The Korean Wave section, which presents the achievements and trends of Korean independent cinema over the past year, features three feature films and nine short films this year. Through these twelve films — each exploring themes of family, labor, youth and friendship, aging and death, and coexistence with nature in its own distinct style, depth, humor, and voice — we hope audiences will find a moment to look into themselves living in the same era, and to better understand the world we inhabit. Reflecting the broader tendency of Korean independent cinema over the past year, in which documentaries showed particular strength, two of the three feature films are documentaries. Rooted in the directors’ own intimate family stories, these works offer an honest opportunity to reflect on the deep affection and sense of responsibility that run between family members, as well as issues of work and labor and the debts we owe to 

one another. The short films, each keenly capturing the particular pain and sensibility that only a given generation — teenagers, young adults, the elderly — can truly feel, open a space where understanding and em

pathy across generations, genders, and regions can begin. Just as every individual who makes up this world carries within them a world wholly their own, we hope that through the large and small, fragile and resilient 

worlds held within these twelve films, audiences can together explore the difficulties and joys of ‘living’, as well as the critical perspectives and possibilities it holds.

― Park Hye-mi, Programmer​