The Korea Herald

지나쌤

23rd Jeonju International Film Festival to kick off in April

By Song Seung-hyun

Published : Jan. 17, 2022 - 16:25

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Director of the Jeonju International Film Festival Lee Joon-dong speaks during the closing ceremony of the last year‘s event. (Jeonju IFF) Director of the Jeonju International Film Festival Lee Joon-dong speaks during the closing ceremony of the last year‘s event. (Jeonju IFF)

Jeonju International Film Festival’s organizing committee announced that the annual film fest will be held for 10 days from April 28 in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province.

The 23rd Jeonju IFF committee also added that it is hoping to return nearly to how it previously operated the international film festival before the pandemic.

There will be 18 sections and 230 films will be screened during the festival, which shows the committee’s determination to host an event just how it was before the pandemic.

“It is too early to be relieved of the COVID-19 situation yet,“ the director of the 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival Lee Joon-dong said. “We will do our best to prepare the film festival with the expectation that we will be able to have a larger audience than last year.”

In 2021, the film festival screened 194 movies from 48 countries. It also had to wrap up the event without a proper closing ceremony after the event organizer found out that one member of the audience and a festival staffer tested positive for coronavirus.

The committee also highlighted that there will be a retrospective exhibition of Taehung Production company, which was established in 1984 by Lee Tae-won and created more than 10 works by legendary Korean director Im Kwon-taek. The exhibition is being held to commemorate the achievements of the production company, which contributed to the growth of Korean films in the 1980s and 1990s, and also the founder Lee, who died in October of last year.

 
The 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival logo (Jeonju IFF) The 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival logo (Jeonju IFF)

Visitors of the exhibition will be able to watch eight films including “Chihwaseon,” by director Im, which won the prestigious best director award in 2002 at Cannes.