Festival brings Berlin Golden Bear winner, Cannes laureates to Korean screens
French Film Week is set to return to South Korea from April 4-13, the festival organizers announced Monday.
Organized by the French Embassy's cultural service alongside Megabox's arthouse cinema Artnine and the Busan Cinema Center, the event has become a fixture for French cinema enthusiasts in Korea. The fourth annual festival brings a curated selection of recent French films to Artnine in Seoul as well as the Busan Cinema Center.
Actor Krystal Jung serves as this year's festival ambassador. Jung gained critical acclaim for her performance in Kim Jee-woon's "Cobweb" (2023), which earned her the award for best new actress at the Buil Film Awards and best supporting actress at the Chunsa International Film Festival.
The lineup features 10 titles, spanning drama, documentary, comedy and animation, all coming to local screens with Korean subtitles for the first time.
Among the highlights is Mati Diop's documentary "Dahomey" (2024), which won the Golden Bear at last year's Berlin International Film Festival. The film chronicles the return of 26 artifacts to Benin that were looted during France's 1892 colonial invasion of the African country.
Boris Lojkine's “Souleymane’s Story" (2024) follows a food delivery cyclist in Paris preparing for his asylum interview. It claimed both the jury prize and best actor awards in the Un Certain Regard section at that year's Cannes Film Festival.
Other notable selections include Olivier Assayas' pandemic-set “Suspended Time” (2024), which competed at the Berlinale, Jean-Baptiste Durand's Cesar Award-winning "The Junkyard Dog" (2023) and Delphine and Muriel Coulin's “The Quiet Son” (2024), which earned Vincent Lindon the award for best actor at the Venice Film Festival.
The festival also features Quentin Dupieux's surrealist comedy "Daaaaaali!" (2023) and the animated “Into the Wonderwoods” (2024), which received special screenings at Cannes.
Q&A sessions will follow select screenings, offering the audience deeper insight into contemporary French cinema.
For screening schedules and tickets, visit the French Embassy's website or check the social media accounts of Artnine and Busan Cinema Center.
moonkihoon@heraldcorp.com
