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The Green Film Festival in Seoul (GFFIS) is the first film festival in Korea to highlight environment issues. Launched in 2004 by the Korean Green Foundation and the one and only film festival focusing on environmental issues in Korea, GFFIS has introduced audiences to a number of ‘green’ films from all over the world in order to spread hope for a better world where all life can exist in harmony with environment and nature.

 

GFFIS is an annual event with one international competition among a variety of other non-competitive sections and its 9th edition was held from May 9-15, 2012. For its Green Competition, which is designed to screen the latest achievements in environmental film as well as encourage the production and distribution of such films, more than 800 films from 70 countries were submitted in 2012, with ten features and ten shorts selected for the final competition. The 2012 edition of GFFIS also presented a special section dedicated to the disaster and chaos that was levied upon Fukushima, Japan last year. Titled “Fukushima, Untold Stories”, this section consisted of four feature films and five short films dealing with the tragedy and efforts to overcome the ensuing adversity. The event also hosted acclaimed director IWAI Shunji, who offered his new documentary film <Friends after 3.11>. In addition, noted Chinese-Korea director ZHANG Lu served as one of the jury members for the Green Competition and a number of other special guests and visiting filmmakers also attended the festival.

 

Through cinema, GFFIS always hopes to promote ideas regarding environmental protection and respect for life, encouraging public awareness, citizen action and positive change.

 

Korea’s Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) is the nation’s premier public media resource for educational and informative television programming covering a wide array of topics and issues. In 2004 EBS held the inaugural edition of the EBS International Documentary Festival (EIDF), which at the time focused on screening documentaries produced in Asia countries or focusing on specifically Asian causes and issues. Since then, the festival has slowly grown and broadened its scope, now hosting documentaries produced in a variety of different nations worldwide and covering a wide range of subjects bridging cultures and crossing boundaries, such as human rights and gender issues.

 

Aside from promoting public interest the documentary format and introducing audiences to myriad topics both domestic and global, EIDF also aims to create diverse market opportunities for documentary film. To this effect, it broadcasts some of the festival’s most outstanding documentaries on television during the week of the festival and offers a special insight as to how filmmakers might cultivate their works for a television audience. Additionally, in collaboration with the Broadcasting Content Promotion Foundation, the festival established the EIDF Documentary Fund in 2009. This project development program aims to assist filmmakers in developing and producing quality documentary content that can appeal to a global audience. The fund offers roughly USD $26,000 to a selected project, which is then showcased in the following year’s festival.

 

The 9th installment of EIDF in 2012 should prove to further establish the festival as one of Asia’s most intriguing documentary film events, continuing to offer a multitude of cinematic viewpoints over both film and television formats.

 

 

The demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea, which represents the peninsula’s state of armistice, is a place where one can realize the true value of ‘peace’ and ‘communication.’ The DMZ Korean International Documentary Festival (DMZ Docs) is a film festival inspired by and located near Korea’s DMZ.

 

DMZ Docs is an annual festival for documentary films presented jointly by Gyeonggi Province and the city of Paju since 2009. The festival aims to present documentaries with various themes and styles and to promote the documentary genre as a means of communication. Held near Korea’s demilitarized zone, DMZ Docs focuses on the themes of peace, coexistence and reconciliation. Despite its short history, DMZ Docs is growing as one of the most important documentary showcases in Asia.

 

With the hope of promoting local and international documentary production, as well as discovering outstanding documentary projects, DMZ Docs offers several funds available to filmmakers. The DMZ Fund aims to encourage Asian documentary filmmakers and revitalize documentary film production in the region. This fund focuses particularly on documentary films that chronicle struggles for peace in the world’s conflict regions.   

 

The upcoming 2012 edition will also host Crossing Borders -- the Eurasia Pacific Documentary Training Initiative in collaboration with the European Documentary Network (EDN). And with an everexpanding vision, DMZ Docs is planning to launch a project market beginning in 2013 as well. 

 

 

Since 2007, the Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival (CinDi) has lead the way in exploring the aesthetic possibilities offered by the new era digital filmmaking. With an international scope and focus on young, groundbreaking Asian talent, with each yearly installment CinDi proves to introduce revolutionary reconceptualizations of what exactly film is and how new media are deconstructing and recombining the building blocks of traditional cinema.

 

In order the encourage such experimentation with new media formats, the festival offers a variety of prizes in its premier program, the Asian Competition. Three different juries, each with different foci and criteria, award three different films a Chameleon Prize. Multiple films from the Butterfly section are also selected for the Butterfly Award, which comes with the opportunity for directors to develop and produce their next project with CJ E&M, one of Korea’s premier film production conglomerates.Finally, The Movie Collage Award comes with two weeks of screening time at CGV theaters across Korea and a substantial amount of marketing support. Such programs prove that CinDi is fully commited to introducing film’s new digital aesthetics to mainstream audiences.

 

CinDi has also introduced special programs that focus on smartphone-produced films and classic cinema that has been digitally restored or remastered. With an unceasing imagination regarding the new possibilities of film in the contemporary era, CinDi will continue to show that the advent of digital media has not meant the death of cinema, but has rather extended its significance and agency.

 

The Seoul Interational NewMedia Festival (NeMaf) defines itself thusly: One, NeMaf are with those who consider other people as one with ourselves. Two, NeMaf firmly believe that everyone is an artist playing with new media arts. Three, NeMaf dreams of the world where the individuality of everyone is respected. Four, NeMaf places itself squarely against the uniformity of popular culture, preferring resistance and cultural difference.

