(LEAD) Jeonju film festival opens online amid coronavirus pandemic

All News 22:53 May 28, 2020

(ATTN: CHANGES headline; UPDATES with opening in paras 1, 8; ADDS photo)

SEOUL, May 28 (Yonhap) -- The Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF), the country's largest showcase of indie and art house films, opened without a public audience Thursday due to concerns over the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Rescheduled from the original April 30-May 9 slot, the 21st edition will run for 116 days with online screenings for competition sections and additional offline screenings for film buffs.

A total of 180 films from 38 countries are invited to this year's edition.

Kim Seung-soo (R), mayor of Jeonju and chairman of the organizing committee of the Jeonju International Film Festival, declares the opening of the country's largest showcase of indie and art house films at the Korea Traditional Culture Center in Jeonju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul, on May 28, 2020. (Yonhap)

Although the festival takes place behind closed doors due to COVID-19, 98 JIFF titles are available online on the local streaming platform Wavve for South Korean viewers until June 6.

The event's organizers also said it will have offline screenings of nearly all features and shorts from June to Sept. 20 to give audiences an opportunity to see the films on a big screen after the period for the online screenings.

Eleven films chosen out of 125 are up for competition in the Korean feature film competition category, including "Gull" by Lee Mijo and "Daldongne 33 Up" by Cho Uhn.

In the Korean short film competition section, 25 films are listed, with eight movies in the international competition category.

The scaled-down opening ceremony that took place behind closed doors at the Korea Traditional Culture Center in Jeonju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul, was live streamed on YouTube. The award winners of JIFF will be announced Monday.