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Maybe we don’t always prioritise others, but that doesn’t mean we always go unnoticed. Aloners (2021), a 90-minute Korean drama, offers a quiet yet profound meditation on isolation, grief, and mostly on human connection. Directed by Hong Sung-eun and starring Gong Seung-yeon, the film follows Jina, an experienced call-centre employee for a credit card company, as she navigates her monotonous daily routine.

She wakes up after yet another sleepless night, commutes to work by bus, takes her scheduled cigarette breaks with robotic precision, eats lunch alone, and returns home—always on the same bus, often in the same seat. Every action is performed with a near-mechanical detachment, her face a blank slate devoid of emotion. What remains clear is that she is alone—at home, at work, during her commute, in every aspect of her life.

The film slowly peels back the layers of Jina’s life, revealing the deep-seated grief she carries.

Jina (Gong Seung-yeon) is the top employee at a call center, but despite talking to customers all day, she has shut out the world beyond her headset; she lives alone, eats alone, sleeps alone, and her cell phone is her constant companion. When one day she’s tasked with training a friendly and naive new hire (Jung Da-eun), her icy armor is threatened. At the same time, she must navigate an incessantly ingratiating new neighbor, and increasingly urgent phone calls from her father, leaving Jina teetering on the edge of an existential crisis, forcing her to confront why she has isolated herself all these years.

Riffing on the Korean “honjok”—a phenomenon of young people who live alone and skirt social interaction—to examine the personal traumas of loss and alienation, this subtly poetic directorial debut is a “stirring portrait of the cages we build for ourselves and questions how...

Filmmaker Hong Sung-eun's feature directorial debut, Aloners, epitomizes the idea that cinema can be a universal language. Though she tells a distinctly Korean story, the questions of life — and, by extension, livelihood — that she explores can be applied to all of us, no matter where we find ourselves in the world. In this way, Hong effectively holds up a mirror to who and where we are as an increasingly disconnected society, tracing a line of beauty between what it means to be alone and what it means to be lonely, and, more importantly, what it takes to cross that line and open yourself up to those around you.

Starring Gong Seung-yeon, Aloners follows a young woman named Jina, who seemingly prefers a life of solitude. She clocks in and out of her unglamorous, but easy, job at a credit card company call center without investing more emotional energy than she...

Set in pre-pandemic Seoul, Hong Sung-eun’s sensitive drama “Aloners” is a reflective interrogation into modern loneliness, as well as the silent brutalities of today’s urban life defined by competition, technology and nonstop productivity. The film follows a depressed young woman named Jina (Gong Seung-yeon), who works at a call center. She is currently the top employee in the office and is praised for having handled the greatest number of calls despite having lost her mother recently. Productivity is the most-valued trait in her workplace, and Jina knows this well. She treats all her clients equally, whether they happen to be deranged, abusive or pleasant. Her voice is always polite and calm regardless of how her often-entitled clients behave, but her eyes appear soulless. She looks like someone with a serious but completely asymptomatic disease.

Jina speaks to no one unless it’s necessary. She clearly comes from a...

Save The Date

Film Movement has announced the festival favourite directorial debut from Hong Seong-eun premieres via VOD and Digital on June 9, 2023.

Synopsis

Jina (Gong Seung-yeon) is the top employee at a call center, but despite talking to customers all day, she has shut out the world beyond her headset; she lives alone, eats alone, sleeps alone, and her cell phone is her constant companion. When one day she's tasked with training a friendly and naive new hire (Jung Da-eun), her icy armor is threatened. At the same time, she must navigate an incessantly ingratiating new neighbor, and increasingly urgent phone calls from her father, leaving Jina teetering on the edge of an existential crisis, forcing her to confront why she has isolated herself all these years. Riffing on the Korean ‘honjok' – a phenomenon of young people who live alone and skirt social interaction – to examine the personal traumas of loss and alienation,...

"Do you make a habit of being pissed off all the time?" Film Movement has revealed an official US trailer for an indie thriller from Korea called Aloners, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Hong Seong-eun. This premiered in 2021 and opened in Korea that year, while also playing at the Toronto, Zurich, San Sebastian, and Hamburg Film Festivals. It's finally getting a release on VOD in this US this summer - after waiting a few years. Jina is the top employee at a call center, despite talking to customers all day, she has shut out the world beyond her headset. When training a friendly new hire, her icy armor is threatened forcing her to confront why she isolates herself. The film is riffing on the Korean 'honjok' – a phenomenon of young people who live alone and skirt social interaction – to examine the personal traumas of loss and alienation. This stars Gong Seung-yeon,...

A selection at the Toronto International Film Festival, Golden Horse Film Festival, Torino Film Festival (where Gong Seung-yeon picked up Best Actress), San Sebastian International Film Festival, and more, Hong Sung-eun’s directorial debut Aloners comes to U.S. shores next month with much acclaim. Also starring Jung Da-eun, Seo Hyun-woo, Park Jeong-hak, and Kim Hannah, the film explores a modern life of isolation in Korea. Ahead of a June 9 release from Film Movement, we’re pleased to exclusively debut its new U.S. trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “Jina (Gong Seung-yeon) is the top employee at a call center, but despite talking to customers all day, she has shut out the world beyond her headset; she lives alone, eats alone, sleeps alone, and her cell phone is her constant companion. When one day she’s tasked with training a friendly and naive new hire (Jung Da-eun), her icy armor is threatened.

“Before Now & Then,” a period drama film about Indonesian women battling the traumas of war and patriarchal society, has been picked up for North American distribution by Film Movement. The film is directed by Kamila Andini.

