The Union Award for the best feature debut in Korean Competition went to Hui Jiye’s Graduation at the 19th Jeonju International Film Festival, in Jeonju on May 9.
By Hahm Hee-eun
Photos = JIFF Organizing Committee
The 19th Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) will be held for 10 days, ending on May 12.
This year, the annual festival has selected a total of 246 films from 46 countries -- 202 full-length film and 44 shorts -- befitting its slogan, "An Outlet for Cinematic Expression." The films will be screened in five cinemas across Jeonju: CGV Jeonjugosa, Megabox Jeonju (Gaeksa), Jeonju Cinema Town, Digital Independence Movie Theater and the Jeonju Dome.
The JIFF Organizing Committee held an opening ceremony for the festival at the Jeonju Dome along Cinema Street in Gosa-dong, Jeonju, on May 3. The opening ceremony was hosted by actor Kim Jae Won and actress Chae Soo-bin, and around 150 movie directors and stars attended the red-carpet event.
The opening film of the festival, Chong Wishing’s "Yakiniku Dragon" (2018), received a lot of attention and the tickets were all sold out. The movie portrays the joys and sorrows of Korean-Japanese in Osaka in the 1970s.
The 19th Jeonju International Film Festival ends with the closing film, Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle of Dogs' (2018), in Jeonju on May 12.
Wes Anderson’s "Isle of Dogs" (2018) was selected as the closing film. Wes Anderson, globally known as the director of "Grand Budapest Hotel" (2014) and other films, has come back with his first film in four years. The new film, "Isle of Dogs" (2018), tells the story of a boy who embarks on an adventure to find his dog in a future where all dogs are banished from the world.
This year, 10 films were chosen for the Korean Competition. Kim Young-jin, a senior programmer at the JIFF, commented that, “I'm sure that audiences would be able to feel the evolution and maturity of independent film. The films in the Korean Competition this year penetrate the inner-world of Korean youth and reveal their feelings of loss and anger.”
More information about the festival is available at its website in Korean or English. http://jiff.or.kr
hehahm@korea.kr