Jeonju reveals directors for annual digital omnibus

The 11th Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) has named James Benning, Denis Cote (pictured) and Matias Pineiro as the directors for the Jeonju Digital Project 2010. It is the first time North and South America directors have been selected.

Each year, JIFF selects three directors from a chosen region and gives them each $43,113 (KW50m) to produce 30-minute digital shorts. The films world premiere at JIFF as a portmanteau, and often go on to other festivals such as New York, Locarno and Rotterdam.

All three filmmakers this year are Jeonju alumni. Benning has screened two of his films – RR and Casting A Glance – at the festival.. His Jeonju project short is called Pig Iron, a dramatic narrative shot in a German steelworks factory.

Cote’s debut feature Drifting States won Jeonju’s Woosuk Award and later went on to win a Golden Leopard at Locarno. He is currently finishing his fifth feature Curling, starring Emmanuel Bilodeau. His Jeonju project will be Les Lignes Enemies is about six men wandering in a forest in search of confrontation.

Piñeiro’s debut The Stolen Man also won Jeonju’s Woosuk Award. He said that his Jeonju project Hold On, Rosalind! could be considered the first in a series of up to eight films following a troupe of Shakespearean actors as they play out his comedies.