Forgot password

 

The lineup for the Jeonju International Film Festival’s (JIFF) Korean competition has been unveiled. Among the 124 submissions that qualified for the required over 40 min mid-length or full-length feature requirement, 11 titles have been selected to be showcased in JIFF’s Korean Competition. In addition, nine of them will be world premieres.

The first title Sookhee is the feature debut film of 50-ish female filmmaker YANG Ji-eun. Festival programmer KIM Young-jin stated that “Sookhee is a piece which embraces female sexuality through a maternal filter.” JUNG Byung-shik’s Monkeys, a behind-the-scene take of independent filmmaking, JANG Woo-jin’s Fall Break, which explores the life of a young man in his 20s, and YOO Young-sun’s The Wicked, which places an aggressive female character at the forefront of the story, are just a few of those selected for the competition. MO Hyun-shin’s gaze at poverty and labor in Pohang Harbor, LEE Gyung-seop’s constant shift between reality and fantasy in The Catcher, and LEE Won-hoi’s unique formal approach in You Are My Vampire, are other titles along with the omnibus film Ready Action Youth (W/T) which is said to be a film that “Displays youths in their own spirit, and not in a manner defined by the older generation.”

Along with the eight feature titles, three documentaries have also been selected. PARK Sa-yoo and PARK Don-sa’s record of Osaka’s Josun High School rugby team in One For All, All For One, KIM Ji-gon’s Highway Star, which looks into the life of an absorbed musician, and the 64th Berlin International Film Festival Forum invitee A Dream of Iron by Kelvin Kyung Kun PARK will also be introduced during the festival.

JIFF Head Programmer KIM Young-jin explains “You can sense the blood and sweat put into each and every film. It is such a pleasure to see works that fall into the boundaries of low-budget alternative independent filmmaking but that choose not to be conscious of mainstream cinema in their quest to expand their realm of expression.” He also summed up the selection criteria for the Korean Competition into three points. First is a focus on films from new filmmakers, second is works that not only escape from existing independent filmmaking aesthetics but have their own aesthetic merit, and lastly works that fall outside of the tedious contrast between the artistic and commercial realms.

 

The 15th Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) will take place from May 1st - 10th.