Jeonju Film Fest kicks off 27th edition, honors late star Ahn Sung-ki

The 27th Jeonju International Film Festival got underway Wednesday, opening its 10-day run with the Korean premiere of Kent Jones' "Late Fame" and a posthumous tribute to Korean actor Ahn Sung-ki.

This year's edition is screening 237 films from 54 countries across 21 screens at five venues, with 78 world premieres on the slate. The festival, long regarded as Korea's premier showcase for independent and arthouse cinema, runs through May 8.

Wednesday's opening ceremony at the Sori Arts Center drew about 170 guests, among them programmer of the year Byun Young-joo, international competition juror Yim Soon-rye and actors Kim Hyun-joo and Go Ah-sung.

Festival co-chairs Min Sung-wook and Jung Jun-ho, both serving second terms, used the event to thank the independent and experimental filmmakers they credited with carrying the festival to its 27th edition.

Among the evening's notable moments was a special achievement award presented to Ahn, one of Korea's most recognizable screen veterans who died in January at 74 after a six-decade career spanning more than 130 films.

His son Philip Ahn accepted the award on his behalf, wearing a tuxedo he said his father had worn to awards shows and red carpets throughout his career.

"I believe he is looking down from above," the younger Ahn told the audience. "I'm sure he is overjoyed and very proud."

Jones' "Late Fame," which had its world premiere at last year's Venice Film Festival, screened immediately after the ceremony.

Adapted from Arthur Schnitzler's novella, the film stars Willem Dafoe as an aging New York postal worker who gets pulled into the city's literary scene when a group of young writers takes an interest in his long-forgotten poetry.

Greta Lee co-stars as a bohemian actor drawn into the former poet's orbit.

Speaking at a press conference earlier in the day at Jeonju Digital Independent Cinema, Jones, who chaired the New York Film Festival from 2012 to 2019, praised the city's commitment to independent cinema.

"Being [in Jeonju] for just a couple of days, what I see is a festival that lives and thrives and still operates out of the love for artist cinema, in a way that has been severely compromised in a lot of other festivals, particularly in the United States," Jones said.

Jones, who began his career as a film critic before turning to screenwriting and directing, said he was committed to keeping the film grounded in reality.

"It's like poetry in quotes, to make it quote-unquote accessible for audiences," he said. "I felt that it was important that it be about real poetry, about real poets."

Lee, who broke out internationally in Celine Song's "Past Lives" and has since appeared in Apple TV+ series "The Studio" and Kathryn Bigelow's "A House of Dynamite," said she was drawn to the heightened register of her character.

"I had been dying to play someone who is maybe less naturalistic in terms of their acting style," Lee said. "So I really wanted to play a character actress, studying those kinds of women divas who I'm afraid are no longer able to exist in the world that we live in today."

Lee added she hopes to work with Korean filmmakers down the line, singling out directors Yoon Ga-eun and Lee Kyoung-mi.

The festival closes May 8 with the world premiere of Kim Hyun-ji's "The Longest Night: Namtaeryeong," a documentary chronicling the late-December 2024 standoff between protesting farmers and police at Seoul's Namtaeryeong pass, weeks after former president Yoon Suk Yeol's short-lived imposition of martial law.

Beyond the opener and closer, this year's lineup leans heavily into avant-garde and experimental work.

Sidebars include a special focus on 1960s and '70s New York underground filmmakers Robert Downey Sr., Jack Smith and Carolee Schneemann; a Hong Kong independent cinema showcase; and a guest cinephile program built around Spanish auteur Pere Portabella.

The Possible Cinemas program, which highlights filmmakers working with limited resources, has been folded into the regular lineup as a permanent section after a one-off run last year.

Director Byun Young-joo ("The Murmuring," "Helpless"), this year's programmer of the year, is presenting picks including David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia," Ogawa Shinsuke's "Sea of Youth" and the Dardennes' "Two Days, One Night," along with two of her own films.

The festival is also running a tie-up campaign with Universal Pictures around "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," which opened in Korean theaters Wednesday, with screenings and themed installations staged across Jeonju's Hanok Village and Film Street.

Ten titles will compete in the International Competition, drawn from 421 submissions from 70 countries.

The Korean Competition, reserved for first- and second-time feature directors, also fielded 10 selections, four of them documentaries. Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on May 5.

Tickets are available on the festival's official website, with on-site sales also offered at venues throughout the run.