Seoul International Pride Film Festival to proceed with in-person screenings of 105 movies

The Seoul International Pride Film Festival, a festival featuring movies telling the stories of sexual minorities, will take place Nov. 5 - 11 at CGV Myeongdong Station Cine Library in Seoul.

“Due to the pandemic, many film festivals are either going online or have been canceled. However, we decided to hold the festival offline as the situation in Korea is improving,“ Head of Executive Committee Kim Jho Gwang-soo said during a press conference on Tuesday.

”Initially, we planned to hold a bigger festival this year to mark its 10th anniversary but we could not proceed with our plan due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, we are presenting 105 movies from 42 countries -- five more movies compared to the 100 that were screened last year -- and we are also using all five screens at CGV Myeongdong to hold the festival. So, it will be slightly bigger than last year.“

Explaining that the festival is being held offline because it is seen as more powerful than an online festival, Kim Seung-hwan, the festival program organizer, said, “Also, the directors were hoping for it to take place in the theaters.“

This year’s festival has four main themes -- pride, diversity, solidarity and network.

”Among our four themes, we see pride as the most important. We hope that diverse social minorities can connect and form solidarity through the festival and ultimately have pride in themselves.“

For the opening film, the festival has selected ”Summer of 85,“ a French film directed by Francois Ozon.

”It is a movie about two boys in France during the summer of 1985. The movie features familiar pop music of the time that audiences can enjoy, “Kim Jho said.

During the press conference, Kim Jho also introduced his new upcoming movie “Made in Rooftop,” which will close the festival.

”It has been eight years since I last released a film,“ Kim Jho said. ”The new movie is about gay couples in their 20s. I met mainly young men in their 20s and they have been asking me to make their love stories into movies. I gathered those stories. The movie takes place in a rooftop house.“

Established in 2011, the festival presented 23 movies in its inaugural year.

“Last year we became an international film festival. We aim to become the top queer film festival in Asia,“ Kim Jho said.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)