horror’, ‘K-Thriller’, ‘K-Comedy’ and ‘K-Eros’. Helping to fill out its program every year are the festival’s strong ties to the main film events in Korea, including the Busan, Jeonju and Bucheon International Film Festivals and the Asiana International Short Film Festival.

With just six editions under its belt, the Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) may be the youngest of the major global Korean film events, but after starting in Sydney it quickly expanded to cover all of Australia. Last year, the festival hit six cities (Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth and Adelaide), its most to date, and presented a diverse program featuring 20 films, some of which featured the participation of major directors and producers. The opening film was KIM Sung-ho’s family film How To Steal A Dog (2014), based on a novel of the same name by Barbara O’Connor, and closing out the festivities was SHIN Su-won’s indie hit Madonna, which bowed in the Un Certain Regard lineup of the Cannes Film Festival a few months earlier.

Artistic Director David PARK shared some thoughts with us about how the festival has been successful in promoting Korean film in Australia: “We're very proud of the role that we've played in introducing Korean cinema to the masses in Australia. Since opening our first festival in Sydney, we responded quickly to the growing demand in the other cities and within five years ran the festival successfully in six major Australian cities. What was considered a 'niche audience bracket' before KOFFIA entered the scene has now seen itself expand into a growing market with independent distributors bringing in Korean films to screen in major cinema outlets."

Though not quite as visible as the aforementioned quartet, three cities in North America also stage very well-attended Korean film events. These are the Korean Film Festival DC, the New York Korean Film Festival, and the Toronto Korean Film Festival.

Held at the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., the Korean Film Festival DC is about to stage its 11th edition, with screenings to take place throughout late May and June. In addition to heavy hitters likeThe Throne, the festival will also make space for small indie films such as The Battle of Gwangju and O Muel’s Eyelids, both of which debuted in the Busan International Film Festival last year but have yet to screen outside of Korea. Last year, Korean Film Festival DC welcomed director JANG Jin for a short retrospective.

Presented by The Korea Society and Subway Cinema (which also runs the New York Asian Film Festival), with support from the Korea Foundation, the New York Korean Film Festival has scaled down the size of its lineup yet remains one of the oldest Korean film events, celebrating its 13th edition last November. Last year’s titles included three of the four Korean films that were invited to Cannes, Madonna, Office and The Shameless.

One of the younger events on the calendar, the Toronto Korean Film Festival will stage its fifth edition this May. In addition to the 20 features that it has screened over the previous four years, TKFF stages a signature shorts competition. For this year’s edition the festival welcomed over 200 submissions.