The 25th JEONJU International Film Festival

Announces 10 Selections for International Competition

- 8 fictional films and 2 documentary films! Selections include films produced during COVID-19 pandemic

- Programmer Chun Jinsu commented, “Respect for all the directors who submitted their films to the festival, for their efforts in viewing and expressing the world through their own visual language, despite such difficult circumstances”

The 25th JEONJU International Film Festival (JEONJU IFF, Festival Co-Director MIN Sungwook and JUNG Junho) announced a total of ten selections for the International Competition.

The International Competition at the 25th JEONJU IFF is a section that introduces the first or second feature-length films of directors which will be screened for the first time in Asia. A total of 747 films from 81 countries were submitted from November 8 (Wed), 2023 to January 3 (Wed), 2024. After preliminary rounds, a total of ten films were selected.

Vanja Milena Munjin Paiva and Flavia Dima, and JEONJU IFF programmers Moon Seok, Sung Moon, and Chun Jinsu participated in the preliminary selection. On behalf of the Pre-selection Advisors for International Competition, programmer Chun commented, “A predominant feature of the overall trend is that the large number of films made during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even films planned to be made beforehand had to extend their production period due to the pandemic, and many works highlighted the limitations of the production environments, such as smaller cast numbers and minimal locations.” While he expressed regret for the most entries ever recorded, 143 more entries compared to last year, and he sent gratitude for this year’s selection, saying, “However, we pay our respects to all those directors who submitted their films to the festival, for their efforts in viewing and expressing the world through their own visual language, despite such difficult circumstances.“

▲ Junkyard Dog by Jean-Baptiste DURAND

▲ The Major Tones by Ingrid POKROPEK

Among the eight fictional films, Junkyard Dog, the feature film debuted from French actor and director, Jean-Baptiste Durand, depicts the friendship and growth of Mirales who calls his friend DOG for no good reason, and DOG. Ingrid Pokropek from Argentina, the producer of Trenque Lauquen (2022), which was screened in the World Cinema section last year, returns to Jeonju as the director of her debut feature film, The Major Tones. Fourteen-year-old Ana, who has had a metal plate in her arm since an accident when she was young, shows a fantastic growth in winter through the film.

▲ Practice by Laurens PÉROL

▲ My Endless Numbered Days by Shaun NEO

Practice, the debut film from Norwegian director, Laurens Pérol, tells story of Trine, an eighteen-year-old climate activist and talented trumpet player. The film shows her wild journey to hitchhike over 1,500 kilometers from the remote Lofoten Islands to the capital Oslo, refusing to travel by plane in order to stick to her principles.

My Endless Numbered Days, the directorial debut film from former Singaporean cinematographer, Shaun Neo, offers special cinematic fun through mesmerizing performance of actress Banzai Mitsue as Mitsue, who is forced to confront her past which she has been avoiding.

▲ Oxygen Station by Ivan TYMCHENKO

▲ La Palisiada by Philip SOTNYCHENKO

Other than the growing films, Official Selection for International Competition is drawing attention with various films. Oxygen Station, the second film from Ivan Tymchenko, known as the director of Beshoot (2019), is a story about a group of Tartars from the Crimea, who were oppressed, discriminated against and made political prisoners, therefore unable to return to their homeland under Soviet rule in 1980.

La Palisiada, the debut film from Philip Sotnychenko, follows two friends, one a detective and the other a forensic psychiatrist, who investigate a murder case that happened five months before the death penalty was abolished in Ukraine in 1996. This film effectively explores the savagery of violence perpetrated by the state, and the sense of alienation that fills the daily lives of the two investigators through documentary-like images.

▲ Cu Li Never Cries by PHẠM Ngọc Lân

▲ The Permanent Picture by Laura FERRÉS

Vietnamese director Phạm Ngọc Lân’s debut film, Cu Li Never Cries, deals with the frustrating summer days in the life of Lady M, a retired worker who once worked in East Germany as an exported laborer, through immersive black-and-white images and poetic directing.

The Permanent Picture, the debut film from Spanish director, Laura Ferrés, begins with a teenager girl named Antonia, abandoning her baby in the middle of the night and shows exceptional imagination by combining familiar melodrama and an exploration of cinematic language.

▲ After the Snowmelt by LO Yi-Shan

▲ KIX by Bálint RÉVÉSZ, Dávid MIKULÁN

There are two documentary films among Official Selection for International Competition. Taiwanese director LO Yi-Shan’s feature debut film, After the Snowmelt, is a documentary beginning with the death of the director’s friend, Chun, during a trekking trip to Nepal. To keep a promise to her friend, the director goes to Nepal and follows Chun’s trail, reminiscing about her memories with Chun and the film makes the audience their individual journeys overlapped.

KIX, another documentary, follows eight-year-old boy, Shanyi, who was recruited by two young Hungarian directors, Bálint Révész and Dávid Mikulán, through street casting, over a period of nearly ten years. The boy’s coming-of-age story is captured through intense images, showing him as a reckless street boy, to him getting a girlfriend, and finally ending up in a court after causing a man’s death during a ridiculous accident.

Meanwhile, the 25th JEONJU IFF will be held from May 1 (Wed) to May 10 (Fri) at the Jeonju Film Street in and around Jeonju.

<Official Selection for International Competition(10 Titles, in alphabetical order)>