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A longtime supporter of Korean cinema, the Mar Del Plata International Film Festival returned for its 32nd edition in late November with its second Korean film showcase. Supported by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC - Acting Chairperson LEE Joon-dong), Mar Del Plata put on a ‘Korea, Guest Country of Honor’ focus and in total presented 11 films from the country.

Among those films, KIM Dae-hwan’s The First Lap was invited to the festival’s main competition section, where it earned the Silver Astor for Best Screenplay. In addition to supporting the featured films and their filmmakers, KOFIC was also on hand to organize a ‘Korean Film Industry Introduction Conference’ and host a ‘Korean Film Night’.

Meaning ‘sea of silver’ in Spanish, Mar Del Plata is a coastal city that lies along the Atlantic Ocean halfway up the coast of Argentina. One of the country’s major fishing ports and a bustling beach resort town welcoming around seven million visitors a year, the city plays host to the Mar Del Plata International Film Festival, which was established in 1954 and is currently the only competitive film festival accredited by the FIAPF in Latin America. The festival has been awarding films since 1959, when the top prize went to Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries. Since 2007, the awards have been named the Golden Ástors, in honor of famed tango composer Ástor Piazzolla.

Beyond the competition invite for The First Lap, two Korean films could be found in the ‘Auteur’ lineup, a co-production with Argentina found its way into the ‘Latin American Competition’, while the dedicated Korean showcase comprised eight titles.

One of this year’s Jeonju Cinema Projects, The First Lap has become a hit on the festival circuit since its spring launch, which has included an international premiere at the Locarno International Film Festival, where it earned the Best Emerging Director prize. Upon winning the award, Director KIM expressed how grateful he was for the unexpected prize. Meanwhile, Adrián Villar Rojas’ Argentina-South Korea co-production The Theatre of Disappearance was featured in the ‘Latin American Competition’.

Described as a ‘hero for the local cinephilia’ by Mar Del Plata programmer Marcelo Alderete, Hong Sangsoo returned with his two most recent titles this year, The Day After and Claire’s Camera. The films, which both debuted at the Cannes Film Festival this year, were featured in the ‘Auteur’ lineup. To date, the festival has invited nine of the revered director’s films and awarded him one prize, the Silver Astor for Best Director for Woman on the Beach in 2007.

The ‘Korea, Guest Country of Honor’ showcase included two works by action maestro RYOO Seung-wan, his debut film Die Bad (2000) and his most recent production, the WWII prison camp drama The Battleship Island, JANG Hun’s Gwangju Democratization Movement drama A Taxi Driver, JUNG Byung-gil’s Cannes ‘Midnight Screenings’ invitee The Villainess, JANG Woo-jin’s indie drama Autumn, Autumn, SHIM Chan-yang’s mockumentary Behind the Dark Night, which earned the Best Korean Film at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) this summer, and two more works from the Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF), LIM Tea-gue's The Seeds of Violence, the Grand Prize winner in Jeonju’s Korean Competition, and KO Bong-soo's Loser’s Adventure.

Alderete explains that ‘This year's selection was made trying to show independent as well as mainstream films. Trying to cover the whole range of Korean movies, from very independent films to the biggest films made by the industry. I believe that this is the most exciting thing about Korean films, all these different ways that they approach cinema, from a formal point of view but also the through different modes of production.’

Beyond the showcase, KOFIC was also busy introducing Korean cinema through the Film.ar project market, put on by the National Institute of Cinema and Audio-Visual Arts (INCAA) as well as staging other events. Two Korean projects took part in pitching sessions at Film.ar which are the LOBOLAB Project Capirucho (Producer: Hyunwoo Thomas KIM) and the MARDOCLAB Project The Primate Citizen (Director: Sinae HA; Producer: Wooyoung CHOI). Also, four projects including remakes of last year's Korean Thriller Insane (Director: LEE Cheol-ha; Producer: KIM Yo-hwan) and Heartbeat (Producer: KIM Sang-o) from 2010, as well as original pitches such Capirucho, The Primate Citizen, and two Korean representative distributors including CJ E&M and CONTENTS PANDA participated in Biz Matching of KO-PRODUCTION IN ARGENTINA. 

The Festivals Special Activities talk, which explored the current state of Korea’s vibrant film scene, featured panelists Whitney KIM (CONTENTS PANDA, N.E.W.), James SEO (CJ E&M), Hewon PARK (Kross Pictures) and a representative from KOFIC’s International Promotion Team, with Marcelo Alderete serving as moderator. KOFIC also put on a ‘Korean Film Night’, which welcomed 200 guests, including representatives of Korean films and companies, as well as Peter Scarlet, the executive director of the Mar Del Plata International Film Festival, and Ralph Haiek, the President of INCAA.

Korean films have featured prominently at Mar Del Plata over the years. Each year typically features a few Korean films in the lineup and including this year’s Best Script win for The First Lap, the award count for Korean film at the festival has now reached four. Previous winners including Hong Sangsoo’s win for Woman on the Beach, PARK Jung-bum’s for Best Actor in his 2014 film Alive, and Best Film from the Argentine Official Competition for Benjamin Naishtat’s El movimiento, an Argentina-South Korea co-production that was presented as a Jeonju Cinema Project in 2015.

KOFIC supported a previous Mar Del Plata showcase in 2012, which was held to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Argentina. The program featured eight titles, including JANG Kun-jae’s Sleepless Night (2013) and LEE Kwang-kuk’s Romance Joe (2012) among others.

KOFIC and INCAA formally established ties between South Korea and Argentina in 2012, when they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the mutual exchange of films between the two nations during that 27th Mar Del Plata event. The MOU outlined provisions for the support of co-production, cooperation with mutual distribution and promotion of films through film festivals.

According to Alderete, since then, Korean films have featured at Mar Del Plata every year. ‘The collaboration between KOFIC and the Mar del Plata Intl. Film Festival is always very good. Audiences expect new Korean films every year, and it makes me very happy that almost every screening to the Korean films sold out. It’s exciting to see a full theater for films that, in some cases, the audience knows only what they read in the catalogue. It’s something that the festival has built over these past few years. I'm very proud of it and hope that we can keep it going.’

Through this successful second showcase, which follows a wealth of previous cultural exchanges, both KOFIC and INCAA have demonstrated the promise of co-productions between Argentina and South Korea. Before long, perhaps we can expect even more interest for Korean films in Latin America and discover the fruits of new collaborations at future film festivals.