Director Im Soon-rye Receives Merit Award at Monterrey Film Festival in Mexico

Director Im Soon-rye will receive a lifetime achievement award in Mexico.

On the 13th, the Korean Film Council announced that Korea has been invited as the guest country to the 19th Monterrey Film Festival, held from September 28 to October 4 in Monterrey, a city in northeastern Mexico, where Director Im Soon-rye will be honored with a lifetime achievement award.

At a press conference held on the 12th at the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, Lim Soon-rye, the director of the Korean Film Gender Equality Center Ddeunddeun, is giving a greeting. On the left is Shim Jae-myung, the center director. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

Janeth Aguirre, the newly appointed festival director this year, will present a program featuring female directors, including Director Im Soon-rye, who are opening new possibilities in the Korean film industry.

At Director Im Soon-rye’s retrospective, films such as the opening film Little Forest (2018), the short film Walking in the Rain (1994), Waikiki Brothers (2001), Forever the Moment (2008), How to Travel with a Cow (2010), and Run to the South (2013) will be screened. She will be awarded the Cabrito de Plata lifetime achievement award in recognition of her contributions.

During the guest country events, a special screening of Korean female directors will feature works by Yoon Ga-eun, Yoon Dan-bi, Jung Joo-ri, Jang Yoo-jung, Han Ji-won, and Kim Se-in. Directors including Kim Se-in will visit the festival in person to participate in audience Q&A sessions (GV).

In the festival’s international feature competition, Director Shin Dong-min’s From You has been invited, while Director Noh Kyung-moo’s No Reason Not to Get Pregnant and Director Byun Sung-bin’s Peacock have been invited to the international short competition and non-competitive sections, respectively.

From September 21 to 28, the “Korean Film Week: KAFA 40th Anniversary” event will be held in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, screening a total of 14 films?7 feature films and 7 short films?by directors who graduated from the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA). Early short films by Director Bong Joon-ho, such as White Man (1994), and Director Jang Jun-hwa’s 2001 Imagine are also included in the lineup.

Park Ki-yong, chairman of the Korean Film Council, said, “Starting from the capital Mexico City and continuing to Monterrey, the third largest city, this exchange event will demonstrate the potential for Korean cinema to expand into the new continent of Latin America,” adding, “It will be an opportunity to showcase the diverse aspects of Korean films introduced on global platforms.”

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