Bucheon Choice: Features
Best of Bucheon (KRW 20,000,000)
You Won’t Be Alone by Goran STOLEVSKI
Best Director Choice (KRW 5,000,000)
Christian TAFDRUP for Speak No Evil
Special Mention Michelle Garza CERVERA for Huesera
Jury’s Choice (KRW 5,000,000)
Vesper by Kristina BUOZYTE & Bruno SAMPER
Audience Award
Sissy by Hannah BARLOW & Kane SENES
Méliès International Festivals Federation(MIFF) Award for Best Asian Film
Midnight Maiden War by NINOMIYA Ken
NETPAC Award
Office Royale by SEKI Kazuaki
Korean Fantastic: Features
Korean Fantastic Film (KRW 20,000,000)
Body Parts by CHOE Wonkyung, JEON Byeong Deok, LEE Gwang Jin, G’sam, KIM, Jang Mi, SEO Wally
Korean Fantastic Best Director (KRW 5,000,000)
PARK Syeyoung for The Fifth Thoracic Vertebrae
Korean Fantastic Actors (2 persons)
1) Jung Ryeo Won for her role in The Woman in the White Car
2) Seo Hyeon Woo for his role in Thunderbird
Special Mention Oh Dong Min for his role in Next Door
Nonghyup Distribution Award (2 films, KRW 10,000,000 each)
1) The Fifth Thoracic Vertebrae by PARK Syeyoung
2) Next Door by YEOM Ji Ho
Korean Fantastic Audience Award
The Fifth Thoracic Vertebrae by PARK Syeyoung
Watcha’s Pick for Features (2 films, KRW 5,000,000 each)
1) The Woman in the White Car by Christine KO
2) Thunderbird by LEE Jaewon
Odd Family Award
Pororo Movie_Dragon Castle Adventure by KANG Seunghun and Yun Jea Wan
Jury Commentary
Bucheon Choice: Features
A characteristic of this year’s films selected for the Bucheon Choice feature section was that there were many works that seriously dealt with female-centered narratives, regardless of the director’s gender, including the Best Picture award for You Won’t Be Alone. Fundamental questions about human existence are raised by using the life of women and female psychology as subject matters, amazing and strange at the same time, that the directors expressed through moments in human life when facing pain and horror. The clever use of the genre film tool kit stands out capturing an even larger and more profound worldview spanning between human and society, world, space and future. This year’s selection once more proves the infinite scope and the power hidden in genre films.*
Best of Bucheon (KRW 20,000,000)
You Won’t Be Alone
“The balanced composition of various basic elements like directing, writing and acting make You Won’t Be Alone a wonderfully well-crafted movie. It is a phenomenal attempt to interpret the fundamentals of humanity through the means of genre cinema by using alienated and isolated human creatures borrowed from folk tales, added up with a mystery. This masterpiece stands out through excellent directing and a clever approach evoking empathy from the abyss of human psychology.”
Best Director Choice (KRW 5,000,000)
Speak No Evil
“The director’s ability to consistently pursue his worldview without any compromises from the beginning to the end of the film is outstanding. His flawless directing with a thorough understanding of the worldview he wants to convey deserves respect.”
Best Director Choice �” Special Mention
Michelle Garza Cervera for Huesera
“The jury grants a special mention to Michelle Garza Cervera, director of Huesera. This young promise of direction has been able to capture through the lens of terror the personal traumas of motherhood and female identity against social conventionalism.” (Mònica GARCIA)
Jury’s Choice (KRW 5,000,000)
Vesper
“A visually stunning post-apocalyptic masterpiece. Mesmerizing performance of Raffiella Chapman as a coming-of-age protagonist, Vesper, belongs to the league of legendary heroines such as Nausicaa of Miyazaki anime and Anya Taylor-Joy of Queen’s Gambit.” (HARADA Masato)
Méliès International Festivals Federation(MIFF) Award for Best Asian Film
The Midnight Maiden War
“The sense of angst permeates the images, sounds, and narrative of The Midnight Maiden War �and points toward inevitable acts of destruction. In using the language of genre films, the director addresses societal issues of division, alienation, futility, and toxic hierarchies among people of all ages. What kind of values do we promote in our modern society, what does it take for us to fundamentally make a change for the better? Is the beauty of destruction the final answer?”
NETPAC Award
Office Royale
“Office Royale for a well-made first feature film with exciting and entertaining storytelling that embodies the young, vibrant spirit of BIFAN.”
