Korean sales house Finecut has closed a string of international deals for three festival titles, including Hong Sangsoo‘s Locarno prizewinner “Nowhere to Lay My Eyes,” ahead of the Toronto Film Festival.
The film marks Hong’s 35th feature. It competed in the Concorso Internazionale at the 79th Locarno Film Festival and picked up three awards: the Pardo for Best Direction, the Pardo for Best Performance and the Ecumenical Jury Prize.
Finecut has sold the film to North America (the Cinema Guild), the U.K. (Institute of Contemporary Arts), Spain (Atalante), China (Hugoeast), Austria (Filmgarten) and Taiwan (Cola Films). The story follows a woman who, after 10 years apart, visits her mother together with her brother and spends two days with her mother’s new family.
Also among the deals is “Long Long Night,” a 3D animated feature marking the directorial debut of Youm Kyu Bock. The film has been pre-sold to Japan’s Geek Pictures Inc. ahead of its world premiere at Toronto, where it screens in the Centrepiece selection. From there, it moves on to the Busan International Film Festival‘s competition lineup, then to the Sitges Film Festival, where it competes in the Anima’t section.
The film adapts a bestselling Korean novel based on a true story that has sold more than 800,000 copies and was named to the International Youth Library’s 2021 White Ravens list in Munich.
“Even from just the 15-minute promo footage, we were deeply moved by the beauty of the film and the way it captures the world of the original story, by the endearing bond between the last rhino on Earth and a penguin, and by the kindness and strength that come through in its message of living for someone else. We immediately felt that this was a film we wanted to bring to audiences in Japan,” said Kosano Tamotsu, CEO of Geek Pictures Inc.
Rounding out the slate is “Dora,” the third feature from director July Jung, which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, and Busan International Film Festival has selected it for its Gala presentation lineup. Finecut has closed deals for the film in Japan (Geek Pictures Inc.) and Taiwan (Light Year Images).
Jung is the first Korean female director to have three consecutive features selected for Cannes. “Dora” pairs rising Korean actress Kim Doyeon in the title role with Japanese actress Ando Sakura, known for “Godzilla Minus One,” “Monster” and the Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters.”
During Toronto, Finecut will also introduce the animated adventure “Guardians of the Video Game,” based on a webtoon with 345 million views worldwide, and “Wash Away,” a Japanese horror-thriller about a couple whose lakeside retreat turns sinister amid a resort’s belief that its waters can cleanse the soul.
Miyahara’s short film “Suck” was selected for the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and “Wash Away” marks his feature debut, premiering in the Sitges Film Festival’s Panorama section.
