Film Festival Will Go On!

491 Titles From 75 Countries Submitted to the 23rd JEONJU International Film Festival’s International Competition!

· 93 more films and 7 additional countries submitted to International Competition compared to last year!

· Dramatic increase in narrative films and popularization of mixed-genre experimental films!

Despite the ongoing pandemic, JEONJU International Film Festival (JEONJU IFF, Festival Director LEE Joon-dong) is determined to hold a physical festival for the 23rd edition which received 491 submissions from 75 countries for the International Competition section.

The submissions for the 23rd JEONJU IFF’s International Competition were open from November 24 of last year to January 10 of this year, and a total of 491 titles from 75 countries were submitted. In comparison to 398 titles submitted for the same section last year, it is an increase of 93 films (23.36%).

The number of countries which the films were submitted from also increased from 68 to 75, which amounts to 7 more countries. When categorized into continents, Europe submitted the greatest number of titles, followed by Asia, then Latin America. Out of the countries, France accounted for the largest number of submissions with a total of 56 entries. Spain was next with 37 submissions, then China with 35, the US with 33, and Argentina with 31. Italy and Canada followed with 30 and 24 submissions respectively.

It is worth mentioning the diversity of the submitted films. For 23rd JEONJU IFF’s International Competition, 266 narrative films (54.18%), 168 documentaries (34.22%), 10 animation films (2.04%), 30 experimental films (6.11%), and 17 others (3.46%) were submitted. In comparison to the year before, that’s an increase of 71 submissions in narrative films, 10 in documentaries, and 8 in animated films. Meanwhile, the number of experimental films remained the same as last year with 30 submissions.

Compared to narrative film submissions made to the 22nd JEONJU IFF’s International Competition section which took up 48.99% of all submissions in 2021, this year’s narrative film submissions slightly rose by 5.19% to take up 54.18%. But the number of titles in other genres increased as well, demonstrating experimental films are becoming more common. In particular, mixed genre films like documentary fiction films and essay films saw an increasing trend.

JEONJU IFF programmer CHUN Jinsu says, “We are so thankful for the global attention we are getting, and for receiving such diverse film submissions. We took notice of the artistic ambitions of these filmmakers.” He added, “Through our submission process, we were able to confirm that even with the ongoing pandemic, filmmakers all around the globe are still passionate about independent and art films and that the passion continues to live on. We also confirmed that JEONJU IFF is still being recognized by independent and art filmmakers around the world. We will select wonderful films to introduce to our audience after a fair deliberation.”

The 23rd JEONJU IFF will be held for 10 days from April 28th (Thursday) to May 7th (Saturday) in and around Jeonju Film Streets in Jeonju, South Korea with approximately 500 screenings of 230 titles.