The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
by Boy Villasanta
After the conclusion of the 28th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) last month in Bucheon City, the incoming 20th Jecheon International Music and Film Festival (JIMFF) in September in Jecheon City, South Korea is the next best thing to look forward to.
From out of the 2,674 films submitted to the feature and short film categories will define the official selections in this year’s celebration of the fest.
According to Festival Director Lee Dong-june and the JIMFF press briefs, 2,074 international and 600 Korean feature and short films were submitted to the screening committee for final selection.
“There’s 36% increase in submissions as compared to 1,969 films last year which signified once again the keen interest of filmmakers around the world,” noted the press statement.
The JIMFF received public offerings in various forms like feature, short, documentary, animation and experimental; and genres like drama, rom-com, action, comedy, etc. with music as the main subject which are classified by the preliminary reviewers into two competition categories, namely international and Korean.
Here’s the breakdown of this year’s film submissions, according to genre and forms: 1,430 drama, 483 documentaries, 332 animation and 429 other film classifications.
Meanwhile, individual submissions prevailed over group submissions which confirmed the revitalization of independent filmmaking.
By continent, Asia/Oceania, Europe and North America showed the largest number of entries.
By country, Iran had the largest number of entries with 374 films, followed by the United States with 167 films, France with 119 films, Brazil with 80 films and Egypt/Australia with 29 films.
JIMFF Programmer Choi Eunyoung said, “Thank you to everyone who submitted entries and we were able to confirm expectations for the Jecheon International Music & Film Festival… through the increase in entries. We will work hard to prepare to present good works to many people who are interested in film music by revitalizing music films and discovering various music-based films.”
The winning films to be chosen by the jury will be announced and awarded at the closing ceremony.
Winner in the international competition will receive a prize of KRW 20,000,000 while the Korean competition winner will receive a prize of KRW 15,000,000 (one feature film award for 10,000,000; one short film award KRW 5,000,000) and each with a trophy.
The 20th JIMFF, which has raised expectations by recording the largest number of entries ever, is scheduled to be held in the Jecheon City area from September 5 to 10, 2025.