서울국제여성영화제

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all the filmmakers who showed their support and submitted their valuable works to the 28th Seoul International Women’s Film Festival. This year, the festival received a total of 4,115 submissions from 125 countries around the world. After a thorough and careful review by the selection committee, eight films have been selected as finalists for the Discovery competition section. We would like to once again thank all filmmakers who submitted their outstanding works and warmly congratulate this year’s finalists. Discovery (Alphabetical Order) TITLE DIRECTOR COUNTRY Akashi YOSHIDA Mayumi Canada, Japan Dua Blerta BASHOLLI Kosovo, Switzerland, France Linka Linka Kangdrun China Akashi YOSHIDA Mayumi Canada, Japan Yongjugol HONG Jeeyeon South Korea One Woman One Bra Vincho NCHOGU Kenya, Nigeria Ghost School Seemab GUL Pakistan, Germany, Saudi Arabia Short Summer Nastia KORKIA Germany, France, Serbia The Discovery competition section, dedicated to first or second feature films by women filmmakers from Korea and around the world, received a record-breaking 462 submissions from 84 countries this year. The selection process for Discovery was guided by a sense of anticipation for the vibrant potential and talent of women filmmakers from around the world. This year, a significant number of works looked back on the past, moving across different continents and periods of time. Many quietly revisited the 1990s and 2000s while reflecting on the negative affects of hatred, division, discrimination, and isolation that mark our time. Rather than remaining acts of simple retrospection, these films approached the past like adventurous cartographers seeking new coordinates. It was somewhat regrettable that there were relatively few works that experimented with the sensory possibilities of the medium, or documentaries that ventured into contentious issues at the forefront of contemporary debate. Nevertheless, we are delighted to present eight films that, amid both fear and anticipation, build intimate worlds of their own and move resolutely yet thoughtfully toward empathy and transcendence. After extensive deliberation, this year’s Discovery selection brings us characters who reconstruct both their surroundings and themselves in the face of subtle forms of violence and seemingly inevitable catastrophe. These films invite us to imagine worlds beyond the frame and willingly call upon us to become active critics. We hope that within them, audiences will encounter remarkable moments that expand perception and thought and give shape to new forms of citizenship. We invite you to stand with these women as they forge their own paths amid the deceptions of media and rumor; to challenge invisible powers and seemingly inevitable forces alongside them; and, through cinema, to extend friendship and humanity toward those whose existence lies beyond even the realm of images. We celebrate these emerging women filmmakers as they steadily build worlds of their own and invent new sensibilities. Discovery Selection Committee SIWFF Programmers SON Sinae, SONG Hyojoung

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all the filmmakers who showed their support and submitted their valuable works to the 28th Seoul International Women’s Film Festival. This year, the festival received a total of 4,115 submissions from 125 countries around the world. After a thorough and careful review by the preliminary jury, six films have been selected as finalists for the I-Teens competition section. We would like to once again thank all filmmakers who submitted their outstanding works and warmly congratulate this year’s finalists. I-Teens (Alphabetical Order) TITLE DIRECTOR COUNTRY And So, I Climbed a Mountain with AI PARK Yuha South Korea The Missing Beat LEE Jisan South Korea Unfamiliar Ties KIM Yukyung South Korea Best Friend KIM Yujin South Korea PLANTED HAN Jiwoo, EUM Chaewon, JEONG Mijin, JEONG Jinju South Korea Dinosaurs Live in Hawaii HAN Seo-yun South Korea The I-Teens section, which showcases short films by teenage women filmmakers in Korea, received 51 submissions this year. More than in any previous year, this year’s submissions followed with a calm and attentive gaze the subtle fractures and healing within everyday relationships, as well as feelings of solidarity and mourning. Beyond friendships and family relationships, the jury was particularly drawn to the earnest efforts of these teenage filmmakers to reflect broadly on the relationships that surround us: connections across generations and between humans and non-humans; social relationships shaped by the tension between independence and isolation; and even our relationship with artificial intelligence, which has emerged as one of the defining issues of our time. Throughout these reflections, they sought to discover new ways of approaching these relationships. After extensive discussion, we selected five narrative films and one animated film that we felt explored these reflections through a more distinctly cinematic language while also moving closer to feminist forms and perspectives. The works that were not selected after long deliberation likewise left us looking forward to what comes next for I-Teens. We hope that these films, which discover the self through encounters with others and approach separation and farewell with warmth and care, will find other opportunities to meet audiences. One point of regret was the relatively small number of documentary submissions. We hope these filmmakers will continue to remain curious about the diverse cinematic forms through which they can explore themselves and the world. As an unusually hot summer arrives early, with artificial intelligence, on-demand services, and the climate crisis increasingly shaping our lives, we invite audiences to encounter these six films in the cinema, each carrying the delicate sensibilities of teenage women filmmakers mediated through others. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude and encouragement to everyone who shared their work with us. Preliminary Jury PARK Sohyun (Filmmaker), SON Sinae (SIWFF Programmer)

