서울국제여성영화제

This year's opening film has been prepared in collaboration with women filmmakers under the name 'Mutual Gaze: Women Filmmakers Support Fund.' The project aims to support women filmmakers concerned about how to continue their filmmaking endeavors and meet their audiences amidst the current global crisis caused by COVID-19, and to help them gaze at one another in the name of friendship and solidarity. The 50 teams of women filmmakers who have created works—each with a running time of one minute or shorter— about 'Mutual Gaze in the Age of COVID-19' will each receive a production fund worth 1 million KRW. JEONG Jaeeun, director of Butterfly Sleep (2018) and Ecology in Concrete (2017) and a member of the festival's Executive Committee, took part as a supervisor, and LEE Hyunbin, director of Road and Mountain (2014) took on the role of producer. With regards to the 50 submissions, LEE commented, "In many of them, the 'I' refuses to remain locked up inside and reaches out to the outside world. The messages of solidarity and love towards nature and others were particularly striking." The opening film consisting of moments in the lives of different individuals will bring us closer to women filmmakers in the modern era. Sponsored by the unlimited online streaming service platform 'wavve,' the 'collectively produced' opening film will be screened for the first time on the opening day. There will a chance to catch it again in theaters and on wavve throughout the festival period. Afterwards, it will be made available free of charge on wavve for a month.  JEONG Jihye / Programmer

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