Ministry of SMEs Awards 34 Winners at Sodam Film Festival for 'Small Business Owners' COVID-19 Overcoming Stories'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] On the 11th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups held the award ceremony for the 1st Sodam Film Festival, themed "Small Business Owners' Overcoming COVID-19," online in a non-face-to-face format.

Hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and sponsored by Naver and Woowa Brothers, the Sodam Film Festival was planned with the meaning of "Sodam" as an abbreviation of "Sosang Gongin-eul Damda" (capturing small business owners), aiming to share the stories of small business owners through videos.

A total of 201 works were submitted during the contest held from May 10 to June 20, and 50 works were selected through the first preliminary evaluation. Finally, 34 works were chosen through the second final evaluation (60%) and a public online vote (40%).

The second final evaluation was judged by active film directors including Director Oh Ki-hwan, Director Lim Dae-woong, and Director Park Jin-young, while 8,581 people participated in the public online vote to select the most moving works.

The Youth Division Grand Prize was awarded to the Geumbakji team for "Geumdongi's Vegetable Store." Director Lim Dae-woong, who was in charge of judging, commented that the work creatively told the story of overcoming COVID-19 through live commerce (real-time broadcast sales) using animation techniques.

The General Division Excellence Award went to Director Son Young-min for the submission "Dangolsonnim" (Regular Customer). This work conveyed a message of support to small business owners through the warm encouragement and love of the family, who are the director's own regular customers.

The Youth Division Excellence Award was awarded to the Yamusa team for "The 19th Dream." It shared the story of a cafe owner overcoming difficulties through delivery, social networking service (SNS) promotion, and new product development.

Through this film festival, a total prize money of 30 million KRW was awarded to 34 winners, including 5 million KRW for the General Division Grand Prize and 3 million KRW for the Youth Division Grand Prize. The Minister of SMEs and Startups also presented awards to the grand prize and excellence award winners.

The 34 award-winning works of the 1st Sodam Film Festival can be viewed on the Sodam Film Festival website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.