The Seoul Film Festival celebrates its seventh year.
Since we presented the festival named the Seoul Film Festival, as opposed to its former name of SeNef, we have spent a great deal of time defining the event.
What makes the Seoul Film Festival different from other festivals in Korea and overseas? What is its raison d'etre?
We aim to determine our own identity through our adventure in cinematic forms, that is, we are interested in cinema itself, rather than in a pursuit of certain genres or market trends.
From its early stages, the Seoul Film Festival has introduced a number of moving image formats, from traditional films, web-art, music videos, etc., bearing in mind the problematic question of ‘How cinema has been transformed in the era of digital technologies and new media.’
This year, a total of 122 films, (76 features and 46 short films), will be screened in the theater. 137 pieces will be screened on the Internet, and 44 will be delivered via DMB, making a total of 307 works of art.
In terms of scale, this number is not far less than those often seen at other film festivals. In addition, by applying a variety of screening methods, we now stand at the forefront of the industry as a ubiquitous festival.
Every single work we are presenting shines with its own sense of uniqueness and keen intellect. We have prioritized the work of artists who value new endeavors, and have worked to prevent the festival from falling into tedium.
Through such an attempt, I truly hope the Seoul Film Festival will prove to be a festival that successfully interacts with the audience.
It appears that there are increasingly more obstacles in the festival scene. This year, however, our festival has added years of valuable experience.
Along with the budgetary issues, building the festival’s identity on a firm base is difficult.
I hope that the uniqueness of the Seoul Film Festival, shown through its programming over last six years, will be just as well-defined with its new name, and new line-up of appealing programming.
I would like to express our warm gratitude to those organizations and companies that supported this festival financially, our staffs, volunteers, and all our sponsors.
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