The Seoul Film Commission has announced the six winners of its first international co-production grant, which awards up to $15,600 in development funding to projects that will partly shoot in Seoul. 

In order to qualify, the projects must be theatrical and made-for-TV films, dramas and documentaries of over 60 minutes in length, which feature the city of Seoul and plan to shoot 25% or more of their scripts in the city.

Currently in development, the projects were submitted by producers and writers and directors are yet to be announced.

Winning projects include Doris Yeung’s Four Seasons, from Netherlands-based In Soo Productions, about a young Korean lesbian cellist who emigrates to The Netherlands. The project was developed at the Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam.

Yeung is a Hong Kong-born, Amsterdam-based filmmaker. Her debut Motherland, starring Françoise Yip (Rumble In The Bronx), Kenneth Tsang (Memoirs Of A Geisha) and Byron Mann (Blond And Blonder), is due to premiere at Outfest ‘09 in Los Angeles next week.

Kraze Pictures, which previously co-produced Boat starring Ha Jung-woo and Tsumabuki Satoshi with Japan’s IMJ Entertainment, made it into the winners’ list with Zuma Zuma Zuma (working title), another film due for Korea-Japan co-production status.

B.O.M. producer Oh Jung-wan, whose many credits include Night And Day, Woman On The Beach and A Bittersweet Life, won with A Man And A Woman which she hopes to co-produce with a partner in the Netherlands. 

Other winners are Sidekicks’s MusicCity, an indie music documentary looking for Japanese co-production; On Your Journey, by Emotion Pictures and Mumu Pictures, looking for French or German co-production; and Golden Arrow’s feature film Singo, also looking for Japanese co-production.

Producers David Cho, Jonathan Kim, Park Min-hee and director Kong Soo-chang comprised the selection committee. They encouraged other candidates to take advantage of SFC’s other support programmes such as those for location scouting and production support funds.

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