Pyongyang International Film Festival

Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories Template:Infobox Korean name/categories The Pyongyang International Film Festival is a biennial cultural exhibition held in Pyongyang, North Korea. Until 2002, the film festival was reserved to "non-aligned and other developing countries".

History

The event originated in 1987 as the Pyongyang Film Festival of the Non-aligned and Other Developing Countries (Korean: ; RR: ; MR: Template:Category handler). The maiden event, held from September 1 through September 10, showed short films, features, and documentaries that were judged for competitive awards.

The film festival returned in 1990 and would be regularly held every other year. Recurrent subject matter included domestic cinema that commonly praised the high leadership such as a film shown at the 1992 film festival, verbosely translated, Glory of Our People in Holding the Great Leader in High Esteem, and foreign films about revolutionary resistance.

In 2000, officials widened the acceptable breadth of film watching by screening Japanese films for the first time when Yoji Yamada arrived to present six of his films.Template:Sfn 2002 saw further relaxation of rules and since then the festival has been open to more than just "non-aligned and other developing countries".

The ninth festival, held in 2004, moderated cultural restrictions further with the screening of a dubbed and censored version of the British comedy Bend It Like Beckham and U.S.-produced South African drama Cry, The Beloved Country. Bend it like Beckham won the music prize and later it became the first Western-made film shown on television in North Korea.

In 2006, the Swedish horror comedy Frostbite was shown at the festival, the first foreign horror film to ever be shown in North Korea. The Schoolgirl's Diary, which was released the same year, became the first North Korean film in several decades to be picked up for international distribution, when it was purchased by French company Pretty Pictures. It was released in France in late 2007.

Organization

The festival was held in the autumn every two years until 2018; after that, the festival has become yearly, with the 17th edition organized in September 2019. It has an international jury and both competitive and non-competitive submissions. In that sense, it is "structured ... very much like any other international film festival".Template:Sfn

Since 2000, the festival has been dominated by films from Western Europe.Template:Sfn Many of the films are censored and often have themes emphasising family values, loyalty and the temptations of money. In 2008, 110 films were shown from a total of 46 countries. South Korean films are not shown because of the current political climate.Template:Better source needed Films critical of North Korea from anywhere in the world are not allowed and neither are sexually explicit films. Anything else goes, and the organizers try to get as many films and visitors to attend.Template:Sfn Diplomatic connections or the personal initiative of filmmakers is what often results in a film being admitted. The result is often "an odd mix" of films that are not united by one genre. In recent years, the festival has enjoyed recent popularity abroad, mainly due to the success of South Korean cinema prompting foreign film enthusiasts' curiosity about the North. Consequentially, film submissions have increased and the selection of films has improved in quality.Template:Sfn

The festival is one of the few North Korean functions that actively seeks connection with the outside world.Template:Sfn Johannes Schönherr, author of North Korean Cinema: A History and a festival delegate in 2000, said "The Pyongyang International Film Festival is a big propaganda event and foreigners who attend the event become extras in the big propaganda show."

Most Japanese films and all American, Taiwanese and South Korean films are banned in North Korea. Taiwanese and South Korean films are banned because of the anti-communist nature of their countries.

Major award winners

Year		Golden Torch Award	Best Director	Best Actor	Best Actress
1987	1st	Template:Flagicon A Broad Bellflower		Template:Flagicon Jamshid Mashayekhi for The Grandfather	Template:Flagicon O Mi-ran for A Broad Bellflower
1990	2nd	Template:Flagicon Little Bird of Happiness		Template:Flagicon Omar Sharif for The Puppeteer	Template:Flagicon O Mi-ran for Traces of Life
1992	3rd	Template:Flagicon Nation and Destiny (Parts 1 & 2)		Template:Flagicon Alireza Khamseh for Apartment No.13	Template:Flagicon Shabana Azmi for Libaas
1994	4th	Template:Flagicon The Wild Reed (Cỏ lau) (directed by Vuong duc)		Template:Flagicon Abolfazl Poorarab for The Bride	Template:Flagicon Kim Kyong-ae for The Kind-Hearted Girl
1996	5th	Template:Flagicon Red Cherry			Template:Flagicon Guo Keyu for Red Cherry
1998	6th	Template:Flagicon Myself in the Distant Future		Template:Flagicon Khosrow Shakibai for Long Lost Sisters	Template:Flagicon Kim Hye-gyong for Myself in the Distant Future
2000	7th	Template:Flagicon The Lost Love		Template:Flagicon Bassam Kousa for The Extras	Template:Flagicon Jang Son-hui for The Earth of Love
2002	8th	Template:Flagicon The Star		Template:Flagicon Kim Chol for Souls Protest	Template:Flagicon Hedieh Tehrani for Party
2004	9th	Template:Flagicon Gone Is the One Who Held Me Dearest in the World		Template:Flagicon Wang Zhiwen for On the Other Side of the Bridge(《芬妮的微笑》)	Template:FlagiconSvetlana Khodchenkova for Bless the Woman
2006	10th	Template:Flagicon Before the Fall	Template:Flagicon Stéphane Brizé for Not Here to Be Loved	Template:Flagicon Jan Decleir for Off Screen	Template:Flagicon Sara Capretti for Sternenberg
2008	11th	Template:Flagicon Assembly	Template:Flagicon Feng Xiaogang for Assembly	Template:Flagicon Saša Petrović for It's Hard to Be Nice	Template:Flagicon Bita Farrahi for Mainline
2010	12th	Template:Flagicon Walking to School	Template:Flagicon Khosro Masumi for Wind Blows in the Meadow	Template:Flagicon Fyodor Dobronravov for A Man at Home	Template:Flagicon Martina Gedeck for Bets and Wedding Dresses
2012	13th	Template:Flagicon Lessons of a Dream	Template:FlagiconTemplate:Flagicon Nicholas Bonner, Anja Daelemans, Ryom Mi Hwa for Comrade Kim Goes Flying	Template:Flagicon Daniel Brühl for Lessons of a Dream	Template:Flagicon Polina Kutepova for Wind House
2014	14th	Template:Flagicon My Beautiful Country	Template:Flagicon Shi Wei(石伟) for The Ferry(我的渡口)	Template:Flagicon Zhou Guangda(周光大) for The Ferry	Template:Flagicon Svetlana Khodchenkova for Vasilisa
2016	15th	Template:Flagicon The Story of Our Home	Template:Flagicon Oleg Asadulin for Green Carriage	Template:Flagicon Andrey Merzlikin for Green Carriage	Template:Flagicon Paek Sol-mi for The Story of Our Home
2018	16th	Template:Flagicon Old Aunt(老阿姨)(North Korean title for the film meant "The Woman Behind the Man")	Template:Flagicon Klim Shipenko for Salyut	Template:Flagicon Li Xuejian for Old Aunt(老阿姨)(north korean title for the film meant "The Woman Behind the Man")	Template:Flagicon He Saifei for Goddesses in the Flames of War
2019	17th	Template:Flagicon Orange days	Template:FlagiconAleksey Sidorov for T-34	Template:FlagiconShen Teng for Pegasus	Template:FlagiconE Jingwen for The New King of Comedy

See also

• International Cinema Hall
• Cinema of North Korea

References

• Gluckman, Ron (September 27, 2004). "Kim Puts On a Festival". Newsweek, p. 45.
• "To Pyongyang with love". (October 16, 2004). The Economist.

External links

• Pyongyang International Film Festival Template:Webarchive at Korfilm
• Now playing, in Pyongyang – an American reporter's commentary
• "9th Pyongyang Film Festival Closes" at KCNA
• "Korean Pyongyang Film Festival opens" at KCNA