Born in 1980, July Jung consistently made short films since the year 2000, when she made <Eye - Visible or Invisible>, which she followed up with titles like <The Wind Blows to the Hope> (2006), <A Man Under the Influenza> (2007), which was invited to screen at the Busan International Film Festival, <11> (2008), which went to the Women’s International Film Festival in Chennai, and <A Dog-Came into My Flash> (2010). Jung studied visual media ar...More

Born in 1980, July Jung consistently made short films since the year 2000, when she made <Eye - Visible or Invisible>, which she followed up with titles like <The Wind Blows to the Hope> (2006), <A Man Under the Influenza> (2007), which was invited to screen at the Busan International Film Festival, <11> (2008), which went to the Women’s International Film Festival in Chennai, and <A Dog-Came into My Flash> (2010). Jung studied visual media arts at Sungkyunkwan University and completed a graduate program at the Korea National University of Arts. During her time at K’Arts, she studied under acclaimed filmmaker Lee Changdong, who would become her mentor and help her, along with his producer brother Lee Joondong and their production company Pine House Films, to set up her feature length debut. Produced by the brothers and featuring the same cinematographer as Lee’s acclaimed 2010 work <Poetry>, <A Girl at My Door> announced a significant new talent in Jung, particularly after being invited to screen in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard line-up. In the drama, Bae Doona plays a police officer who is transferred to the countryside and begins to strike up an unlikely friendship with a teenager (played by Kim Saeron) who is abused by her father (a scene-stealing turn from Song Saebyeok). The acclaimed work earned Jung a number of prizes, including Best First Film from the Stockholm International Film Festival and Best Script from the Wildflower Film Awards. Her sophomore feature, <Next Sohee> (2022) saw her reunite with Bae in a drama inspired by the true story of a high school student who took her own life in the call centre where she was doing an externship program. The film premiered in a non-final cut as the closing film of the International Critics’ Week in Cannes where it received a standing ovation. It then went on to win Best Director as well as the Silver Audience Award in the Asian Feature section at the Fantasia International Film Festival. Less