Heaven: To the Land of Happiness (2019) 

The Florence Korea Film Fest is set to return for its 20th edition this spring, taking place between April 7 and 15. A total of 76 Korean films are scheduled to screen at this year’s edition, including 35 feature-length titles and 41 short films.

This year’s event will be bookended by director Im Sangsoo’s Heaven: To the Land of Happiness, which will serve as the opening film, and Ryoo Seungwan’s Escape from Mogadishu, which has been set as this year’s closing gala presentation.

Starring Choi Minshik and Park Haeil, Heaven: To the Land of Happiness was part of the Cannes Film Festival’s official selection in 2020, though no screenings took place that year, and went on to have its world premiere as the opening film of the Busan International Film Festival last October.

A taught action-thriller set in Somalia in the early 1990s and starring Kim Yunseok and Zo Insung, Ryoo’s acclaimed Escape from Mogadishu was the most successful Korean film released in theaters in 2021 with over three million admissions.

To commemorate the festival’s 20th anniversary, 12 prominent film directors, actors and producers will take part in the festival. This year’s event will also include a section on webtoon adaptations, which will comprise four works.

Guests expected to participate at this year’s Florence Korea Film Fest, which, just like the two prior pandemic editions, will once again proceed as a hybrid online-offline event, will include directors Im Sangsoo, Hwang Donghyuk (The Fortress, 2017) and Shin Suwon (Madonna, 2015), and actors Cho Jinwoong (Believer, 2018) and Lee Jungjae (DELIVER US FROM EVIL, 2020).