On Tuesday, March 10, the official program for the twenty-fourth edition of the Korea Film Fest, a korean film festival scheduled for March 19-28, 2026, was presented at the La Compagnia cinema in Florence during a press conference, to which I was invited as an Honorary Reporter. The conference was attended by various members of the Tuscan cultural and institutional scene, including: Eugenio Giani, President of the Tuscany Region, Cristina Manetti, Councilor for Culture of the Tuscany Region, Giovanni Bettarini, Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Florence, Iacopo di Passio, President of the Fondazione Sistema Toscana, Riccardo Gelli, artistic director and creator of the Florence Korea Film Fest, and Caterina Liverani and Veronica Croce, curators of the catalogue.
The Korea Film Fest will start on Thursday 19th March with "People and Meat" (사람과 고기) by Yang Jong-hyun, a film that was screened at the Busan International Film Festival, about three old people who, having no financial resources, decide to eat at restaurants and run away without paying. The festival will then finish on Friday, March 27th with "Homeward Bound" (비밀일 수밖에) by Kim Dae-hwan, a family drama. Both the opening and closing films will be introduced by their respective directors and these movies offer different glimpses of everyday life in contemporary Korea.
The festival's historic sections are knows as “Orizzonti Coreani” (Korean Horizons), dedicated to the most important films produced in South Korea in recent months, and “K Cinema Today”, which showcases independent cinema and the new generations. Key themes this year in these sections are family and parent-child relationships, but of course there are also thriller movies, a classic genre that Korea has mastered over the years with well known masterpieces such as “Old Boy”(올드보이, Park Chan-wook), “The Chaser” (추격자, Na Hong-jin), “I Saw the Devil” (악마를 보았다, im Ji-woon), “Parasite” (기생충, Bong Joon-ho) and many others.
The festival's artistic director, Riccardo Galli, emphasized that this is the only Korean festival in the world supported by local institutions as well as sponsors. This allows for a diverse program and numerous guests every year; this year, in fact, almost every day will be dedicated to a different guest. This edition of the festival presents 70 films, 9 directors, 3 actors, a composer, producers, and even artists who will address the popular theme of webtoons. In fact this year's trailer was created by illustrators from Busan who decided to partecipate in the creation of the festival. Among the guests, international star Gong Yoo stands out for sure; Riccardo Galli noted that he will not only hold a masterclass but he will also participate in the evening screening of Train to Busan. The guest of honor, linked to actor Gong Yoo, is Yeon Sang-ho, director of the aforementioned Train to Busan and many other films, especially animated ones. He will present his latest film on the evening of March 25th: "The Ugly" (얼굴) released in 2025. There will also be a Korean independent film in which the city itself of Florence is the protagonist: "Florence Knockin’ on You" (피렌체), was shot in the Italian city by director Lee Chang-yeoul, who will partecipate together with the main actors, and the story of this movie is about a man who decides after many years to return to Florence to take his life back into his own hands and the beautiful Italian city can be seen as a sort of cure for the main character's mental health.
As it has been said during the press conference by Giovanni Bettarini: “This event is not anymore just a film festival, but a real event about Korean culture”, thanks to the ever-growing interest of the public in products related to Korea, films, TV series, music. During the 10 days of the festival it is possible not only to enjoy these films, short films, documentaries, but also to participate in masterclasses and therefore to meet authors, directors, composers, a whole series of professionals who come directly from Korea to talk about how they work and show a foreign audience the peculiarities of Korea in different art forms ranging from cinema to cuisine and music. The festival will conclude with a concert: on March 28th, Korean composer Cho Sung-woo, famous for his soundtracks such as the beautiful soundtracks of films such as Christmas in August (8월의 크리스마스, Hur Jin-ho) and A Normal Family (보통의 가족, Hur Jin-ho), will hold a concert in collaboration with the Florence Pops Orchestra.
It promises to be an edition packed with guests and particularly interesting, lively, and stimulating, allowing us to learn not only about Korea through these films but also about the behind-the-scenes stories behind them and the work that goes into them.
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