A pair of Korean short films have been invited to screen at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival. Acclaimed filmmaker KIM Kang-min’s new animation KKUM (2020) will feature in the Animated Shorts Competition while the VR film Poison, by directors Meesol YI and Cooper Sanghyun YOO has been selected for the Virtual Cinema Competition.

Following the award-winning shorts Deer Flower (2016) and JEOM (2018), Director KIM returns with KKUM (2020), through which he visualizes his mother’s dreams, which the director says have often carried strong premonitions concerning important moments in his life. 

KKUM (2020) has already screened widely around the world, having won the Grand Prize 'Star of Indie’ at the Indie-AniFest: Korean Independent Animation Film Festival and the Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short from the Ottawa International Animation Festival. It has also been invited to the Sundance Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, and the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival among many others. 

Poison, which will have its world premiere in SXSW, is described as an immersive VR experience, in which users are expected to feel the intelligence of a virus and its danger intuitively. The filmmakers’ stated goal is to let viewers be alert and to be aware of their enemies, as well as to think about what they would do for their lives.

This year’s South by Southwest will take place from March 16 to 20.