Italy was once again awash with Korean colors at the 9th Florence Korean Film Festival.
 
This year the festival was able to secure a veritable who’s who of Korean directors including BONG Joon-ho (The Host 2006), LEE Chang-dong (Secret Sunshine 2007), IM Sang-soo (The President’s Last Bang 2005) and LEE Kyu-man (Wide Awake 2007). In addition, as well as 10,000 audience members, a number of other guests were in attendance including Italian directors Roger Diodati, Leonardo Cinieri Lombroso and YOO Dong-suk, director of the Korean Film Festival in France (Festival Franco Coreen du Film).

 

The festival contained a number of sections including a retrospective of BONG Joon-ho, a special presentation of the Cannes premiering The Housemaid (IM Sang-soo 2010) as well as LEE Chang-dong’s Cannes winning Poetry (2010). Other sections included the K-Thriller Showcase and short film section ‘Shorts Shorts’. In the festivals Film Competition section ‘Korean Horizons’, the jury awarded its top prize to feature debut director KIM Sung-ho’s film She Came From (2010). The film which has also played at last year’s Jeonju International Film Festival plots the journey of a film director who, while staying in Busan, finds his own life becomes intertwined in a screenplay he is writing.

 

The Florence Korean Film Festival began March the 25th and wrapped up April 2. The festival is held with support from KOFIC.