The first Cinema Digital Film Festival (CinDi) opened on Friday (July 20) with a screening of David Lynch's Inland Empire.

With a view to spotlighting new Asian directors working in the digital medium, the festival has a competition section of 20 films (see list below) vying for awards and a total of $55,000 in prize money.

The fest also highlights an assortment of 20 other digital films in the 'invitation section' which range from Eric Rohmer's The Lady And The Duke to Li Hong Qi's So Much Rice and Michael Mann's Collateral.

Four of the section's films are accompanied by Digital Lessons from filmmakers such as cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon (Park Chan-wook's I'm A Cyborg But That's Okay) and director Suwa Nobuhiro (Perfect Couple).

CinDi festival consultants Philip Cheah of the Singapore International Film Festival, Ichiyama Shozo of Tokyo FilMex and Li Cheuk-to of the Hong Kong International Film Festival were on hand at the opening ceremony, along with jury members such as Korean director Hur Jin-ho (head of the Directors' Jury), Kim Jimi (head of the Young Critics Jury) and Tony Rayns (head of the Critics' Jury).

Other guests present included An Cheong-sook, head of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), Lee Yong Kwan, co-director of the Pusan International Film Festival, and veteran directors Im Kwon-taek (Chiwaseon) and Lee Hyun-seung (Il Mare).

The festival runs until July 27 in the trendy Apkujung CGV multiplex in Seoul.

CinDi 2007 Competition Line-up:

After (Korea), Choi Yong-suk - world premiere

Campaign (Japan), Soda Kazuhiro

Cat Mountain (China), Zhou Yan & Wang Hong - world premiere

The Elephant And The Sea (Malaysia), Woo Ming Jin

Feet Unbound (Singapore), Ng Khee Jin

Fengming, A Chinese Memoir (China), Wang Bing

The Last Lumberjacks (China), Yu Guangyi

Losing Ahmad (Kuwait), Boushahri Abdullah

The Lost Hum (Japan), Hiromasa Hirosue

Lost In Tokyo (Japan), Ikawa Kotaro

Ma Wu Jia (China), Zhao Ye

Mid-Afternoon Barks (China), Zhang Yuedong

One Way Street On A Turntable (Hong Kong), Anson Mak

People Crossing The River: From Tama River To Imjin River (Korea), Kim Duk-chul - world premiere

Single (Japan), Nakae Kazuhito

Three Men And A Bul b (India), Pankaj Rishi Kumar

Tuli (Philippines), Auraeus Solito

Walking On The Wild Side (China), Han Jie

Wasted Story (Japan), Takahashi Naoharu - world premiere

The Woven Stories Of The Other (Philippines), Sherad Anthony Sanchez

Topics