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It is not an exaggeration to say that Korea is a land of film festivals. Many film fans are attracted to specialized programming of small and unique international film festivals. Among them, international film festivals that have run for more than ten years have started to establish themselves as globally recognized events.

 

Good news arrived at the Busan International Short Film Festival (April 24-28) which has recently closed its submissions. The news is that Busan International Short Film Festival became the second member of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) following the Dharka International Independent Film Festival. In accordance with the new membership, the 32nd festival established the NETPAC Prize and the Asian short film section and is preparing a seminar on the present and future of Asian short films. When the submissions for international competition section closed on January 23rd, 4,278 short films from 114 countries were registered which is more than double from 2,076 from 94 countries in 2014. In particular, Asian short films tripled (155 films from 16 Asian countries in 2014 and 429 films from 19 Asian countries in 2015 excluding Korean films).
 
Then, what are some of the other Korean international film festivals that will be held in the first half of this year in addition to the Busan International Short Film Festival? The list below takes a look at the changes to some of the Korea’s major international film festivals and the details to their submissions requirements.   
 

The 7+3 system which was introduced at last year’s JIFF will return again in 2015. The organizing committee will announce the award winners on the seventh day and screen the works of the winners and other popular titles during the three remaining days of the festival. JIFF is one of the first international film festivals held in Korea (excluding the Busan International Short Film Festival) every year. Efforts to discover and introduce excellent art-house and independent films have earned the festival the title of ‘Mecca of diversity films’.

 

This year, one of JIFF’s signature programs, ‘Jeonju Digital Project’ (JDP) is taking a new turn. Particularly noteworthy is the change of the project title. It changed from Jeonju Digital Project to Jeonju Cinema Project (JCP). “The film industry became digital a long time ago,” Chief Programmer KIM Young-jin said about the change to the title. Through this change, JIFF will maintain the direction of the project yet get rid of the unnecessary adjective “digital”. “‘Digital’ is no longer significant since 2010. Thus, we shifted our focus to Jeonju and cinema instead and decided on ‘Jeonju Cinema Project.’”

 

This year’s Jeonju Cinema Project films include Snow Paths by KIM Hee-jeong, Samnye Parallax directed by Lee Hyun-jung and El Movimiento by Argentine director Benjamin NAISHTAT. This year is the second year since the project changed to involve production of feature length films, where the organizing committee invests 100% in production of two Korean films and 70% in production of a foreign film. In addition, the festival will bring in veteran producers to aid in enhancing the professionalism and maintaining the stability of the productions. “We will hire producer SONG Hyun-young as the general producer for the Jeonju Cinema Project to systematically reinforce the production system and distribution business,” the organizing committee said. General producer SONG has paid attention to a systematic balance and harmony between independent films and commercial films while taking part in productions of Failan (2001), The Way Home (2002), Reason to Live (2011), 10 Minutes and End of Winter. The shooting of the three JCP films will begin at the end of January and at the end of February.

 

>> Directors and Films Discovered by Jeonju International Film Festival
PARK Jung-bum’s Alive, a film from JDP 2014, premiered at the Jeonju International Film Festival on May 15, last year. The film was internationally recognized by winning the Young Critics’ Prize at the 67th Locarno International Film Festival, the Best Actor Prize and the Cine Obra Distribution Support Prize at the 29th Mar del Plata International Film Festival in Argentina and the Special Mention Prize at the 25th Singapore International Film Festival. Not only that, the film was invited to the 44th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR 2015), the 38th Göteborg International Film Festival and the Black Movie Geneva Film Festival.
Hosanna directed by NA Young-kil, which won the Judges’ Choice Award at the Jeonju International Film last year received invitations from the Berlin International Film Festival’s short film competition section and the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival’s international competition section.

>> Submission Requirements
The international competition section includes feature films, documentaries, animations and experimental films that are longer than 60 minutes. Submitted work should be the director’s first or second film as an Asian premiere. Films can be submitted to non-competition sections such as Korea Cinemascape, Expanded Cinema and Midnight in Cinema, as well. The entry form can be downloaded from the festival’s homepage. The entry deadline is January 30th, 2015. For more information about film submissions can be found on www.jiff.or.kr or via email to the Programming Team (koreanfilm@jiff.or.kr).

