Seoul International Pride Film Festival Opens Nov. 11, Screening 116 Films; Cannes Award Winner 'The Black Ball' to Get Exclusive Showcase

From award-winning films at prestigious international festivals to digitally restored Korean classics

The 16th Seoul International Pride Film Festival, the largest international LGBTQ+ film festival in South Korea, will be held Nov. 5-11 at CGV Piccadilly 1958 in Seoul.

The festival introduces outstanding queer films from Korea and abroad and has established itself as a prestigious event that seeks to expand cultural diversity by showcasing the lives and stories of LGBTQ+ people around the world. This year, it will screen 116 films from 34 countries.

The opening film will be The Black Ball, a Spanish film co-directed by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo. Moving between 1932, 1937 and 2017, the film offers an in-depth look at the lives of three gay men. It demonstrated its artistic merit by winning the Best Director award at the 79th Cannes Film Festival.

The World Pride section, which spotlights films from outside Asia, will present acclaimed works from around the world, including Coward, directed by Lukas Dhont and winner of the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actor award, and Big Girls Don't Cry, which was selected for the Sundance Film Festival's competition section.

The New Pride section, which discovers promising new directors, also boasts a strong lineup. The screening slate includes Elephants in the Fog, directed by Avinash Vikram Shah and winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes, and Ivan & Hadoum, directed by Ian de la Rosa and winner of the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival.

The Open Pride section, which takes an in-depth look at human rights issues, will present four films this year under the central theme “Transgender People Become the Protagonists.” Among them is Rose, which earned actress Sandra Hüller the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin Film Festival.

In the Korea Pride short-film competition, which showcases the current state of Korean queer cinema, 20 films that advanced through a rigorous preliminary round will compete in the main competition.

The Digital Restoration Project, which preserves Korean queer cinema in collaboration with the Korean Film Archive, is also noteworthy. This year, Jjim (1998), directed by Han Jae-seung, and Change (1996), directed by Lee Jin-seok, have been restored and will return to the screen.

Other events that will add depth to the festival include Pride Ball, presenting 13 French-related films to mark the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and France, and special screenings celebrating the publication of Korean Queer Cinema History 2022–2025.