The Korean competition for the 19th edition of the Jeonju International Film Festival has been revealed. 10 local titles from new voices in the Korean filmmaking field were selected among 89 entries for this year’s festival, which will kick off on May 3.

The final Korean competition lineup for this year’s edition includes: The Darling (LEE Seung-yup), I Have a Date with Spring (BAEK Seung-bin), Land of the Strangers (OH Won-jae), Back from the Beat (CHOI Chang-hwan), Mate (JUNG Dae-gun), A Gaze on an Invisible Orange (LEE Jun-pil), Dreamer (CHO Sung-bin), The Land of Seonghye (JUNG Hyung-suk), Graduation (HUI Ji-ye), and To My River (PARK Kun-young).

Among the competitors, I Have a Date with Spring debuted at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January earlier this year. 

KIM Young-jin, the Executive Programmer of JIFF, stated that “More quality fiction films were submitted compared to last year. However, documentary films, which have been pivotal for the Jeonju IFF every year, showed a slowdown. In the case of feature films, many of them dimensionalize feelings of loss and anger in young people or portray the inner world of people, which implies maturation and development in independent films.” 

KIM also added “Though no documentary films were included in the ‘Korean Competition’, there are noticeable documentary films in the ‘Korea Cinemascape’ section. Also, we selected films made by the directors who have done more than 3 films and films that try diverse and micro approaches as ‘Korea Cinemascape’. They will be announced soon and we ask for attention on those films.”

The 19th Jeonju International Film Festival will run from May 3 to May 12.