Published : Nov. 19, 2017 - 15:50
Korean director Gina Kim’s “Bloodless” won the award for best virtual reality film at the 58th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which ran through Nov. 12.
The 12-minute work was awarded best film by a separate international jury at the Greek film festival’s 58th edition.
The award comes with a prize of 3,000 euros.
Thessaloniki’s newly created section dedicated to virtual reality films had 10 contenders this year. A special mention went to “Notes On Blindess,” helmed by British directors James Spinney and Peter Middleton.
A still from “Bloodless” (Cyan Films)
“Bloodless” follows a sex worker’s final moments based on a real-life murder that took place in the US military base town of Dongducheon, Korea in 1992.
In September the film won the award for best VR story at the 74th Venice International Film Festival, which became the world’s first major festival to install a competition category for VR films.
Kim previously directed works such as “Final Recipe” (2014) and “Faces of Seoul” (2009).
Gina Kim directs on set in this handout photo distributed Sunday. (Cyan Films)
Kim, 43, studied fine art at the Seoul National University and earned a master’s degree in film at the California Institute of the Arts. In 2004, she became the first Korean person to be invited to teach at Harvard University’s Department of Visual and Environmental Studies.
Kim has been teaching as a professor of film at the University of California, Los Angeles since 2015.
By Rumy Doo (doo@heraldcorp.com)