 

 

The theme of the 12th Green Film Festival in Seoul is light, a natural energy directly linked to our lives and the foundation for all energies that maintain civilization. “The year 2015 is the Year of Light designated by the U.N.,” programmer Suan SEOL said. “We will pay more attention to works that enable audiences to realize the existence of light in nature and works about the energy of light. Moreover, we will continue to look out for films that deal with the ongoing issues of redevelopment which have been increasing in number and also in quality these days.” Furthermore, the organizers will make the festival more family-friendly by reviving outdoor environmental events that were reduced last year to payy respect to the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster. 

 

>> Directors and Films Discovered by Green Film Festival in Seoul
An Omnivorous Family's Dilemma, a HWANG Yun film and the winner of the Korean Environmental Film Grand Prize at the 2014 festival was invited to the culinary section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival this year. Watchtower, a film by MOON Seung-wook which was in competition last year is a work that sheds new lights on the environment without expressing direct voices about the issues. The film received positive reviews as a documentary with a unique way of expression.

 

>> Submission Requirements
The festival welcomes any works completed after January 1st, 2013. Regardless of the running times and genres, the submitted work should deal with the environment or be related to the environment in a wider sense. Applicants need to download and fill out the entry form from its homepage (www.gffis.org) and send it to gffiskorea@gmail.com and gffiskorea@gmail.com. The homepage offers more information about submission details. For more questions, send an email to the address mentioned above. Screener files or links should be sent to the email address and DVDs should be mailed to the organizing committee. The deadline to submit is on February 13th.

 

 

This year marks a new beginning for International Women's Film Festival in Seoul . The festival had a change to their name. It will now be called SEOUL International Women's Film Festival. With the new name intact, the 17th SEOUL International Women's Film Festival is preparing a special program on films by Swedish female directors under the subtitle of ‘The Power of Films by Swedish Female Directors.’ “This special program sponsored by Swedish Embassy in Seoul is designed to present Swedish laws and systems that actively adopt gender equality policies in the Swedish film industry and the activities of Swedish women who expand the scope of world female cinema,” Sunah KIM, Chief Programmer and the Co-festival director of the festival said. “On the other hand, the issue we chose to highlight for this year is ‘Feminism for Everyone’. Ultimately feminism contains the value of humans, society and the environment. So this section was prepared to inform the world that feminism has value for everyone in the world,” KIM added. The biggest change for the 17th SEOUL International Women's Film Festival is a new guideline that makes the event more audience-oriented. Starting with the 17th festival the various guidelines on programs for audiences will aid in taking a step towards a friendly approach with special packaged programming and also a program geared for the male audiences.

>> Directors and Films Discovered by SEOUL International Women's Film Festival HONG Li-gyeong’s The Empire of Shame (2013) is the winner of the Okrang Culture Prize and the People’s Choice Award. It also picked up the Grand Prize at the ninth Taiwan International Documentary Festival. In addition, the film was invited to the 11th Hong Kong Asian Film Festival and the third Hanoi International Film Festival and the Panorama-Territories section of the 17th Montreal International Documentary Film Festival. Another film from International Women’s Film Festival in Seoul is Nora Noh directed by KIM Sung-hee. The film was screened at this festival in 2013 and was then invited to the competition section of the 2013 Amsterdam International Documentary Festival.

 

>> Submission Regulations
To submit to the only competition section of the festival, the Asian Short Competition section, the film must be directed by a female filmmaker while the project should have been completed after January 1st of 2014. There are no limitations on the genre. If the work was shot on film, in needs to have been shot on 35mm, while if it is a video, it should have been shot on either HD, Digital-betacam, Analog-betacam, or 6mm digital. Only DCPs will be the acceptable exhibition format and the duration should not be longer than forty minutes. February 17th is the submission deadline. More details are available on www.wffis.or.kr.