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all the filmmakers who showed their support and submitted their valuable works to the 28th Seoul International Women’s Film Festival. This year, the festival received a total of 4,115 submissions from 125 countries around the world. Following a thorough and careful review by the preliminary jury, twenty films have been selected as finalists for the Asian Shorts competition section. We would like to once again thank all filmmakers who submitted their outstanding works and warmly congratulate this year’s finalists. Asian Shorts (Alphabetical Order) TITLE DIRECTOR COUNTRY 11 Minutes Niki MALEKIAN Türkiye A South Facing Window PUREV-OCHIR Lkhagvadulam Mongolia, France A Tender Awakening Daphnee FERRER Philippines A Trip to the Ear PARK Jee-youn South Korea as a bird that briefly perches Dorothy CHEUNG Hong Kong, United Kingdom Before I Wake Christine FLEMMING , Tinshine MONT Thailand Buried in the Snow Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin LIU Taiwan, United States Cupcakes, Lonely Cats YANG Ling Taiwan Daughter KOO Hui Yin Malaysia Fingerbang KIM Yeonwoo South Korea Fruit LIM Jen Nee Singapore Homecoming and Going Kristie KO Hong Kong, United Kingdom Inday Opil Goes to Heaven chickenligaya Philippines Korean Bloom Lin Jo SKYTTE Denmark My Aunt WI Eun-kyoung, SON Gwang-min South Korea The Night Fall ZHU Xinian Japan, China To you YANG Dohye South Korea unPlug HU Haisi United States Your City SU Ting United States, China, France Your Resolution:240p SONG Yechan South Korea The Asian Shorts competition section, dedicated to discovering and showcasing diverse short films made by Asian women filmmakers, received 1,824 submissions from 77 countries this year. The selection process offered an opportunity to reflect on how the three keywords—Asia, short film, and women—intersect, combine, and expand within cinema today. Despite emerging from different political conditions and cultural contexts, this year’s submissions unfolded a rich spectrum of sensibilities and questions that intersect under the name of Asia. Here, Asia emerged as the physical ground where women filmmakers realize their visions, while also becoming an imagined space beyond that ground, where questions of identity and belonging could be posed anew. At times, it also revealed itself as a site where the limits of expression and representation become visible. Throughout the selection process, the jury considered these works while discussing the realities and practices that exist within Asia, beyond it, and in the spaces in between. This year’s submissions also reminded us that the “short” in short film is not merely a matter of running time, but also of cinematic breath, rhythm, and sensibility. Short films often become films of the self. Perhaps this is because the urgent desire to make films is so often accompanied by self-projection and self-expression. When the subject of a film speaks in the first person, revealing their face and memories, the audience—as an impersonal, faceless other—may at times feel alienated. Yet the works we encountered this year demonstrated a determination not to remain confined to films of the self. Their subjects chose instead to enter reality and confront a world that is constantly renewing itself. Calmly and resolutely, and at times with courage and boldness, they responded to the phenomena surrounding them. In doing so, they narrowed the distance between subject and object, drawing audiences into a space of identification and experience. Cinema begins with a single face, but great cinema translates that face into an expression of the world. Many of the works submitted this year pursued that difficult act of translation to the very end. We believe that this expanded sense of community is one of the most valuable possibilities the short-film form can offer. Across fiction, documentary, essay films, hybrid works, and animation, this year’s submissions also vividly revealed the desire of women filmmakers to claim ownership of their own cinematic worlds rather than remain bound by established authority or convention. Particularly striking was the remarkable rise of animation, both in Korea and internationally, which made the jury’s deliberations both rewarding and challenging. We would like to express our deepest respect to every filmmaker who devoted themselves to building their own world within a limited duration and who treated every single shot with care. Now, it is time for the twenty selected films to meet audiences on screen, each with its own distinct face and rhythm. We look forward to the worlds they will unfold and hope that, together with audiences, they will form new communities of questions and sensibilities. Preliminary Jury Hugo Jinseok KANG (Independent Film Researcher and Producer), LEE Mi-rang (Filmmaker), CHA Hanbi (Film Journalist) SIWFF Programmers SON Sinae, SONG Hyojoung

We would like to inform you of important notes regarding specific films with quality issues at the 27th SIWFF.The Meryl Streep Project may have overlapping Korean and English subtitles, which could cause some viewing inconvenience.The films of the "Helen Lee: Between Here and Elsewhere" section may have some issues with image quality and sound due to the nature of the screening materials.We appreciate your understanding and hope you enjoy the film.