This year, the biggest film festival in North America placed a special importance on Korea. Korean Film Council (KOFIC) joined the celebration as Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) selected films from Seoul to showcase through its City to City program at its 39th annual film festival which was held from September 4 to 14th. TIFF boasts its selection of diverse films each year, and this year, it programmed 393 films from 79 countries with 8 films in the City to City program, with a total of 14 Korean films throughout.

The City to City program which selected 8 titles include A Dream of Iron by Kelvin Kyung-kun PARK, Alive by PARK Jung-bum, Confession by LEE Do-yun, Gyeongju by ZHANG Lu, world premieres of Cart by BOO Ji-young and Scarlet Innocence by YIM Pil-sung, and Cannes titles A Girl at My Door by July JUNG and A Hard Day by KIM Seong-hun. All City to City directors were in attendance except for ZHANG Lu.

Aside from City to City titles, SHIM Sung-bo directed and BONG Joon Ho produced naval thriller, Haemoo played as the Gala Presentation, while the Masters Program invited familiar auteurs’ works such as IM Kwon-taek’s Revivre and Hong Sang-soo’s Hill of Freedom. In the Wavelengths section which focuses on more artistic and experimental films, YOO Soon-mi’s Songs from the North, a South Korea-Portugal-USA co-production, was selected along with a short by KIM Kyung-man called Beep, both of which deal with political content. In addition, the Discovery program where works of new up and coming directors are presented, Albert SHIN’s In Her Place, a Canadian-Korean co-production took up a slot.

KOFIC in support of the Korean films had a booth at the Hyatt Hotel in the Industry Centre. This is where most of the interviews with the directors took place, while it was also used as a meeting space for sales companies and other film professionals to ask about Korean films, co-productions and shooting in Korea.

In the industry programming, there was a Korean Panel on spotlighting the films of South Korea at the Glenn Gould Studio on the 8th. The panelists include SUH Youngjoo of Finecut, Anita Lee of National Film Board of Canada, LEE Eun of Myung Films, LEE Tae-hun of OPUS Pictures and KIM Mee-hyun, the director of Global Marketing Team from KOFIC. The session discussed the financial aspects as well as the production environment in creating Korea’s current global position, and how to co-produce with South Korea.

As for the stars, Scarlet Innocence lead JUNG Woo-sung joined the 2nd public screening, and despite being scheduled early in the morning, JUNG and director YIM was welcomed by many fans, filling up the University of Toronto’s Isabel Bader theatre. JUNG’s involvement with this film is a new turn to his preexisting image, and will likely be acknowledged for his daring change.

Haemoo lead actress HAN Ye-ri, a rising star, was also in town for the gala screening and the director SHIM Sung-bo and HAN received rave reviews after almost filling up the roughly 2000-seater, Roy Thomson Hall. HAN and SHIM also had a special conversation with KoBiz about the film which can be found on KoBiz’s website.

In celebration of all the Korean films at TIFF, KOFIC partnered with the festival to organize the City to City Party: Korean Film Night on September 9th. Held at the Shangri-la Hotel after the day hosted Asian Film Summit and the premiere screening of Haemoo, the party cooked up various Korean fusion foods along with servings of soju shots and makgeolli cocktails, Korean music with jazz twists and a beautifully decorated patio. TIFF’s Artistic Director Cameron Bailey also joined the party, as well as the City to City directors and Haemoo’s HAN Ye-ri.

The next day was the City to City press conference held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Directors PARK Jung-bum, BOO Ji-young, July JUNG, and KIM Seong-hun joined as panelists to represent the program and KOFIC’s chairman KIM Eui-suk opened up the session with a few welcoming words. TIFF’s Cameron Bailey moderated the session. They discussed their respective films, the process they went through with the production, how the city of Seoul impacted their films and also broke down some stereotypes of Korean films and Korean film industry.

Through the press conference, the four directors discussed their experience of being in Toronto, and their appreciation in participating this year. They felt welcomed by the audience receipt, where all four films’ screenings were very positive. For Alive, although the theatre wasn’t packed, the audiences who decided to watch the film stayed until the very end of the Q&As, prepped with very insightful questions discussing PARK’s symbolisms and the hidden meanings behind his film. For Cart and A Girl at My Door, the screenings had great attendance and was also filled with very enthusiastic audiences that were curious about the social issues the films discuss regarding Korean society. A Hard Day’s subject matter is more light and mainstream, and the film audiences were very excited, cheering and applauding even before the film started.

All in all, the City to City program and full Korean line-up at TIFF provided a glimpse of the Korean films in contemporary Korea, from art films like Hill of Freedom to social drama such as Cart, political discussions through Songs from the North and to more commercial films Haemoo and Confession. Hopefully the program will lead to the familiarization and globalization of Korean films and aid in future partnerships.