[PRESS RELEASE] Winners of The Florence Korea Film Fest 2023

"Next Sohee" by July Jung, a social denunciation film about the ruthless world of a call center in South Korea, wins the 21st Florence Korea Film Fest

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The Audience Award goes to Park Gyoo-tae's comedy "6/45".

"Next Sohee" by director July Jung, a cynical fresco on the most alienating part of office work, that of the world of call centers in South Korea, won the award for best film at the 21st edition of the Florence Korea Film Fest, the festival dedicated to the cinematography of South Korea, whose awards ceremony is held today, April 7, at the La Compagnia cinema, at 8.30 pm. The film tells the story of a high school student who loves dance, music and going out with friends but when she begins her apprenticeship in a call center she discovers a world of work so ruthless that it completely annihilates people, until she reaches a tragic end.

The jury, this year chaired by the American director Casey Kauffman, and composed of Elisa Baldini, member of the SNCCI group and part of the editorial team of the historic distribution house CG Entertainment, Lorena Rojas, artistic director of the Ibero-American film festival Entre Dos Mundos; Carlo Benedetti, member of the collective of authors of the magazine "In fuga dalla bocciofila" which deals with narrative inspired by cinema and Simone Bartalesi, artistic director of the Florentine association OFF Cinema awarded the prize with the following motivation: «a gradual immersion , poetic and all-encompassing within the mystery of a young life, made up of simple desires; the progressive understanding of a voice so far suffocated by a system that asks to be there without really existing. With the gentle and at the same time firm step of those who fight for an uncomfortable truth, Next Sohee accompanies us to the awareness that only by stopping to listen there, where hope has been lost, is it possible to start afresh and, perhaps, change something».

The jury also awarded a special mention to "Through My Midwinter" by Oh Seong-ho: the love story of an unhappy couple put to the test by economic and work circumstances. With the motivation: «through a few essential narrative and visual elements, she is able to tell a universal story of defeat and estrangement, making the silent social forces evident and very close to the heart of the two protagonists who are crushed by it. Work, class, social ascent (or descent), love, drawn with light and delicate strokes, while remaining strongly anchored in Korea, transcend its borders and perhaps speak of our condition as men of the 21st century". .

The film that wins the audience award is "6/45" comedy by Park Gyoo-tae, the story of South Korean and North Korean soldiers competing for the 5.7 billion won lottery. The Mymovies Award voted for by the online audience goes to Park Dong-hoon's "In Our Prime", the story of a brilliant mathematician with a hidden past and his student.

Florence Korea Film Fest; via San Domenico, 101 (Fi); Tel: 055 5048516; info@koreafilmfest. com; www.koreafilmfest.com