The 10th Women's Film Festival in Seoul will kick off at theaters on April 10, featuring a record 141 movies from 30 countries under the theme "See the World through Women's Eyes".
The festival will open with "Ten Ten", a high-definition omnibus movie featuring six Korean female filmmakers, festival organizers said at a news conference held in Seoul yesterday. The film will be screened at Theater Yong, where the festival's opening ceremony will be held, while other movies in the general categories will be shown at Artreon Theater in Shinchon, western Seoul.
The film festival, specializing in women's perspectives and related issues, has solidified its position as a key venue where local female filmmakers and their Asian counterparts gather to share thoughts about status on and off silver screens.
This year, the festival has broadened its own perspective a notch, introducing the Open Cinema section, in which feminist films made by male directors are screened. Also notable are the Politics of Body section, which investigates how women's bodies are conceptualized and exploited in the modern world. The Fantastic Female Movie section is devoted to the imagination of women.
The festival organizers yesterday awarded the first Park Nam-ok Award to director Lim Soon-rye, who has defied prejudices to emerge as a leading Korean director. The award has been established to commemorate the country's first female director. Since an illustrious debut in 1994, she has made both artistically and commercially solid films such as "Waikiki Brothers" (2001) and "Forever the Moment" (2008).
The festival will screen 63 feature-length films and 78 shorts -- expanding its range and scale since the first edition held in 1997 -- on the strength of continued support from Korean female moviegoers and filmmakers.
The WFFIS is regarded as a specialty festival that has successfully carved out a share of the increasingly crowded film festival market in Korea, as organizers have long stuck to their novel approach to look at cultural aspects in a bid to form a new women-oriented cultural community.
The film festival is non-competitive, but offers some selective competition. In the Asian Short Film competition section, 19 applicants from five countries are competing for prize money of 20 million won ($20,600). Winners will be announced at the closing ceremony.
The New Wave section will offer a glimpse of international trends concerning female filmmakers, while the Girls of Film section is geared toward young directors. The Queer Rainbow section features the voice of sexually marginalized groups.
For those who want to take an overview of Korea's feminist movies, the 9708 Korean Women's Movie section is scheduled to detail the dramatic growth of female filmmakers whose movies gained greater stature at the box office.
The festival is also famous for providing unique discussion venues for women's issues. This year, feminist scholars from home and abroad will take part in two separate symposiums to examine how female filmmakers strive to expand their turf against the dominant male-oriented culture and how the female body is politically exploited.
Ticket prices for the opening, closing and nightly movies are set at 10,000 won, while other films are 5,000 won. For further information and ticket reservations, visit Open the link
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