2020

9th Korean Film Festival Frankfurt

Korean Film Festival Frankfurt 2020 Poster

The “9th Korean Film Festival Frankfurt” took place from November 18th to November 30th, 2020. Due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic and its connected restrictions the festival was held in a completely new online edition. The preparations for an offline edition of the festival were difficult and presented the Project-K team and all those involved with major challenges. The festival was planned in a hybrid form (online and offline), but this plan was dismissed due to further regulations and the closure of cinemas in the second lockdown. Therefore, the Project-K Team decided to hold the festival entirely through an online platform. Despite this spontaneous change, a total of 7,300 guests participated and enjoyed the festival Germany-wide.

Film Program

The movies of the “9th Korean Film Festival Frankfurt“ were offered online via the streaming platform “Vimeo OnDemand”. They were broadcasted in their original language with English subtitles. The movies were available to stream for 24 hours after a set time and they could be watched several times during this time. For 13 days, a total of 36 different short film and full-length feature films were shown at the “9th Korean Film Festival Frankfurt”. A rental fee of EUR 3.99 per film was charged for the blockbusters and new feature films shown from November 18th to November 22nd. From November 23rd onwards, movies from the newly introduced category “Best of Project K” were offered. In this new category, popular movies from the previous film festivals were available to viewers free of charge.

The official opening movie for the “9th Korean Film Festival Frankfurt” was the crime thriller „Beasts Clawing at Straws“ (지푸라기라도 잡고 싶은 짐승들, 2020). Other notable films which were well received by viewers were „Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982“ (82년생 김지영, 2019 and „Voice of Silence“ (소리도 없이, 2020), which were all directed by female Korean directors. The top three most-streamed movies of the “9th Korean Film Festival Frankfurt” included  „Voice of Silence“ (소리도 없이, 2020), „Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982“ (82년생 김지영, 2019) and „Moonlit Winter“ (윤희에게, 2019).

Film List

Forbidden Dream 천문: 하늘에 묻는다
Hitman: Agent Jun히트맨
The Woman Who Ran 도망친 여자
Moonlit Winter윤희에게)
Voice of Silence소리도 없이
Lucky Chan-Sil찬실이는 복도 많지
Baseball Girl 야구소녀
By Quantum Physics: A Nightlife Venture양자물리학
Fanfare팡파레
Maggie 메기
Kim Ji-Young, Born 198282년생 김지영
A French Woman프랑스여자
Me and Me사라진 시간
Beasts Clawing at Straws지푸라기라도 잡고 싶은 짐승들
Kim-Gun김군

Best of Project K Film List

Another Child미성년
The Dude in Me내안의 개놈
Be With You지금 마나러 갑니다
Dark Figure of Crime암수살인
Midnight Runners청년경찰
A Taxi Driver택시운전사
The World of Us우리들
A Violent Prosecutor검사외전
Twenty스물
The Classified File극비수자
The Face Reader 관상
The Suspect용의자
Secretly Greatly은밀하게 위대하게
The Thieves도둑들
Always오직그대만
Secret Reunion의형제

Supporting Program

Due to the restrictions of the lockdown in Germany, the supporting program was also held completely online and thus accompanied the movie program online. There were a total of three different categories reporting about culture, food and K-Pop, while collaborating with different partners. In the “K-Culture” category, a tutorial video was shot with Cafe Kyubang in Frankfurt on the Subject of „Jogakbo“ (조각보), in which viewers were able to actively design their own „Jogakbo“ (조각보). In the second category “K-Food”, a tutorial video for cooking the Korean dish “Bibimbap” was shot with “Easy Cook Asia”. It was also published on YouTube. The last category, which has been a part of the film festival for a long time, featured the collaboration with re*markable again. In this category we organized Germany’s first virtual K-Pop singing and dancing contest. For the “SHINE SOLO” K-Pop Contest, participants could submit their own solo videos in advance. The videos of the finalists and the announcement of the winner were livestreamed through YouTube on November 21st, 2020. In addition, participants could learn two well-known K-Pop girl group choreographies step by step through a cooperation with dance teacher EUM Tae-Hee. The “9th Korean Film Festival Frankfurt” 2020 included a lot of diverse giveaways, which were made possible in cooperation with out partners and sponsors.