As usual, dozens of reporters and photographers yesterday attended a news conference at the KT Art Hall in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, where organizers announced the outline of the forthcoming Seoul International Film Festival. What was unusual was that when organizers announced that it was time for a Q&A session, no reporter ventured out to throw a question -- not even one as banal as, "Would you explain the main section in more detail?"
Not that the festival has nothing newsworthy about which to ask. The event features some 260 films and will begin Sept. 6, putting together offline and online venues in a bid to stay up-to-date with an internet-oriented cinema culture. Thirteen foreign guests, including Charles Tesson, former editor-in-chief of Cahiers du Cinema, will fly in to Seoul for the event. Kim Yoon-jin ("Lost") will join the festival as a jury member for its online shorts competition section. And the festival has big corporate sponsors, such as Samsung Electronics.
On closer inspection, the festival, which marks its eighth run this year, has all the trappings of a regular gala event dedicated to local film connoisseurs. A dozen sections will make up the 11-day event, stretching from the main competition section to special programs that will introduce films from less accessible countries such as India and Brazil.
Park Ahn, chief organizer, told reporters that the festival has attempted this year to overhaul its image by ditching its old name, Seoul Net and Film Festival, for a shortened form, SeNef, which will be kept to retain the event's existing fan base.
The main screenings for 77 films from 24 countries will be at Lotte Cinema in Jayang-dong, eastern Seoul, but that's only half of the festival's offerings. SeNef's online version will screen 170 films from 37 countries, mostly indie and experimental shorts, on its website www.senef.net.
"This year, the festival will implement not only digital screening but also digital transmission", said Park, adding that its premium sponsor, KT, which runs both broadband and fixed-line telecom networks, will help advance the festival's digital technology.
The festival's opening film will be "Mourning Forest" by Naomi Kawase, which won the Grand Prix at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Sharing the opening spot will be "Postcards from the Future" by Alan Chan of the United States.
In the key competition section, 10 films, including Javier Rebollo's "Lola", fight for the Grand Prix of $7,000, while the Over the Cinema section will introduce provocative films such as "Free Will" by Matthias Glasner of Germany.
Kim Yoon-tae, an organizing official, said the films had been carefully selected to shed the existing image of the festival, often deemed "too serious and difficult".
SeNef's latest steps to refurbish its image come at a time when Korea is suddenly inundated with film festivals of all stripes, a development that partly discourages festival-weary reporters from asking the same questions at news conferences. The nation hosts about 40 "major" festivals annually and metropolitan Seoul in particular is struggling to provide venues for startups. Just last month local film fans were urged to attend Cinema Digital Seoul 2007. Once SeNef is over, the first Seoul International Family Film Festival will gear up promotion with an opening ceremony scheduled for Oct. 20. Shortly afterward -- five days, to be exact -- the first Chungmuro International Film Festival in Seoul will join the already crowded pack of festivals.
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