On November 18, the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival hosted “Korean Documentary Night” with Docs Port Incheon and the Korean Film Council in Amsterdam, Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The event, which was hosted during the globally renowned International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA, November 14 to 25, 2018), successfully drew approximately 300 people, including programmers of famous documentary movie festivals such as Canada’s Hot Docs and the Sheffield Doc Fest, as well as international and domestic directors, producers and filmmakers.

Korean Documentary Night was hosted to promote Korean documentaries that were invited to 2018 IDFA’s main event featuring movies and their significant contributions to the sector. It also created a networking opportunity for professionals in the field to interact with those from other parts of the world.

Four Korean documentaries were officially invited to 2018 IDFA: Junha’s Planet, directed by Hong Hyung-sook, the Festival Director of DMZ Docs, was featured in the IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary Category; In the Absence, directed by Yi Seung-jun, was part of the Frontlight program; Eyebrows, directed by Jung Yoon-suk, competed among the Central Pitch projects; and the Rough Cut selection featured Forget Me Not, directed by Sun Hee Engelstoft, a Swedish-Korean adoptee.

In the Absence, a new work by director Yi Seung-jun, whose movie Planet of Snail was awarded the Grand Prize in the Feature-Length Documentary Category of 2011 IDFA, was also selected as a candidate for the Grand Prize at last year’s DOC NYC that was held from November 8 to 15.

IDFA, which is in its 31st year, is a festival in which approximately 200 groundbreaking, daring documentaries are celebrated. The festival attracts approximately 100,000 visitors and movie industry personnel as its market and forums are vital events for these professionals.

The Festival Director of DMZ Docs, Hong Hyung-sook, said that she was “delighted that the first event in which a film festival, the market and industry-supporting organizations came together to promote Korean documentaries to an international audience is receiving such great feedback,” adding that she “looks forward to DMZ Docs’ further growth so that it may become a must-attend festival for industry professionals.”