Film Goes On (?): The 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival Marc Raymond May 2022 Festival Reports This year’s 23rd edition of the Jeonju International Film Festival returned to full capacity for the first time since 2019, following a 2020 cancellation and a reduced capacity/hybrid version in 2021. Its sloga...
Expanding on the Familiar: The 26th Busan International Film Festival Marc Raymond January 2022 Festival Reports 2021 marked a return of the Busan film festival to close to normality following a 2020 which had very limited theatrical presence, consisting mostly of online screenings, especially for press, as well as a more...
Familiar and Not-Familiar: An Uncanny Journey Through the 22nd Jeonju International Film Festival Marc Raymond July 2021 Festival Reports Last year, for the first time since 2007, I was unable to attend the Jeonju film festival, as it was in effect canceled, although there was still a program and some local screenings over a few months of many of...
Korean Cinema’s Self-Portrait: The 25th Busan International Film Festival Marc Raymond January 2021 Festival Reports The 25th Busan International Film Festival was originally scheduled to take place in early October, as usual, with a full lineup and screenings, albeit with certain increased safety measures and reduced foreign...
Korean Cinema in the Shadow of Parasite: The 24th Busan International Film Festival Marc Raymond January 2020 Festival Reports Busan 2019 marked a year of celebration, with multiple retrospective screenings in honour of the 100th anniversary of Korean cinema coinciding with Bong Joon-ho’s Gi-saeng-chung (Parasite) receiving Korea’s fir...
Looking Forward and Looking Back: The 20th Jeonju International Film Festival Marc Raymond July 2019 Festival Reports 2019 marked the 20th anniversary of the Jeonju film festival, which celebrated with its largest program to date, with an emphasis on both the history of Korean cinema as well as the legacy of the festival itsel...
Towards the De-masculinisation of Korean Cinema: The 23rd Busan International Film Festival Marc Raymond December 2018 Festival Reports The latest edition of the Busan International Film Festival featured the usual lineup: a number of films getting their Asian or Korean premieres after having debuted at more prestigious festivals (Cannes, Venic...
South Korea’s Shadow Land: The 19th Jeonju International Film Festival Marc Raymond June 2018 Festival Reports Over the course of five days at this year’s Jeonju film festival, I watched 21 films, the vast majority of which were Korean, with 15 of these being world premieres. This is in stark contrast to my first visit ...
Korean Cinema in Winter: The 22nd Busan International Film Festival Marc Raymond December 2017 Festival Reports Because of an extended national vacation of ten days in early October due to the unusual convergence of various holidays (most notably Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving), this year’s Busan film festival was dela...
Reckoning with the Past: The 18th Jeonju International Film Festival Marc Raymond June 2017 Festival Reports The year 2016 in Korean cinema was especially strong if turbulent, with many major films by established auteurs, impressive debuts and second features from younger directors, and a political controversy over th...
The Festival That Almost Wasn’t: The 21st Busan International Film Festival Marc Raymond December 2016 Festival Reports In 2014, the Busan International Film Festival screened the documentary Diving Bell (The Truth Will Not Sink with Sewol), co-directed by Lee Sang-ho and Ahn Hae-ryong. Even before this premiere, there was contr...
International Cinema, Nationalist Politics: The 17th 2016 Jeonju International Film Festival Marc Raymond September 2016 Festival Reports 2016 marked the 17th year for the Jeonju International Film Festival, held annually in early May in a small southern city in South Korea’s Jeolla Province. The festival has long been South Korea’s second major ...