The 1st Toronto Korean Film Festival begins next week at Innis Town Hall from June 22nd and runs to July 1st. The line up for this inaugural festival is looking very impressive.
Confirmed films for this year’s festival include:
June 22nd Opening Night:
The festival kick-starts with Secret Sunshine (2007). The leading actress of the film, Jeon Do-yeon, won Best Actress at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. There will an opening party following the screening.
June 23rd Horror Night:
The evening features the Jung Brothers’ Epitaph (2007) and Kin Ji-woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters (2003).
June 24th Sci-Fi Night:
The evening features Oh Young-doo’s Invasion of Alien Bikini (2011) and Jang Jun-hwan’s Save the Green Planet (2003).
June 26th and 27th Independent Shorts Competition:
June 26th will be dedicated to Korean-Canadian shorts, while June 27th will showcase Korean independent short films.
June 28th:
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring (2003); a fine piece of work from renowned art-house director Kim Ki-duk.
June 29th:
Planet of Snail (2011); a touching documentary that gained a lot of praises and attention at this year’s Hot Docs.
Mother (2009): The most recent work from director Bong Joon-ho, who directed the critically acclaimed Memories of Murder (2003) and The Host (2006).
June 30th:
Leafie, a Hen into the Wild (2011): This animation won the Best Animated Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2011.
Failan (2001): Directed by Song Hae-seong, the film features Chinese actress Cecilia Cheung.
July 1st Closing Night:
Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) and Old Boy (2003) will close the Festival. Old Boy won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
The Toronto Korean Film Festival’s award ceremony will take place prior to the screening of Old Boy.
If you’ve to see any of these films or are not familiar with Korean films and directors, this is certainly the place to start. I am certainly looking forward to seeing some of these on the big screen. For details about festival schedule, box office locations, and ticket prices, visit www.tkff.ca.
