Main poster of the Film Festival

The Cinemateca Brasileira, Brazil’s national film archive, dedicated to preserving, restoring, and promoting the country’s audiovisual heritage, held the showcase 1960s: The Golden Age of Korean Cinema from December 5 to 14. In partnership with the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) and the Korean Cultural Center in Brazil, the program presented eight films by eight different filmmakers, all representative of a decade marked by remarkable artistic and commercial success in South Korean cinema.

The selection brought together works by directors highly esteemed in their home country yet rarely screened in Brazil, such as Yu Hyun-mok (whose centenary will be celebrated in 2025), Lee Man-hee, and Shin Sang-ok, and also featured rarer titles, including The Judge, the debut film of Hong Eun-won, the second woman to direct a feature in South Korea.

Traditional Korean food served during the opening night.

The opening night of the event was celebrated at the main hall of Cinemateca Brasileira with food and drinks for invited guests. Before the screening of Aimless Bullet (titled as “Bala sem Rumo” in Brazil), Roberto Soares, cultural producer at Cinemateca Brasileira welcomed the public gave a brief presentation of how Cinemateca and KOFA worked together in this project to help bring Korean cinema to the Brazilian audience for the second year in a row. In 2024, the Film Festival brought Korean movies from the 50s to Brazil.

Director Kim Cheul Hong giving his opening speech

After the initial speech, Kim Cheul Hong, director of the Korean Cultural Center in Brazil went to stage and thanked the efforts of all institutions and individuals involved to execute such an important event for raising awareness of film preservation and their importance to show a country’s culture through art.

The program also included a talk by Hwang Minjin, programmer at the Korean Film Archive, offering an introduction to Marines Who Never Returned, a work recently restored by KOFA.