Jeonju International Film Festival Announces 10 Films in the International Competition Section…Carefully Selected from Submissions by 70 Countries Worldwide

Ahead of the opening, the Jeonju International Film Festival unveiled this year’s International Competition lineup.

Now in its 27th edition, the Jeonju International Film Festival announced 10 films selected for the International Competition on April 3. The International Competition is a section featuring works by emerging directors who have directed fewer than three feature-length films, and it presents films making their Asian premiere for the first time. From last November through this January, a total of 421 submissions were received from 70 countries.

The 10 films ultimately selected are as follows. 〈If I Go, Will You Miss Me〉 directed by Walter Thompson-Hernandez, a director from California, U.S., is a project that expands a short film of the same name that drew attention at the Sundance Film Festival; it poetically captures the troubles and pain of a Black boy growing up in his neighborhood. 〈Stone and Feather〉, directed by Ragip Turk, a filmmaker from Turkey, is a drama that follows “Nazire” as she fights to reclaim a child who was sent to an orphanage after her father was imprisoned.

〈Chronovisor〉 is the debut work of the directing duo Jack Owen and Kevin Walker, from Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.; it unfolds as an intellectual mystery in which the life of a reclusive scholar intersects with a secret technology that allows him to film his past. 〈The Night Is Fading Away〉, directed by Ezequiel Salinas and Ramiro Sanchini from Argentina, depicts Pellu’s everyday life—after a job change makes things more difficult, yet also draws the characters closer to the film—through romantic black-and-white imagery.

〈Michiyuki: Voices of Time〉 is the work of HiroMichi NakaO, who previously entered the competition section at the 21st Jeonju International Film Festival with 〈Michiyuki: Voices of Time〉 (2019). It delicately portrays a young man who has moved into an old house as he moves through the home, the town, and the memories of time, as if wandering through them. 〈Six Weeks On〉, directed by Shaklin Janssen from Germany, portrays what happens when a daughter who has lost her mother is given six weeks to mourn.

Irene Bartolome’s 〈Dream of Another Summer〉 is a documentary set in Beirut that constantly crosscuts between the decayed cityscape and the interior of an apartment, creating an image-driven surrealism. The hybrid project 〈The Calf Doll〉, directed by Ankour Huda, a poet and director from India, unfolds a legendary tale based on villagers’ improvised acting and lived experiences—blending fiction and documentary.

Isabel Palai’s 〈Fantasy〉 is an experiment in an experimental format that entangles dreams and reality through a notebook accidentally discovered. The director’s feature-length work 〈The Visitor〉 by Vytautas Katkus is about a man who returns to his hometown to sell his parents’ house—rendering the unfamiliar emotions and nostalgia he encounters in watercolor-like tones.

The 27th Jeonju International Film Festival will be held in the Jeonju area around Jeonju Film Street from Wednesday, April 29, through Friday, May 8.