Argentina's 'The Night Is Fading Away' wins top prize at Jeonju film fest

The 27th Jeonju International Film Festival announced its winners Tuesday, with Argentine directors Ezequiel Salinas and Ramiro Sonzini's "The Night Is Fading Away" taking the International Competition's top prize by unanimous jury decision.

The black-and-white feature, the pair's directorial debut, follows a projectionist at a struggling film club in Cordoba who secretly moves into the cinema after losing his job. The film, which premiered at Chile's FICValdivia, has also screened at Doclisboa and Spain's SEMINCI.

"One of the things that makes a film festival beautiful is how so many different films come together, how people share stories and enjoy themselves," Salinas and Sonzini said in their acceptance remarks. "All of this was possible because we love watching and making movies."

The runner-up prize in the same section went to "Chronovisor," from American directors Jack Auen and Kevin Walker, while Lithuanian director Vytautas Katkus's "The Visitor," a co-production with Norway and Sweden, picked up the special jury prize.

Japanese director Nakao Hiromichi's "Michiyuki — Voices of Time" received a special mention.

In the Korean Competition, reserved for first- and second-time feature directors, Lee Sun-yeon's "The Summer That Slipped Away" won the top prize.

Lee's debut feature follows a family scraping by in a van as they drive around the country doing odd jobs. It was one of several titles in this year's lineup that programmers flagged as approaching the theme of family from a fresh angle.

"Thank you for giving me the chance to screen my first film," Lee said. "I'm now leaving this dreamlike moment behind to head into the lonelier work of making films, but I'll keep at it."

Kim Myun-woo's "Karma" took the section's special jury prize and also won the documentary award in the festival's special section. The acting prize was shared by Ki Jin-woo of "Insomnia" and Yeo Dae-hyun of "Living Through the Same Season," while Goh Seng-hyeon's "Living Through the Same Season" took the CGV Award.

The grand prize in the Korean Short Competition went to Tae Ji-won's "Touch, took."

The Jeonju International Film Festival wraps Friday with the world premiere of Kim Hyun-ji's documentary "The Longest Night: Namtaeryeong," which chronicles the late-2024 standoff between protesting farmers and police at Seoul's Namtaeryeong pass.