The 17th Jeonju International Film Festival’s Official Press Conference was held successfully

- Introducing 211 titles from 45 countries, including Opening film

- New Concept: ‘Concentration’, Focusing on Alternative and Independent films

The 17th Jeonju International Film Festival (Jeonju IFF) held official press conference to announce its line-up including Opening and Closing Film, overview of the feast, and main changes in Jeonju and Seoul on Wednesday, March 30.

Chairman of Organizing Committee KIM Seung-soo, Chairman of Executive Committee LEE Choongjik, Executive Programmer KIM Youngjin, and Programmer LEE Sang-yong and JANG Byungwon attended at each press conference held at 10:30am in Jeonju Digital Independent Cinema and at 5:00pm in Seoul GLAD Hotel.

At Jeonju press conference, director KIM Su-hyun from Great Patrioteers and director CHO Jae-min from A Stray Goat, which are from ‘Jeonju Cinema Project 2016’ showed up and introduced their films. At Seoul conference, actors from ‘Jeonju Cinema Project 2016’ have joined and briefly greeted: KU Kyo-hwan and Sang-Hyon from Great Patrioteers and PARK Jin-young (Junior) and JI Woo from A Stray Goat.

There were questions about independence of film festival, and chairman of the organizing committee KIM Seung-su said, “A city contains people. A city is supposed to guarantee freedom of expressions. Jeonju IFF is focusing on the identity of ‘alternative’ and ‘independent’ cinema. I, as the chairman of the organizing committee, will do my best to protect that freedom of expression within the fence of the festival.

There was also the announcement of changes in administration. Jeonju IFF has designated Jeonju Sports Stadium and CGV Jeonju Hyoja last year, but all of the events including opening and closing ceremony will be placed in Cinema Street this year. This is to make synergy with the festival through the concentration.

In addition, Jeonju IFF will have closing film on 10th day with the closing ceremony. For last two years, Jeonju IFF had awards ceremony on the 7th day of its ten-day-long festival. This change is to maintain the celebration atmosphere until the end of the festival, and there will be a special program available for the public on the day before the last day of festival as well.

The official titles for this year that were introduced at the press conference are 211, which are 11 more than last year. Total number of screening venues is 5 theaters and 19 screens. With more titles, the number of screening time and seats has increased too, to more than 500 screening times.

Regarding changes in programs, the festival will open this year with Canadian director Robert BURDREAU’s film Born To Be Blue, and the closing film will be a remastered version of Die Bad. Born To Be Blue is about Chet Baker who is talented jazz musician and his complicated life in 1960s. Die Bad is the directorial debut of Ryoo Seung-wan, also known as ‘the action movie kid’. This remastered director’s cut version is eight minutes shorter than the original one, and contains the impulse for fierce realism.

Regarding programs, Jeonju IFF will try a unique operational method “Mini

Themed Exhibitions”. From this year, there will be a special theme to each regular

section, and one example is ‘Expanded Cinema’ with the theme: ‘Cinematic

Landscape’. Through this change, Jeonju IFF is expected to create more dynamics in the programs. Moreover, ‘Special Focus’ offers evenly arranged retrospectives, special exhibition of different countries, and themed exhibitions which regard various regions, writers, and themes.

For this year’s ‘Special Focus’, Jeonju IFF invites Philippe Grandrieux, a French screenwriter to help the audience understand his works. Along with ‘Philippe Grandrieux: A Rediscovery of Cinematic Language’, there will be ‘Shakespeare In Cinema’ in cooperation with The British Council to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s passing and ‘Modern Chilean Cinema: New Territory of Latin America’ to introduce new tendency of modern cinema in Chile.

After introducing all sections and programs, directors and actors from ‘Jeonju Cinema Project 2016’ had a brief interview with KIM Youngjin, the utive programmer. Director KIM Su-hyun from Great Patrioteers has said, “You may have hard time understanding the characters with our typical standards, but I hope this movie can give you possibility of communication.” Sang Hyon from Great Patrioteers added, “Everyone including actors and staffs have struggled due to freezing weather, but it was worthy that I had looked back my past as I played my character.” Also, director CHO Jae-min from A Stray Goat commented, “I hope that the audience may share someone’s feeling, not sympathizing.” It stars Park Jin-young, K-pop group GOT7’s Junior, and he said, “This is my first debut feature film, and I am very excited”.

Introducing blueprint of 2016 through press conference, the 17th Jeonju IFF will gear up to prepare a successful feast ahead of 1 month. After press conference on March 30, information about total 211 titles and main events will be presented on Jeonju IFF’s official homepage (eng.jiff.or.kr). Following Opening Ceremony Reservation which opens on April 12, general screening reservation will start from April 14. The 17th Jeonju IFF will be held from Thursday, April 28 to Saturday, May 7, for 10 days.