Korean Fantastic: Features
After three years, the 26th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival was held as a face-to-face event. Through BIFAN I was deeply able to feel the preciousness of being together with a real audience inside the cinema. It was a time filled with a sound appreciation of films armed with even more diverse imagination and bold challenges. Every single film in the ‘Korean Fantastic: Features’ section was beautiful in a different way. This is thanks to the filmmakers that completed their works with passion and perseverance, without giving up during what must have been a long, frustrating and daunting time. We send generous applause and praise to all the directors, actors and actresses, and all the staff members who made the movies in this year’s ‘Korean Fantastic: Features’ section that show the power and hope of Korean genre films taking off again. – Yu Bora
Korean Fantastic Film (KRW 20,000,000) Body Parts
“First of all, we would like to say that it was an honor to be able to enjoy a work armed with incomparable original charm and passion inside a real cinema.
All ten films were made for audiences to immerse themselves rather than jury members and thus fitted perfectly to be screened at BIFAN, which seeks to be a ‘film festival that the audience can enjoy.’
It was a pleasure to watch each of the ten films, each with clearly visible strong points, each incomparable to the others. On the other hand, it took quite some consideration until we could choose the best movie. After long discussions, we proudly announce the winner of the Korean Fantastic: Features section, that we chose the best focusing on the perfection of the film, and fidelity in the genre while considering what the audiences will face in cinemas after the past period called pandemic. Five episodes are cleverly combined into one story in Body Parts, an eye-catching work overcoming the clichés of the horror genre in various sophisticated ways. Each episode works perfectly as a short film independently, and at the same time, all episodes together work perfectly as a feature film making it an outstanding work by all means. Body Parts which will give the audience a chilling horror is selected as the Korean Fantastic Film of the section Korean Fantastic: Features.” – Yu Bora
Korean Fantastic Best Director
PARK Syeyoung for The Fifth Thoracic Vertebrae
“It was a very challenging and experimental film with an analog sensibility. Not only directing, but also the filming, the music, and especially the set design is excellent. The struggling mattress felt like a self-portrait of modern people, and the sequence in the van in the latter half of the movie was overwhelming beyond an experimental experience. Additionally, the tenacious and meticulous scene composition was enough to spark curiosity about director PARK Syeyoung.” – Lee Dongku
Korean Fantastic Actors (2 persons)
1) Jung Ryeo Won for her role in The Woman in the White Car
2) Seo Hyeon Woo for his role in Thunderbird
“This year’s Korean Fantastic: Feature section was filled with many movies in which the actors’ passionate performances stood out.
If a film’s strengths are its fast-paced development and faithfulness to genre thinking, I think the best virtue among them is the acting of the actors.
In Thunderbird, Seo Hyeon Woo’s delicate yet restrained acting increased immersion throughout the entire film, presenting a truly cinematic experience.
Also, the performance of actress Jung Ryeo Won in Woman in a White Car stood out, who boldly casts off her existing image to be reborn as a new character in this film. Jung Ryeo Won expressed not only various emotions based on her high level of understanding of the character but also her excellent acting did not harm the cool atmosphere of the work when going back and forth between extreme emotions. Through appropriate tempo control, the ensemble of the other actors also contributed greatly to the perfection of the film.
Therefore, the jury gives the Korean Fantastic Actors Award to actor Seo Hyeon Woo and actress Jung Ryeo Won without any hesitation.” – Yu Bora, Lee Dongku
Korean Fantastic Actors �” Special Mention
Oh Dong Min for his role in Next Door
“Regretting that the jury couldn’t honor a talented actor who led a whole movie and whose future we are already looking forward to, a special mention goes to actor Oh Dong Min for his role in Next Door.”
Odd Family Award
Pororo Movie_Dragon Castle Adventure by KANG Seunghun and Yun Jea Wan
“It is easy to think that Pororo is childish, but this film was surprisingly amusing. Most of all, the story development was interesting. While showing hope and conviction that “the protagonist will always win,” we can feel with Pororo in a dangerous situation and especially Pororo’s unique imagination and ingenuity to overcome the crisis is great.
The voice acting was also excellent. In particular, the role of the bad wizard, Ged, was full of confidence mixed with anxiety and it would not have been easy to voice act, but the voice really felt like it belonged to that character. The battle scenes felt short and immersive and exciting throughout the film. I really like the song that comes out when Pororo is with his friends, so I want to focus on the sound next time.”
Source: BUCHEON INTERNATIONAL FANTASTIC FILM FESTIVAL
