This year’s 36th Fribourg International Film Festival is set to host seven films from South Korea, including two world premieres in its international competition and an action blockbuster in its opening gala slot.

Yoon Jongseok’s mystery-thriller Confession with So Jisub and Kim Yunjin and Choi Kookhee’s musical Life Is Beautiful with Yum Jungah and Ryu Seungryong are both set to have their first-ever screenings in the competition section in Fribourg. Confession marks Yoon’s return to the director’s chair 14 years after Marine Boy (2009), while Choi scored a hit with the financial thriller Default in 2018.

Ryoo Seungwan’s Escape from Mogadishu, the Korean submission to this year’s Academy Awards and the most successful Korean film of 2021 with over 3.6 million admissions, has been set as the opening film this year at FIFF.

This year’s Midnight Screenings lineup will feature Jo Bareun’s horror film The Night Shift (2021) and Park Daemin’s action film Special Delivery with Park Sodam.

Also invited to Fribourg are the animated short films BATTERY DADDY (2021) from director Jeon Seungbae and Kim SoYeon’s Ahco on the Road from 2013.

Korean films have long been a popular fixture in Fribourg, particularly in its international competition and midnight screenings sections. The last Korean film to pick up the Regard d’Or, the top prize at the festival, was Lee Sujin’s Han Gongju (2014) in 2014.

This year’s FIFF is set to take place from March 18 to 27.