Jeonju International Film Festival to start in April, offline

The poster for the 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival [JEONJU INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL]

The 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival is slated to take place on April 28 for 10 days, the festival committee announced Friday.

The film festival is set to invite some 230 international films to the offline event.

This year’s theme is a “retrospective of Taehung Pictures.” Taehung Pictures is Korea’s film production and distribution company, founded in 1984. The festival said that it aims to celebrate the company’s contribution to the local film industry during the 1980s and 1990s, and to commemorate Taehung Pictures’ former CEO Lee Tae-won, who died in October.

The retrospective will include eight films that are considered important in the history of Korean film, like “Chihwaseon” (2002), “Fin De Siecle” (1999) and “My Dear Keumhong” (1995).

“The Jeonju International Film Festival feels responsible in taking the initiative and presenting some sort of measures or standards in hosting a domestic film festival amid the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Lee Joon-dong, festival director. “We hope we can meet with more audiences in this year’s festival.”

Last year, the 22nd edition of the festival was held under the slogan “Film Goes On,” where a total of 186 films from 48 countries were invited to the event, both online and offline.

The 21st Jeonju International Film Festival was held for 116 days online from May 28 to Sept. 20 in 2020.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]