Director Yoon Dae-won’s “Cicada” has won the second prize at the 24th Cinefondation Selection, the Cannes Film Festival announced Friday. “Cicada,” a Korean short film portraying a transgender prostitute Chang-hyun and his old friend, was invited to the Cinefondation, a category for student filmmakers. Cinefondation, established in 1998, is devoted to spotlighting new talents in the film industry. This year’s selection consisted of 17 short and medium-leng

Robert Downey Jr. is joining director Park Chan-wook’s upcoming drama “The Sympathizer,” US online entertainment trade publication Deadline reported Friday. The drama is an adaptation of Viet Tanh Nguyen’s 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title, a spy thriller work of historical fiction. The story centers around a spy from North Vietnam in the South Vietnamese army. The drama will follow the character in exile in the US, depicting the struggles of a communi

The Medium (US) Opened July 14 Thriller Directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun A documentary team follows Nim (Sawanee Utoomma), a shaman living in a mountain village in Thailand. After Nim’s sister Noi (Sirani Yankittikan) refused to become the designated shaman years ago, she succeeded in the role instead. One day, Nim finds out that her niece Mink (Narilya Gulmongkolpech) has developed some strange symptoms. Black Widow (US) Opened July 7 Action Directed by Cate Shortland Following the e

The Korean-Thai horror project "The Medium" topped the advance box-office sales in South Korea, raising hopes for a larger-than-expected success despite a surge in novel coronavirus infections, data showed Wednesday. The film, revolving around a family experiencing a shamanistic spiritual inheritance in a rural region of Thailand, recorded over 110,000 presold tickets as of 9 a.m., according to data from the Korean Film Council. It hit the local theaters earlier in the day. It accoun

The 25th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival is screening extended reality (XR) content through its program “Beyond Reality” at Incheon Airport. The program kicked off on July 1 as part of the 25th BIFAN and will continue until Sunday. XR is an umbrella term that is used to indicate all different kinds of real-and-virtual combined environments, encompassing augmented reality, mixed reality and virtual reality. “XR content are works that are difficult to describe

Star actor Lee Byung-hun donated 100 million won (US$87,200) to a children's hospital in Seoul on his birthday Monday, according to his agency. The donation, delivered to the children's hospital of Asan Medical Center in southern Seoul, will be used to relieve the financial burdens of young patients and their families and help them continue necessary medical care, said BH Entertainment. "I wish to deliver a little comfort and support to children in a lengthy fight against sickness, and th

Marvel Studios' latest movie "Black Widow" smashed the weekend box office in South Korea, surpassing a cumulative 1 million admissions in its first week of release, despite a new wave of coronavirus infections, data showed Monday. The superhero blockbuster attracted 984,000 people over the Friday-Sunday period, bringing its combined total to 1.36 million, according to the data from the Korean Film Council. It became the sixth title released in 2021 to top the 1 million threshold, fol

Global mobile video platform TikTok on Thursday announced that 10 TikTok-style short films will be screened at the 25th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, which kicked off Thursday and runs through July 18. The short movies will be screened during BIFAN’s “Vertical Short Film Special Screening: 25” program on Sunday, following their release on the global video platform on Friday. TikTok added that the films are edited to be three minutes long and in a vertical f

The 25th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival announced Friday it will continue offline screening after concerns of a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections prompted organizers to consider canceling the event earlier. The announcement came after the government decided to raise virus curbs to the toughest level in Seoul and its neighboring Gyeonggi Province and Incheon from Monday for two weeks. The online-offline hybrid festival kicked off Thursday and will run through July 18 in Buche

The highly anticipated upcoming film “The Medium,” is a new type of horror movie, says director Banjong Pisanthanakun. “It is a new type. The new type of horror film is different because it makes people feel fear gradually,” the Thai filmmaker told reporters during an interview via Zoom on Thursday. Banjong explained that this was possible due to the original script which was written by Korean director Na Hong-jin. “As a director making horror films, I think it

Black Widow (US) Opened July 7 Action Directed by Cate Shortland Following the events of “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) realizes that there is a huge conspiracy having to do with her past. To fight villain Taskmaster, who can duplicate an opponent’s abilities, Natasha must confront her history as a spy. The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (US) Opened June 23 Action, Comedy Directed by Patrick Hughes After becoming a bodyguar

Marvel Studios' latest superhero movie "Black Widow" made a bullish start in South Korea, topping the local box office on the day of its release, data showed Thursday. The film attracted 195,000 moviegoers on Wednesday, far outnumbering runner-up "Hard Hit" with 20,000 and No. 3 "Cruella" with 15,000, according to the data from the Korean Film Council. Considering the fact that "Black Widow" hit local screens at 5 p.m., its opening score lived up to mark

More and more South Korean film producers and investors have been participating in multinational film projects in recent years, backed by the country's reputation as a rising powerhouse in the global cinema scene. The upcoming horror film "The Medium" is a collaboration of South Korea and Thailand, drawing attention for the teamwork of horror masters of the two countries -- Na Hong-jin of "The Wailing" (2016) and Banjong Pisanthanakun of "Shutter" (2004). Na, who

Palme d'Or and Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho has opened this year's Cannes Film Festival, celebrating the return of world cinema in theaters in about two years. "I declare (the opening of the 74th festival)," the South Korean auteur said in Korean during the opening ceremony held at the Grand Theatre Lumiere on Tuesday (local time). Along with him, American director-actress Jodie Foster, Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar and Cannes jury president Spike Lee made the same statements in Fre