Jacob Wong, a familiar face at the film festival circuit, visited the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) for a screening trip earlier this month. As a Programmer for Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), Director of Hong Kong Asian Film Financing Forum (HAF), Advisor for Berlin and Nara International Film Festivals, Mr. Wong is on a constant search for new exciting works. KOFIC’s KoBiz was lucky to have sat down with this festival veteran to get a glimpse of what film festivals might be looking for when selecting films.

It’s pretty much the same for any programmer, the festivals look for the same thing. They’re like airports. They think they’re different, but they’re the same. They look for ‘intelligent’ or ‘popular’ elements which hopefully will also have large ideas, and if you’re lucky, give audiences life-changing experiences.

A lot of different films have to be programmed (although it may not be my favorite), because there are many different audiences who have different perspectives.

Film programming is a wonderful job. It started in college, through running a film club. It’s an interest that became life-long interest, which also pays the bills. Although working in the sector might not provide abundance in material things, but you are surrounded by beautiful things.

It’s more or less the same, minor differences. Nara only shows first or second films of the director. In Asia, East Asian films are more popular.

For East-Asian foreign films, Japan. The older generation, they’re interested in the classical Japanese films which have long history, great reputation of quality production, and great archival work. Also Japanese pop culture is influential. From Europe, they’re most interested in French films.

Bong Joon Ho. It started with Memories of Murder (2003). He does intelligent drama, and I like the character of the poor Korean detective, it was refreshing the first time I watched it, and the social implications it came with.

The audiences are not really crazy about genre films, unless it’s really extreme. Don’t make a budget film or war films if you’re aiming for film festivals.

In 2013, domestic films in Korea saw great popularity in the local market. However, after Nobody’s Daughter Haewon at Berlin, no Korean films were able to make it into the competition sections of the major film festivals. What do you think is happening to the Korean film industry?

You go through cycles. Sometimes there are a lot of good films, sometimes not very many. Every year is different; you never know what’s going to happen. No matter how good looking, commercial films never work.

Japanese films are going through a difficult time right now. There are no major productions and if there are major ones, they are take-offs from TV dramas, which means the subject is not as interesting for other countries. But domestic market is doing quite well so they do not have any problems. Same with Chinese and Korean markets, they have great popularity for local films. However, international films have a hard time.

Regarding co-productions, do you think there is a reason why they are not as successful in the box office although they have an advantage with a larger audience market?

Co-productions are very difficult. Asia is different from how Europe works. The three chopstick countries all have large domestic population unlike Europe who needs co-productions to survive. With Asia, their markets are good on their own, so the mentality is different. A lot of producers are more familiar with the European model, where the producer has one eye on festival circuit and look for co-production where they can get funding. Asia is looking for venture capitalists from the outside. This played a big role in growth of Korean film ten years ago. However, Chinese independent filmmakers are going outside to do co-productions to find funds as their subject matter is not attractive domestically.