Sangsoo Hong and Minhee Kim Together Again at This Year's Berlin Film Festival

Invitation to 'Mul Aneseo' Competition Section Encounters

Director Hong Sangsoo is heading to Berlin with actress Kim Minhee.

According to the film industry on the 8th, Director Hong and Kim Minhee will attend the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, which opens on the 16th, together. Director Hong will first depart for France and attend a retrospective at the Paris Cin?math?que from the 13th to the 19th. Afterwards, he will move to Berlin, Germany, to participate in the festival schedule from the 19th to the 26th.

Hong Sang-soo Kim Min-hee [Photo by AFP·Yonhap News]

Director Hong was invited to the Encounters competition section of the Berlin International Film Festival with his 29th feature film, In Front of Your Face. This marks his fourth consecutive year of invitation following The Woman Who Ran (2020), Introduction (2021), and The Novelist's Film (2022).

Carlo Chatrian, the festival director of the Berlin International Film Festival, stated, "I enjoyed the minimalism in the film and the consistency and precision contained in every shot, which also brought pleasure," adding, "The director conveyed a poetic vision through a new style in his work," explaining the reason for the selection.

The Encounters section, newly established last year as a competition category, showcases fiction and documentaries that challenge traditional forms to present new cinematic visions. The festival describes this section as "inviting directors who do not regard films as predefined artistic forms or standards to be reached, but as an ever-expanding space like the universe we live in."

Director Hong has achieved remarkable success to the extent that he is called a director beloved by Berlin. He won the Silver Bear for Best Actress (Kim Minhee) at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival for On the Beach at Night Alone (2017), the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 70th festival for The Woman Who Ran, the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the 71st festival for Introduction, and the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize for The Novelist's Film.

'Underwater' stills
[Photo by Film Production Company]

In Front of Your Face stars actors Shin Seokho, Ha Seongguk, and Kim Seungyoon, and was filmed last year in Jeju Island. Kim Minhee participated as the production manager. The cast will also attend the Berlin International Film Festival alongside Director Hong and Kim Minhee.

Meanwhile, Yoo Taeo, the lead actor of Past Lives, which was invited to the competition section, will depart for Germany on the 15th to attend festival events on the 18th and 19th.

Director Byun Sung-hyun, Jeon Do-yeon, and Kim Sia of the Netflix film Giliboksoon, invited to the Special section, will also depart on the 16th.

The 73rd Berlin International Film Festival will be held in Berlin, Germany, from the 16th to the 26th.

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