This year, the biggest film festival in North America placed a special importance on Korea.
Korean Film Council (KOFIC) joined the celebration as Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) selected films from Seoul to showcase through its City to City program at its 39th annual film festival which was held from September 4 to 14th.TIFF boasts its selection of diverse films each year and this year, it programmed 393 films from 79countries with 8 films in the City to City program, with a total of 14 Korean films through out.
Aside from City to City titles,
SHIM Sung-bo directed and
BONG Joon Ho produced naval thriller,
Haemoo played as the Gala Presentation, while the Masters Program invited familiar auteurs’ works such as
IM Kwon-taek’s
Revivre and
Hong Sang-soo’s
Hill of Freedom. In the Wavelengths section which focuses on more artistic and experimental films,
YOO Soon-mi’s
Songs from the North, a South Korea-Portugal-USA co-production, was selected along with a short by
KIM Kyung-man called
Beep, both of which deal with political content. In addition, the Discovery program where works of new up and coming directors are presented, Albert SHIN’s
In Her Place, a Canadian-Korean co-production took up a slot.