Jury

Certainly it is rare for anyone to make their directorial debut as a septuagenarian, but Kim Dong-ho is no ordinary director. Kim is famous throughout the international film community for serving as Festival Director of the Busan International Film Festival, from its launch in 1996 to its 15th edition held in 2010. There is no doubt that his contributions were essential in helping BIFF to achieve its current status as a major and essential event on the international festival calendar. Despite having stepped down from the top post at BIFF, Kim remains active and busy, serving as the head of Dankook University’s Graduate School of Cinematic Content. Simultaneously, he has taken this opportunity to pursue a long-held dream: to direct his own film.
Jury, which clocks in at 24 minutes, is about a five-member festival jury who deliberate together in a secluded room in order to decide on a set of awards. The jury president, veteran actor Ahn Sung-ki (played by himself, of course), hopes to wrap up deliberations quickly so that they can move to dinner and have some fun. But differences of opinion between the famous Korean actress Kang Su-yeon, director Jeong (played by actor Jeong In-ki), and British programmer/critic Tony Rayns soon flare up into open conflict. Meanwhile Japanese filmmaker Tomiyama Katsue, who understands minimal English and no Korean, looks on in quiet frustration.

Kim Dong-ho knows a lot about juries, having hosted numerous celebrities and filmmakers from around the world to serve on BIFF juries, while also having participated on countless festival juries himself. In Jury he provides a lighthearted, affectionate depiction of the differing opinions and clashes of ego that often occur during such deliberations. Periodically cutting back to the festival itself, where filmmakers participate in awkward but heartfelt Q&A sessions, Kim successfully captures the cinephilia and passion that make film festivals the unique events that they are.

For his first directorial effort, Kim drew on the talents of a wide range of accomplished and famous collaborators. The film’s script was written by director Zhang Lu (Dooman River), with the help of well-known independent director Yoon Sung-ho (Milky Way Liberation Front). Director Kim Tae-yong (Late Autumn) served as assistant director. Behind the camera was the acclaimed cinematographer Kim Hyung-koo (Memories of Murder), while the legendary director-producer Kang Woo-suk (Public Enemy) received a credit as the film’s editor. Nonetheless, Kim Dong-ho himself was intimately involved in every aspect of the production, and from interviews with those involved it’s clear that his passion for this project was the driving force behind it.

Jury premiered in late 2012 at the 10th Asiana International Short Film Festival, and has subsequently been traveling the festival circuit, including a stop at the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section. It also received a limited commercial release in Korea in March 2013. Kim, meanwhile, has indicated that another short film is in the works, with plans to shoot a story about film festival volunteers in time to be presented at the 18th BIFF.

This year, the Udine Far East Film Festival is very proud to present its Golden Mulberry for Lifetime Achievement to Mr. Kim Dong-ho for the many contributions he has made to Asian cinema throughout his long and distinguished career. It is a particular pleasure to be able to screen Jury at the FEFF, as a tribute to Kim’s dedication and passion for the art of cinema.