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Canada Focus

The 26th JEONJU International Film Festival will present ten Canadian films under the theme Canada Focus, in celebration of the '2024-2025 Canada-Korea Year of Cultural Exchanges.' The lineup includes a diverse range of Canadian films, from the latest works by renowned directors like Guy Maddin and Denis Côté, to Cherub, a film selected for this year's International Competition to discover emerging talents. Furthermore, the Canada Focus highlights the coexistence of various cultures and identities within Canadian society, as part of a cultural exchange program that emphasizes cultural diversity and inclusivity. The Mother and the Bear and Mongrels explore the Korean-Canadian diaspora through a fresh perspective, while A Black Screen Too, inspired by the iconic Canadian animator Norman McLaren, illustrates the enduring legacy of Canadian visual culture. In addition, several Canadian filmmakers will attend the JEONJU IFF, with Curtis Woloschuk, a programmer for the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), serving as a jury member for the Korean Competition, and Émilie Poirier, a programmer for the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, joining the jury for the Korean Competition for Shorts. Initiated as a cultural exchange with the VIFF, this program will lead into a special Korean film section at the 44th edition of VIFF, running from October 2 to 12, after the JEONJU IFF concludes.

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Canada Focus Films
A character study of Harvey, a straight, overweight man who decides to submit a photograph of himself to a gay magazine for 'big men and their admirers.'
Director Devin SHEARS
Canada 2024 73min DCP Color Fiction 12 Asian Premiere
From Toronto to Oslo, we follow the journey of a young academic Audrey Benac. Audrey undertakes a quest towards one woman—the acclaimed early 20th-century Canadian violinist Kathleen Parlow—as she simultaneously flees from another, her failed musician mother.
Director Sofia BOHDANOWICZ
Canada, United Kingdom, Norway 2024 144min DCP Color Fiction All Asian Premiere
In the summer of 1991, a grieving Korean family immigrates to the Canadian prairies amidst a troubling feral canine infestation. As they navigate this new world, they must also confront their fractured bonds.
Director Jerome YOO
Canada 2024 107min DCP Color Fiction 15 Korean Premiere
Rumours follows the seven leaders of the world's wealthiest liberal democracies at the annual G7 summit after they become lost in the woods and face increasing peril while attempting to draft a provisional statement regarding a global crisis.
Director Evan JOHNSON, Galen JOHNSON, Guy MADDIN
Canada, Germany, Hungary, United Kingdom, United States 2024 104min DCP Color Fiction 15
Behind the wheel of her little car, Nicky seems to be on a mission. Roads pass by but the ideas in her head remain unfathomable. A meal, the discovery of a rifle, chance encounters: the mystery remains unsolved.
Director Denis CÔTÉ
Canada 2024 20min DCP Color/B&W Experimental All Asian Premiere
Subject to depression and social anxiety, Paul has found refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes. By sharing his gently eccentric routines on social media, he combats loneliness and takes it one day at a time. * Warning for viewers: This film contains scenes that viewers may find uncomfortable.
Director Denis CÔTÉ
Canada 2025 87min DCP Color Documentary 19 Korean Premiere
Three friends in their early forties find themselves auditioning for a coveted role in a film. As they navigate the audition process, one of them interviews a former literature teacher. Her voice takes us to their past and we find that in literature they are able to dream and hope in ways that the real, dull, pathetic world doesn't allow. As they reminisce about their past, the bonds of their friendship become entangled in an uneasy love triangle.
Director Nicolás PEREDA
Mexico, Canada 2024 77min DCP Color Fiction 15 Koran Premiere
When her grown daughter Sumi suffers a bad fall in Winnipeg, anxious widow Sara travels from Korea to be with her, only to discover that she doesn't truly know Sumi at all. * Warning for viewers: This film contains scenes that viewers may find uncomfortable.
Director Johnny MA
Canada 2023 101min DCP Color Fiction 15 International Premiere
Malena Szlam's Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya transforms the Gondwana Rainforest's luminous flora and volcanic geographies into an imaginary landscape. Using 16mm in-camera editing and superimpositions, Szlam deconstructs and reforms desert, mountain, and sky in a stunning palette of orange, black, and viridescence, evoking a lithic temporal scale.
Director Malena SZLAM
Canada, Australia, Chile 2024 20min DCP Color Experimental All Asian Premiere
"After Black Rectangle (2023) was created, a racist joke was found to have been inscribed in Black Square, which revealed it was a direct reference to a comic by French artist Alphonse Allais." - Joshua Minsoo Kim The sequel to Black Rectangle. Acts of discipline in celebration of destruction.
Director Rhayne VERMETTE
Canada 2024 2min DCP Color/B&W Animation All Asian Premiere