Jeonju International Film Festival is striving to return stronger than ever this year for its 17th installment, reinforcing its aim of showcasing some of the world’s most experimental and avant–garde films -- while also reaching out to the wider public.

It is slated to run April 28-May 7 in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, some 1 1/2 hours away from Seoul by high-speed train KTX. Most of the festival will take place on Movie Street, a street dedicated to films in Gosa-dong. This year’s edition boasts a record number of screenings, JIFF officials said at a press conference in Yeouido, Seoul on Wednesday.

One street, 500 screenings

The film festival will feature a record 500 screenings this year from 45 countries, with some 211 invited works, up 11 from last year. There will also be a greater emphasis on feature-length films over short films.

This year, JIFF has decided to screen all movies at five venues on Gosa-dong’s Movie Street, including an outdoor theater. In previous years, screening locations had been scattered throughout the city. 

“We wanted to concentrate all the energy in one area,” the festival’s chief programmer Kim Young-jin told reporters.

“We hope it will make our festival more accessible to a wider public audience while still maintaining our appreciation of alternative, artistic films,” said JIFF chairman and Jeonju mayor Kim Seung-soo. 

An exhibition “100 Film, 100 Posters” featuring the works of 100 graphic designers will also take place on the street.

The festival will open this year with Canadian director Robert Burdreau’s film “Born to be Blue” (2015), starring Ethan Hawke as the complicated, talented jazz musician Chet Baker.

The closing film will be a remastered version of the action flick “Die Bad” (2000), the directorial debut of Korean director Ryoo Seung-wan, who enjoys both critical and popular acclaim in the country through works such as the film “Crying Fist” (2005). 

Keep an eye out for...

Jeonju Cinema Project, the festival’s focal program, will feature Kim Soo-hyun’s “Great Patrioteers,” a black comedy about an old man and a youngster addicted to the Internet; Cho Jae-min’s “A Stray Goat,” a story about two bullied teenagers starring boy band GOT7’s Park Jin-young; and Austrian director Lukas Valenta Rinner’s “The Decent,” which depicts a nudist community in Argentina. 

The International Competition program will introduce directors from around the world, including Spain, Ethiopia, Greece, the Netherlands, Israel and France. Indian director Sudhanshu Saria’s “Loev” will follow a Wall Street broker’s extraordinary business trip.

The Expanded Cinema Shorts program will feature a four-part video exhibition curated by Spanish director Lois Patino. Documentaries heavy on social critique will be shown as part of the Korea Cinemascape program. The World Cinemascape Masters program will feature major directors who have received worldwide acclaim, including Portugal’s Manoel de Oliveira. 

Programs such as Cinemafest and Outdoor Screening will feature some more popular, well-known works, including French director Roschdy Zem’s “Chocolat” (2000) and this year’s “Dongju; The Portrait of a Poet” by Lee Joon-ik. Hard-core cinephiles will want to check out the Cinematology program, which will screen films about filmmaking.

A full list of the featured works will available at the festival’s official website, eng.jiff.or.kr, on April 4.

By Rumy Doo (doo@heraldcorp.com)