 

As a new media art festival of alternative video, the Seoul International NewMedia Festival was launched in 2000 as an indie video festival. NeMaf has since been destorying the boundaries between video and art with creative energy and passion. It is dedicated to introducing new media art works that offer new imaginations and new uses for art and media, aiming to discover artists with potential and support them with the belief that everyone can be a new media artist. The festival is highly interactive, encouraging communication between artists and audiences.

 

As a festival which has been developing and producing new genres of film and art, it has previously explored media genres such as media symphony (rhythm and image), image poem (prose accompanied by a mental picture), visual performance, digital media art, video activism, video diaries, and B-grade kitsch cinema. NeMaf is on the front line of experimentalism, radiating a vivid imagination and redefining creativity in the movie/ media/image arts.

 

Cartoons from Korea and abroad take over the big screen during the Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival (SICAF). This unique festival aims to explore new animation through the digital era and beyond with screenings, exhibitions and a variety of competitions at Seoul’s COEX Convention & Exhibition Center and the Seoul Ani-Cinema.

 

Launched in 1995, SICAF has since be showcasing cartoons and other animated content from a diverse array of nations and cultures. The event not only features the Animated Film Festival but also exhibitions of cartoon artwork, a cartoon/animation convention for industry players and fans alike, and the Seoul Promotion Plan, which helps develop young and innovative new talent working on animation projects. SICAF is Korea’s premier showcase for animated and cartoon content, providing an opportunity to chart industry trends, widen the market for animated content, match animators and artists with investors and distributors, and inspire new talent with a variety of competitions.

 

Annually more than 1,500 films are submitted to this festival for its competition and non-competition sections, a number on par with many of the world’s top animated film festivals. In 2012, 1,362 films from 45 countries were submitted to the competition sections alone. SICAF also works with the Association Internationale du Film d’Animation (ASIFA), an international network consisting of artists and other professional organizations devoted to animated film.

 

In 1999, the Puchon International Student Animation Festival (PISAF) embarked on its journey as the sole animation festival in Asia dedicated solely to students and has since earned high marks for the quality of its selections. PISAF has also
committed itself to becoming a venue in which to introduce animations created by animators from home and abroad and nurture new talents in the digital content industry.

 

The festival’s central program is its International Student Competition, which is designed to discover young and promising new talent in animation and showcase their work. There are two categories: Short Animated Films (less than 30 minutes) and New Media Content, which can include many different formats such as Internet/web, Mobile-based, stopmotion graphics, interactive animations and etc. In 2011 over 1,200 films from all over the world were submitted to PISAF. Along with the competition, PISAF offers many opportunities for young animated filmmakers to meet masters of the cartoon and animation world. In 2011, Disney animator John Musker, director of <The Little Mermaid>, <Aladdin>, <Hercules> and <The Princess and the Frog> have been featured.

 

PISAF has played a major role in creating a network linking animation festivals worldwide through its collaborations with film fests in Annecy, Ottawa, Hiroshima, Zagreb, and the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film. The festival also offers a cartoon and animation experience program to attract interested audience members. The program is also aimed at exposing the ways that cartoons and animation can help develop creativity across a variety of fields. PISAF hopes to see more people enjoying cartoon and animation in the future.

 

PISAF 2012, the festival’s 14th edition, will be held November 7-11 with screenings, an animation fair, an educational convention and a variety of other special events, including ones hosted by Disney & Studio Ghibli.

 

 

The Busan International Short Film Festival (BISFF) was launched in 1980 as the Korean Short Film Festival. It was the first short film festival to appear in Korea and will be celebrating its 29th year in May 2012, which will open with classic short film masterpieces including the Lumière brothers’ early works.

 

BISFF aims to explore the format of the short film by offering a wide selection of works from Korea and other countries regardless of genre or theme. In its early years, the festival screened only Korean films, providing a platform for young Korean filmmakers’ works to be introduced to wider audiences. Among the festival’s previous award winners are many of now-famous Korean directors such as KANG Je-kyu (<My Way>, 2010), KIM Tae-yong (<Late Autumn>, 2010) and RYU Seung-wan (<The Unjust>, 2010), to name only a few.

 

BISFF expanded its scope to include Asian short films in 2000, and in 2010 it became a truly international film festival, accepting films from all over the world. With its 30th anniversary just one year away, BISFF 2012 received more than 1,800 submissions from 74 countries for its international competition, from which it selected 60 finalists. To additionally further in-depth cultural exchange, the festival also recently launched an international partnership program that will highlight short films from a particular country every year -- their 'Guest of Honor’ -- starting with France in 2012.

 

Aiming to explore new territory for the short film, the Asiana International Short Film Festival (AISFF) is a place where shorts from all over the world come to communicate and compete. Held every autumn since 2003, AISFF was designed by Asiana Airlines as the world’s first ever film festival aiming to discover new in-flight entertainment for airplanes, but has since grown into one of the most prominent international film festivals in Korea. The festival has not only supported rising talent and new found creativity through its AISFF Fund Project, but it also provides outlets for the distribution of short films, including post-festival nationwide tours and in-flight screenings across the globe.

 

Even though it is still a relatively young festival, 2,027 films from 82 countries competed last year, which shows the infinite potential of AISFF and the world of short films. Its ‘In the Air Program’, one of the more unique facets of AISFF, shows films selected from the International Competition to approximately 3 million international passengers on Asiana Airlines flights after the festival concludes, creating a new kind of short film market by providing licensing fees to selected works.

 

Overall, AISFF provides a great opportunity for short film creators to explore an alternative arena of fandom and appreciation beyond their local and national boundaries, stoking an international audience’s awareness of short films. Ultimately AISFF hopes to become a place at which to view the newest trends in world cinema, as transfigured into the short film format.