French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin Awards South Korean Filmmaker Hong Sang Soo Top Honor Arts And Letters Medal At The Busan International Film Festival
On Friday, French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin handed the Arts and Letters Medal to South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang Soo during the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), noted The Hollywood Reporter Oct. 9.
"Hong Sang Soo has been compared to [French master director] Eric Rhomer," noted Pellerin during the awards ceremony. "His films are uniquely Korean but at the same time universally appealing."
Born on Oct. 25, 1961, Hong started pursuing his love for film at the Chung-Ang University, South Korea. He later travelled to the U.S. to continue his education at the California College of Arts and Crafts where he received a bachelor's degree, then to School of the Art Institute in Chicago for his master's degree.
He debuted as a director in 1996 with "The Day a Pig Fell into the Well," where he received several domestic and international awards, with three of which for best new director.
Hong is one of the much-celebrated Korean filmmakers in France and a regular guest at the Cannes Film Festival. He has won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival for his work "Hahaha."
Variety also reported on Aug.15 that Hong won the Golden Leopard prize at the 68th Locarno Film Festival for his bittersweet romantic comedy "Right Now, Wrong Then." The award was handed to him by an International Competition judge, including German thesp Udo Kier and U.S. helmer Jerry Schatzberg.
The award was not Hong's first win at the Locarno's. In 2013, Hong took home the Best Director award at the Swiss sprocket opera for his work, "Our Sunhi."
Pellerin was visiting the South Korean port city, which coincides with the 2015-2016 France-Korea Bilateral Exchanges that aims to strengthen the cultural ties between both nations.
"South Korea's movie industry is highly advanced and dynamic and so is France's," noted the French minister. "Both citizens also value cultural diversity. Next, we should boost partnerships in the fine arts. We should increase opportunities in which young artists from our countries get to better understand one another."