Born in 1960, Hong Sangsoo is a Korean director with international presence and perhaps one of the most acclaimed unique voices on the international film festival circuit. Hong first entered Chung-Ang University to study theater but quit after just one year. In 1982, he moved to the US and started a bachelor’s degree at the California College of Arts and Craft. It was around that time that he mde his first short films, which already displayed his strong interest in experim...More

Born in 1960, Hong Sangsoo is a Korean director with international presence and perhaps one of the most acclaimed unique voices on the international film festival circuit. Hong first entered Chung-Ang University to study theater but quit after just one year. In 1982, he moved to the US and started a bachelor’s degree at the California College of Arts and Craft. It was around that time that he mde his first short films, which already displayed his strong interest in experimental forms. After he completed his master’s degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he spent a year in Paris in 1991, where he spent most of his time watching old films at the Cinémathèque. Once he was back in Korea, he worked for his mother’s company as a TV show producer. He burst onto the Korean movie scene literally out of nowhere with his feature debut, <The Day a Pig Fell into a Well> (1995), which shook the Korean filmmaking industry. In the following years, many of the graduation films at Korea’s film schools were seemingly inspired by Hong’s style. <Woman Is the Future of Man> (2004), a Korea-France joint production, and <A Tale of Cinema> (2005) were the movies that put Hong in the competition section of the Cannes Film Festival. In 2010, Hong’s <Ha Ha Ha> took the ‘Un Certain Regard’ grand prize in Cannes. Starting with <Like You Know It All> (2009), he has been directly producing his own projects outside of the usual production system. Hong started to employ a direction style that puts greater emphasis on the spontaneity of the filming by letting a lot of room for improvisation, and his films are said to have become softer, warmer, and funnier, while still retaining the depth and breadth of his old movies. The most prolific Korean filmmaker in recent times, Hong released two films in 2010, <Hahaha> and <Oki’s Movie>, and he presented <The Day He Arrives> in 2011. He then invited Isabelle Huppert to star in <In Another Country>, his first film shot in English. <Our Sunhi> (2013) won Best Director at the Locarno International Film Festival. Featuring Japanese star Kase Ryo, Hong’s next work <Hill of Freedom> debuted at the Venice International Film Festival in 2014. A festival hit, the film picked up the Best Director - Narrative Film Prize from the Wildflower Film Awards. Hong next teamed up with stars Kim Minhee and Jung Jaeyoung to make <Right Now, Wrong Then>, which won the Golden Leopard (and the Best Actor prize for Jung) at the Locarno International Film Festival. Almost all his following projects would feature Kim Minhee, who has since become his muse and partner in the city. 2016 welcomed two new Hong films, <Yourself and Yours> with Kim Joohyuk, and <On the Beach at Night Alone> (2016), another title with Kim Minhee and Jung Jaeyoung. While he was attending the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, Hong shot <Claire’s Camera>, reuniting with Huppert. He then found critical success in Berlin when he won the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2020 for <The Woman Who Ran>. This was followed by another trophy from the German event the following year, this time Best Screenplay, for <INTRODUCTION>. His latest film, <IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE> (2021) marked the 11th time Hong was invited to Cannes.Less