The Seoul Independent Film Festival which will open on 29th November and go on until the 7th December has announced its line-up of 49 features in competitions. The submission period was from the 7th August until the 3rd September.

 

The total number of submissions set a new record, reaching 773. 39 short films and 10 feature-length films made it to the second round. The slogan for this year’s Seoul Independent Film Festival is “Light My Fire.”

 

CHO Young-gak, festival director of the Seoul Independent Film Festival, who took part in selecting films in the preliminary round said “Unlike last year when we saw many films with dark atmosphere, there were many bright films this year. I think it’s significant that despite the social conditions staying the same, filmmakers are approaching their topics in a positive manner.”

 

He added that “there were many strong documentaries submitted to the feature section and the range of topics has widened considerably compared to previous years. I hope that through these works, audiences will be able to check out the latest trend of Korean indie films.”

 

Included in the feature competition section are films that have received rave reviews at many other festivals. Forest Dancing is KANG Seok-pil’s directorial debut. KANG was previous producer for On-Line: An Inside View Of Korean Independent Film and The Border City. KIM Tae-gon, whose The Pot got excellent reviews at Rotterdam will be at the festival with his latest film, Sunshine Boys.

 

In the short film section, KIM Jin-man’s Noodle Fish which has been praised for its unique animation technique and narrative as well as EOM Tae-hwa’s Forest which got rave reviews at the Mise-en-Scene Short Film Festival and the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival as well as PARK Beom’s The Night of the Witness, recipient of the Seonjae Award at the Busan International Film Festival will be screened.