[Photo &] 237 Films Set to Hit the Screen — Jeonju International Film Festival Confirms Opening Film ‘My Private Artist’

‘Jeonju International Film Festival’ Kicks Off a Grand Lineup of 237 Boundary-Breaking Films

‘Jeonju International Film Festival’’s organizing committee held a press conference at CGV Yongsan I-Park Mall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on the 31st to unveil this year’s operating direction and key film lineup. The festival runs for 10 days, from April 29 to May 8, in and around Jeonju, where 237 invited works—97 domestic and 140 international—from 54 countries will be presented to audiences. That’s 13 more films than last year, and it once again confirms Jeonju International Film Festival’s unmistakable identity—leading the forefront of ‘independent film’ and ‘art films’. In the photo, from the left, ‘Moon Seok’ and ‘Moon Sung-kyung’ (programmers), ‘Jung Joon-ho’ (co-executive committee chair), ‘Byun Young-joo’ (director), ‘Min Sung-wook’ (co-executive committee chair), and ‘Kim Hyo-jung’ (programmer) pose and pledge to make the event a success.

The Return of a Master and a Sharply Defined Sense of the Times — Opening and Closing Films Announced

For this year’s ‘Jeonju International Film Festival’, the most anticipated opening title has been selected as the festival’s opening film: ‘My Private Artist (Late Fame)’, directed by ‘Kent Jones’. First unveiled at the Venice International Film Festival, the film creatively spotlights an artist’s vanity and fear, set between the poet Ed Saxeberger (played by ‘Willem Dafoe’) and a group of young writers. Meanwhile, the closing film is ‘Namtaeryeong’, a documentary by ‘Kim Hyun-ji’. Building on the buzz generated by her prior work ‘Adult Kim Jang-ha’, ‘Kim Hyun-ji’ is poised to deliver a powerful impact with a meticulously crafted, tapestry-like account of an incident in which farmers driving tractors to the city are blocked at Namtaeryeong.

A Crossroads of Perspectives in Full Variety — Four Special Programs and ‘J Special’

This festival features four ‘special programs’ designed to captivate film fans. The standout picks include ‘New York Underground Special Program’, which captures experimental works by New York artists from the 1960s to the 1970s, and ‘Ahn Sung-ki Memorial Special Program’, honoring a timeless star of Korean cinema. In addition, ‘Hong Kong Return: Cinema+Avant-Garde’ and the newly created section ‘Possible Films’ will also present mini special programs directed by ‘Park Syeyoung’ and ‘Ugana Kenichi’. In particular, the ‘J Special: Programmer of the Year’ section includes ‘Byun Young-joo’. ‘Byun Young-joo’ will lead in-depth ‘Audience Discussion (GV)’ sessions, introducing her own directed works and masterpieces she has selected, alongside ‘Yoon Ga-eun’ (director) and ‘Shim Yong-hwan’ (historian). The photo shows ‘Min Sung-wook’ (co-executive committee chair) presenting the screening lineup at the Jeonju Digital Independent Film House.

A Feast of Original Aesthetics — Lineup for Domestic and International Competition Sections

At the heart of the festival, the ‘Competition Section’ features a large number of works with distinct aesthetics. In the ‘International Competition’ section, with 421 entries from 70 countries, screenings include ‘Stone and Feather’ by director ‘Ragıp Türk’ and ‘If Only I’ by director ‘Walter Thompson Hernandez’, among others. The ‘Korean Competition’ section also includes documentaries and narrative features with deep thematic awareness. From the films in the photo—starting with director ‘Kim So-young’’s ‘Gongsuni’—including director ‘Ha Si-nae’’s ‘Citizen Oorang’ and director ‘Ko Seung-hyun’’s ‘What It Takes to Spend the Same Season’, audiences will have the chance to discover standout works that reveal the underside of reality. Co-executive committee chair ‘Jung Joon-ho’ said, “We prepared a wide range of content that the public can enjoy comfortably,” adding that they are committed to making the festival a success.