By Honorary Reporter Danielle Tartarugah from France

Poster for the festival's 2021 edition

The annual Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema in Vesoul, France, will be held from Jan. 26 to Feb. 2.

One of the ten biggest film festivals in France, the Vesoul event was founded by the husband and wife team of Jean-Marc and Martine Therouanne in 1995 and has since attracted more than 630,000 spectators. The couple has received multiple awards including one from the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2016 and the Korea Cinema Award from the Busan International Film Festival in 2018 for their promotion of both Korean and Asian cinema.

The following are excerpts from an interview with the two on their festival. 

What about Korean cinema do you like?

In more than a quarter of a century, we have presented 130 Korean films and awarded more than 20 prizes to Korean film professionals.

Kim Dong-ho, who founded the Busan International Film Festival, in 2011 receives the Honorary Golden Cyclo Award. (Club photo SNCF)

We discovered Korean cinema 30 years ago in the early 90s when Jacques Marechal of Grands Films Classiques, with the help of the Korean Cultural Center in Paris, distributed ten masterpieces by directors Im Kwon-taek, Lee Doo-yong and Bae Chang-ho. Little by little, we grew interested in the history of Korean cinema and were struck by the extraordinary diversity of the genres covered and the high quality of Korean films. 

Korean cinema is something to make known worldwide, and we've done this on our own.

The festival's two co-founders won the Korean Cinema Award at the 2018 Busan International Film Festival. (BIFF)

What Korean films will be shown at your festival this year?

Two Korean films will be shown in the section "History as a Backdrop": "The Net" (2016) by the late Kim Ki-duk and "Jiseul" (2012) by O Muel. "Gull" (2020) by Kim Mi-jo will be in the competition section and make its French premiere.

Jay Jeon (second from right), director of the Busan International Film Festival, receives the Golden Rickshaw Award (International Jury) on Feb. 18, 2020. (Jean-François Maillot)

What will your festival do to protect against COVID-19 this year? 

We will follow all rules and have analyzed the possibilities of running the festival under complete health security. It is up to the prefecture to decide whether to authorize the festival this year. We plan videoconferences to maintain links between festival goers and directors and professionals who are unable to come.

We plan to rent larger rooms to properly distance festival goers. We will provide masks and hand sanitizer and disinfect the premises every hour, mark the floors to ensure social distancing and set a schedule to prevent waiting times. 

The festival features cultural performances by Asian countries like Korea. (FICA)

enny0611@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.