The Wildflower Film Awards Korea will hold its annual ceremony Friday evening as the first film festival here to open since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Founded by the film critic and translator Darcy Paquet, Wildfower Film Awards recognizes the achievements of independent and low-budget films. The seventh edition of the event will kick off at 7 p.m. Friday at the House of Literature located in central Seoul. This year’s awards will hand out a total of 13 trophies, including th

Bori (Korea) Opened May 21 Drama, Family Directed by Kim Jin-yu Among the family of four, Bori (Kim Ah-song) is the only person who does not have a hearing disability. Just 11 years old, Bori becomes the mouth and ears of her parents and younger brother. Bori often feels like an outsider in the family, observing them speaking in sign language and oblivious to the sounds she hears. Bori comes to wish she could “lose sound” to become one of them, and with an accident, Bori acts as tho

The organizers of Pyeongchang International Peace Film Festival announced the details of this year‘s edition of the event slated for next month in an online press conference Tuesday. “We are proceeding with the festival in the hopes to heal what has been perished by COVID-19 and recover our peaceful everyday (existence),” festival director Pang Eun-jin said. The second edition of PIPFF, established in August 2019, will take place June 18-23 in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province,

Two South Korean animated films have been invited to a competition section of this year's Annecy International Animation Film Festival, organizers said Wednesday. According to the 2020 lineup released by the France-based festival to be held online from June 15-30, "Beauty Water" and "The Shaman Sorceress" will compete in the Contrechamp competition category for feature films. A total of 10 animated films, including "On Gaku: Our Sound!" by Japanese director Kenji

Budding actress says the film and her songs speak about overcoming prejudice

Jeonju International Film Festival organizers announced that eight films will compete in the international competition category this year, during an online press conference streamed Monday on Naver’s V Live channel. All eight films are either first or second films by rising directors with unique visions and styles. The lineup of finalists include the first fictional feature-length title from Chinese director Gao Ming “Damp Season” and Uruguayan director Alex Piperno’s s

Two talented South Korean film directors are set to make their directorial debut in Hollywood, which is seemingly opening its doors to the colleagues of Oscar-winning Bong Joon-ho. Director Jang Joon-hwan will direct the English-language remake of his 2003 science-fiction cult movie "Save the Green Planet!," with a script written by Will Tracy, according to CJ ENM. CJ ENM, which is behind the family satire "Parasite" that won four Oscar trophies, including best picture, wi

The number of moviegoers fell to a record low last month as the coronavirus scare has kept people from going to cinemas, data showed Saturday. A total of 970,000 movie tickets were sold in April, plunging 92.7 percent from 13.3 million tallied a year ago, according to data from the Korean Film Council. It is the lowest monthly box office number since KOFIC started to compile such data in 2004, and below the previous all-time low of 1.83 million set in March. Total revenue nose-dived 93.4 per

The Call of the Wild (US) Opened May 14 Adventure, Drama Directed by Chris Sanders Buck is a big-hearted dog whose blissful domestic life gets turned upside down when he is suddenly uprooted from his California home and transplanted to the exotic wilds of the Alaskan Yukon in the 1890s. As the newest rookie on a mail-delivery dog sled team, Buck experiences the adventure of a lifetime. Unfortunately, the postal service closes and Buck gets into the hands of gold-hungry Hal, who constantly abus

The Korean government agency for the film industry sought to assure the public of safety inside cinemas and at filming locations, and promised measures to support the industry suffering from the prolonged spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The Korean Film Council on Wednesday said it is operating a special safety management committee of health experts and members of the film industry to draw up new guidelines to be applied at the film scene in accordance with the government’s ease

South Korea's film industry governing body said Wednesday it will do its best to keep local theaters and filming sites safe from exposure to the novel coronavirus. The Korean Film Council said it has set up a special safety management committee, consisting of health experts and film employees, to oversee the implementation of quarantine rules in accordance with eased social distancing in the cinematic scene. "Our goal is to help healthy people protect themselves from possible virus infec

While most other films about disabilities focus on the disabled characters, “Bori” sheds light on the life of a hearing child in a deaf family. Such children, referred to as CODA -- children of deaf adults -- may be deemed “normal” outside the home, but with their family they find themselves to be special at times, or “abnormal” other times, just like Bori in the film. Among the family of four, Bori is the only person who does not have a hearing disability.

A much-hyped aviation disaster film has confirmed its full cast lineup, featuring some of the biggest names in Korean cinema today. Next Entertainment World, the distributor of “Emergency Declaration,” announced the full cast of actors Tuesday and said shooting is to begin this month. The blockbuster is helmed by director Han Jae-rim of “The Show Must Go On” (2007) and “The Face Reader” (2013). Actors Song Kang-ho of this year’s top Oscar winner &ld

Director Jee Hye-won of “Free, Minu” had not intended the film to hold the last words of Nepalese singer and activist Minod Moktan -- better known by his Korean name Minu -- when she began working on the film in 2016 with the intention to raise the issue of migrant workers in Korea. The documentary that follows Minu from 2016 to 2018 premiered at the 10th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival in 2018. While Minu was banned from reentering South Korea for 10 years after a 2009

The top four teams of Korean League of Legends league LCK and Chinese LoL league LPL are to clash online on May 28, according to reports, but Riot Games has yet to make an official statement regarding the event. The top four teams of LoL Championship Korea -- T1, GenG, DRX and Damwon Gaming -- and the top four teams of the LoL Pro League -- JD Gaming, Top Esports, FunPlus Phoenix and Invictus Gaming -- will determine which region is on top. The Korean teams will play in LoL Park in Jongno, cen