Student Short Gets 2nd Place Prize in Cinéfondation Competition

Cicada (2021) 

Director Yoon Daewon has received the second place trophy in the Cinéfondation Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with his new short film Cicada. 

The Cinéfondation competition is reserved for student short films and has been part of Cannes since 1998. The second place award came with EUR 11,250 (USD 13,200) in prize money.

Cicada focuses on a transgender sex worker who works on Sowol Road on Mount Namsan in Seoul and follows an unusual night in the character’s life. The name of the film comes from a story heard by the director that police officers in the area refer to transgender sex workers as cicadas while on patrol. It is Yoon’s graduation project from the Korea National University of Arts.

The film was one of three Korean works screened at the Cannes Film Festival this year, along with Hong Sangsoo’s latest film In Front of Your Face, featuring in the new Master’s sidebar, and Han Jaerim’s Emergency Declaration, which was invited to an out of competition slot.

Yoon previously made the short films Spring Night (2019) and Bird Cage (2020).

Prior to Cicada, four Korean films earned prizes in the competition between 2007 and 2011, including Jo Sunghee, who received the third place prize for his short Don’t Step Out of the House (2009).