Jangsu Mountain Village Film Festival’s Grand Prize Goes to ‘The First Film,’ Beating 2,159 Entries… A Masterpiece About an Indian Girl’s Fight to Enter a Theater

The Daedong ideal of equality and coexistence draws attention from 2,159 films across 201 countries

The fifth Jangsu Mountain Village Film Festival, held in Jangsu County, North Jeolla Province, wrapped up amid keen interest from filmmakers around the world. The top honor, the Yeorip Award, went to The First Film, a short film directed by Indian filmmaker Piyush Thakur.

Set in 1960s India, grand-prize winner The First Film tells the moving story of a girl who nurtures a pure passion for cinema amid social repression that strictly forbade women from going to theaters alone. Its sensitive direction, which brings to life a yearning for art that blossoms even in an oppressive era, earned high praise from the jury.

The first recipient of the newly established Song Jae-deok Ullim Award was Jeongdong, directed by Ahn Hye-rim, demonstrating the formidable strength of Korean independent cinema.

Founded on the Daedong ideology of Jeong Yeo-rip, a revolutionary intellectual of the Joseon Dynasty, the Jangsu Mountain Village Film Festival projects the universal human values of equality and coexistence onto the screen. This year, a diverse range of 2,159 films from 201 countries around the world were submitted, cementing the festival’s reputation as a global independent-film event that reaches beyond its local roots.