Ryoo Seung-wan (류승완)

The 8th Mise-en-Scene Short Film Festival Opens this Week

Source | 2009/06/26 | Permalink |

This year's Mise-en-scene Short Film festival will showcase a total of 120 films. The film festival whose focus is genre short films will feature films genres normally associated with feature length films.  These genres include horror, fantasy, love and even action.  It features 57 films in the official section and the invitation section for foreign films focuses on varied stories surrounding the topic of death.
 
Behind the scenes is a wealth of talent and Korean film alumi. The committee chair this year is director BONG Joon-ho ("Mother - 2009", "The Host") and head of jury is director KIM Dae-seung ("Bungee Jumping of their Own", "Blood Rain").  On the committee is directors PARK Chan-wook (The Revenge Trilogy, "Thirst"), RYOO Seung-wan ("The City of Violence", "Crying Fist"), KIM Ji-woon ("A Tale of Two Sisters", "The Good, The Bad, The Weird"), LEE Jae-yong ("Dasepo Girl", "Untold Scandal") and many other well known directors.
 
The Mise-en-scene Short Film Festival opens Wedn...| More

Korean Premieres at NY Asian Film Fest

Source | 2009/06/26 | Permalink |

This year's New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) invites seven Korean features and 10 Korean shorts to its 8th edition, running June 19 – July 5 in Manhattan. Of the seven features, four are North American premieres: RYOO Seung-wan's "Dachimawa Lee", KIM Ki-duk's "Dream", JANG Hoon's "Rough Cut", and MIN Gyoo-dong's "Antique".

The remaining three features are New York premieres and include Rotterdam Tiger winner "Breathless" by YANG Ik-joon, "Go Go 70s" by CHOI Ho and "Crush and Blush" by LEE Kyoung-mi. From the latter film, award-winning actress KONG Hyo-Jin will be a guest at NYAFF. She and actor SO Ji-Sub ("Rough Cut") will be presented with the Inaugural Rising Star Asia Awards, which will take place on the 24 of June.

In the short film category, director Lee Su-Jin is invited for the screening of his short film "Enemy's Apple". The program highlights the best Korean short films from the previous year's edition of the Mise-en-Scene's Short Film Festival in Seoul. NYAFF ...| More

Jeonju Int'l Film Festival to celebrate 10th anniversary

Source | 2009/04/10 | Permalink |

Jeonju, a city about three hours southwest of Seoul, is known for its welcoming citizenry, its signature dish bibimbap (mixed rice and vegetables with gochujang, red pepper paste) and some of Korea's loveliest surviving pre-modern architecture and folk culture.

In Korea's beautiful springtime, the city with the heart of a small town gets more cosmopolitan as it hosts the Jeonju International Film Festival, commonly known as JIFF.

The festival has made its name by sticking to its principle of focusing on promising digital, independent and experimental films, whereas most international film festivals usually boast their number of world or national premieres.

The festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

The 10th Jeonju International Film Festival will be held from Apr. 30 through May 8, featuring 200 films from 42 countries.

The festival will open with "Short! Short! Short! 2009", a digital omnibus film about Korean society being obsessed with money.

The film,...| More

Jeonju Int'l Film Fest Announces Line-up

Source | 2009/04/09 | Permalink |

One of Korea's top three annual cinema events, the Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF), is celebrating its tenth edition this month. Running April 30 – May 9, JIFF will screen 200 films from 42 countries. Among them are 12 feature film World Premieres mainly from the Korean Feature Competition section.

JIFF will showcase films at 14 venues around Jeonju city in Jeollabuk Province, with its opening film Short! Short! Short! 2009 featuring shorts by 10 of Korea's leading young filmmakers representing Chungmuro and the independent film scene. The JIFF 2009 Jeonju Digital Project this year presents three shorts by acclaimed directors HONG Sang-soo of Korea, KAWASI Naomi of Japan and Lav DIAZ of the Philippines.

JIFF's Korean Discovery section will showcase the features and shorts of indie-pioneer filmmaker HONG Ki-seon, known best for his acclaimed 2003 film, "The Road Taken". Korean Retrospective looks back at such early classics as the colonial-era "Sweet Dream" (1936)...| More

Indie flicks and digital dramas for Jeonju fest

Source | 2009/04/03 | Permalink |

There is something for everyone at this year's Jeonju International Film Festival, which is celebrating its 10th birthday this year.

JIFF, as the festival is commonly known, will be featuring around 200 films from 42 countries from April 30 to May 8, and the final program was announced this week.

The opening title will be "Short! Short! Short! 2009", a omnibus feature created by 10 promising young Korean filmmakers.

The closing show will be the comedy "Machan" by Italian director Uberto Pasolini about a Sri Lankan handball team.

"The omnibus feature Short! Short! Short! 2009 started out as a project in 2007 to support short films in Korea and help them reach the overseas market", said Min Byung-lock, the festival director. "There are ten directors involved to symbolize the JIFF's 10th anniversary".

The festival organizers are justly proud of their decade-long festival.

"JIFF has been growing successfully over the past ten years, maintaining a focus on original, high-q...| More