South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) is celebrating its tenth edition with a number of events including the launch of a Korean indie projects market and anniversary screenings of JIFF previous awardees and first films.

 

The projects market aims to support Korean filmmakers with low-budget and independent films by improving their ties to the Korean film industry.

‘The Jeonju Project Market will be divided into the Jeonju Project Promotion and the Industry Conference section which will comprise producers’ talks and forums, and continued Industry Screenings of foreign films in the official festival selection,’ said programmer Jo Ji-hoon.

The Jeonju Project Promotion will include a producers’ pitching session for five feature film projects with budgets of KW1bn ($727,500) or less, and a documentary producers’ pitching session for documentaries with budgets of KW100m ($72,750) or less.

The festival will open with the world premiere of Short! Short! Short 2009 - an omnibus of ten shorts by young filmmakers including Leesong Hee-il (No Regret), Choe Equan (Life Is Cool) and Kwon Jong-kwan (Sad Movie). The omnibus was planned by JIFF and produced by Indiestory.

‘We are building on JIFF’s theme of discovery of independent art films and establishing JIFF’s identity this year with our commemorative screenings and special sections,’ said executive programmer Jung Soo-wan.

The festival’s programmes include a focus on the rise of the Digital New Wave in the Philippines, special screenings of Sri Lankan cinema, Pere Portabella’s experimental films and retrospectives on classic independent Korean films by Hong Ki-seon and Polish auteur Jerzy Skolimowski (Four Nights With Anna).

The festival will close with Full Monty producer Uberto Pasolini’s Machan, which won the FIPRESCI prize in Venice last year. The film follows the travails of a group of Sri Lankans trying to get visas to Europe by creating a national handball team.

The International Competition is made up of 13 films led by the international premiere of Tokyo Rendezvous by previous Cannes Cinefondation director Ikeda Chiriro.

The Jeonju Digital Project 2009 omnibus triptych was previously announced with Hong Sang-soo, Naomi Kawase and Lav Diaz each contributing a short.

Also previously announced, the Korean Feature Competition will screen a slew of world premieres including Yim Soon-rye’s Fly Penguin.

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