JEONJU, North Jeolla Province -- The Jeonju International Film Festival held an opening ceremony hosted by actor Kwon Hye-hyo and Park Ha-sun on Thursday night at the Sori Arts Center of Jeollabukdo.

The event will last for 10 days until May 8.

“Over the last 20 years, our festival has been introducing (films with) new topics. Old and familiar topics are comfortable but they cannot change the world. Jeonju International Film Festival has been preserving the value of independent movies’ experiments,” Jeonju Mayor Kim Seung-su, who is also the director of the Jeonju IFF organizing committee, said during the opening event. “So films have to go on.”

Under the slogan “Film Goes On,” the 22nd Jeonju International Film Festival is a hybrid event screening 194 movies from 48 countries.

Similar to last year, 142 out of the 194 movies will be made available for online streaming via Wavve this year. The online streaming service is only available for users in Korea.

Korean alternative pop band ADG7’s performance followed after Kim’s opening remark to boost up the festive mood. The band played three songs -- “Whatever,” “Blooming Love” and “Nozanoza.”
 

Some judges of this year’s festival including actor Bae Jong-ok, Sooyoung and director Park Heung-sik, who also attended the opening ceremony, expressed their excitement to watch this year‘s selected films.

Actor Ryu Hyun-kyung, programmer of the special new section “J Special: Programmer of the Year,” also gave a brief speech about eight movies -- four feature and four short films -- that she selected for the 22nd Jeonju International Film Festival.

Along with Ryu’s program, this year’s edition features two special sections -- “Special Focus: I Am Independent” and “Special Focus: Corona, New Normal” -- to introduce movies about female independent directors and the pandemic, respectively.

After the ceremony, “Father,” directed by Srdan Golubovic, was screened as this year’s opening film.

Golubovic’s movie depicts the story of Nikola, a father of two in Serbia. After Nikola’s wife sets herself on fire due to poverty and hunger, he is told by the social services center that until he can provide adequate conditions for the children, they must be separated and placed in foster care. Although Nikola makes several appeals, the head of the social services center refuses to return his children to him.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)