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Director KIM Kyung-mook’s <Stateless Things>, which follows the interweaving tales of two young men who live on society’s margins, recently screened in International Competition at Poland’s 12th New Horizons International Film Festival, which closed on July 29th. The fest also featured two other Korean features, a Korean short film and French-Korean short film.

<Stateless Things> made its world premiere almost one year ago in the Orizzonti section of the 2011 Venice International Film Festival and has since had an impressive run of festival appearances, including Vancouver, BFI-London, Rotterdam, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires. Aside from local festival appearances, it only recently had a small release in Korea.

The film competed alongside 11 other titles for the fest’s Grand Prix, which is accompanied by roughly USD $25,000 and distribution in Poland. The Grand Prix was won by Dominga Sotomayor Castillo’s <Thursday Till Sunday> (Chile, Netherlands). Also accompanied by Polish distribution, an Audience Award was given to <Donoma> by Djinn Carrenard (France) and <Neighboring Sounds> by Kleber Mendonca Filho (Brazil) received a FIPRESCI Award. In the fest’s Films on Art International Competition, <Punk Syndrome> by Jukki Kärkkäinena and Jani-Petteri Passi (Finland) took home a prize of USD
$10,000 as well as Polish distribution.

In the Season 2011/2012 section, New Horizons also featured an encore screening of KIM Ki-duk’s Cannes Un Certain Regard winning auto-documentary <Arirang>, which was selected as the Best Film in last year’s Films on Art section at the festival. The 2012 Panaroma section included KIM Joong-hyeon’s <Choked>, also a veteran of this year’s festival circuit with appearances at Busan, Berlin, Miami and San Francisco. The apocalypse-themed Happy End section featured <Suicidal Variations>, a 2007 short film from twin brothers and recent <Horror Stories> contributors KIM Gok and KIM Sun. <Lack of Evidence> by Hayoun KWON, a French-Korean short animated short film, also appeared in the European Short
Films section.

Running from July 19-29 this year, New Horizons is headed by Roman GUTEK and is known for its embrace of bold and daring auteur, avant-garde and art house cinema. Located in the city of Wrocław, it is accompanied by a number of musical and artistic performances throughout the week.