The film had its premiere earlier this year at the Berlin festival, where it was rewarded with a Silver Bear for Laura Basuki’s supporting performance. It also recently captured the jury prize at the Brussels International Film Festival.

Film Movement plans a theatrical release in the first quarter of 2023, followed by a wide release on home entertainment and digital platforms.

Rights sales are handled by Wild Bunch International and CAA Media Finance.

The film is set in the late 1960s, where Nana (played by Happy Salma) cannot escape her past. Poverty-stricken, having lost her family to the war in West Java, she marries again and begins a new life. Her new husband is wealthy,...

Celebrating its 10th anniversary the Helsinki Cine Aasia festival will once again present a selection of the latest films from East and South-East Asia. Along with better known film countries like Korea and Japan, the program also includes films from countries like the Philippines and Cambodia. Many of the festival’s films have been seen at international festivals and have received awards. The opening film is Anatomy of Time (2021) from Thailand, and altogether the program includes 20 films from eight different countries.

Familiar filmmakers

Japanese film director Ogigami Naoko’s newest film Riverside Mukolitta comes to Helsinki Cine Aasia in May. Ogigami became well known to the Finnish audiences with her film Kamome shokudō (2006) which was shot in a restaurant at Punavuori, Helsinki where the story was also set. Ogigami has since become known for the unique characters in her stories. Her latest visit to Finland was in 2019 during the retrospective...

Asian Pop-Up Cinema: Season 14 will present 28 films in downtown Chicago and the north suburbs, with select films available for online streaming. The joint virtual and in-person festival opens March 13 and runs through April 10.

The diverse lineup celebrates the best of Asian cinema from South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Taiwan. Programming highlights include work from female filmmakers and an in-person special guest appearance from Sunday LEAGUEdirector Yi Sung-il.

Season 14 opens with the Midwest Premiere of Heaven: To The Land Of Happiness (AMC Niles 12) from director Im Sang-soo. Korean stars Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) and Park Hae-il (War of the Arrows) lead this crime comedy as two terminally ill men on one last, unexpected journey of their lives. The international premiere of sports comedy Sunday League will follow, a heartwarming story of a former rising soccer star who reluctantly coaches a ragtag team of amateur players. Writer/director Yi is...

Exclusive: Film Movement has acquired U.S. rights to the dramedy Queen of Glory, written, directed by and starring Nana Mensah, from Magnolia Pictures International, with plans to release it in theaters and on digital and VOD later this year.

In her debut feature, Mensah plays Sarah, a Ghanaian-American doctoral student at Columbia University who is weeks away from following her very married boyfriend to Ohio when her mother dies suddenly, leaving her as the owner of the small, Bronx-based Christian bookstore, King of Glory. Tasked with planning a culturally respectful funeral befitting the family matriarch, Sarah is forced to juggle the expectations of her loving, yet demanding family while also navigating the reappearance of her estranged father. Aided by an only-in-New York ensemble of Eastern European neighbors, feisty African aunties and a no-nonsense ex-con co-worker, she faces her new responsibilities while figuring out how to remain true to herself.

The Osaka Asian Film Festival has unveiled its biggest ever program – a total of 76 films – to unspool next month.

Its competition section includes the acclaimed Korean debut film “Aloners,” which offers an exacting critique of the alienating effects upon life of modern capitalist economies; Hong Kong biopic “Anita”; the world premiere of “Angry Son,” which combines LGBT and mixed race themes in a heartwarming comedy; Kong Dashan’s new take on “Journey to the West,” as a ragtag group of people on a UFO hunt; “Mama’s Affair,” the second film by Kearen Pang, whose 2017 debut “29+1” won Osaka’s audience award, “No Land’s Man” from Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and festival circuit hit “Barbarian Invasion.”

The spotlight section includes ten titles. Among them are “The Ground Beneath her Feet” from Bangladesh’s Mohammad Rabby Mridha; “A Room of Her own” from China’s Xie Yiran; and Carlo Francisco Manatad’s “Whether the Weather is Fine.

Here are all the winners of the 28th Vesoul Iff Asian Cinemas that took place from the 1st to the 8th of February in Vesoul, France.

Honorary Golden Cyclo:

(offered by the Agglomeration Community and the city of Vesoul)

Mrs. Leila Hatami, actress, Iran for her entire career, and Mr. Kôji Fukada, director, Japan for the all of his work.

Cyclo D’Or:

(offered by the Regional Council of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté), International Jury: President: Ms. Leila Hatami, actress (Iran), members: Ms. Suha Arraf, director (Palestine), Ms. Tran Bich Quan, distributor, producer (France), Mr. Zig Dulay, director (Philippines)

Yanagawa by Zhang Lu (China) Beautiful, strong images, based on a powerful and perfectly told story, lead us to the discovery of brotherly relationship and love

Grand Jury Prize:

Along The Sea by Fujimoto Akio (Japan) Exposing a calm, restful nature on the one hand, harsh and merciless on the other, the film confronts...

Zhang Lu’s “Yanagawa” (China), Hong Sung-eun’s “Aloners” (South Korea) and Fujimoto Akio’s “Along the Sea” (Japan/Vietnam) were among the top award winners at France’s Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas.

“Yanagawa,” which opened the 2021 Pingyao Film Festival, won the Golden Cyclo, the festival’s top honor awarded by the international jury. “Aloners,” which has previously won awards at Jeonju and Torino, won the international jury prize and the Netpac jury award.

The grand jury prize went to San Sebastian, Tokyo and Fajr player “Along the Sea,” which also won the festival’s critic’s choice award and the National Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations (Inalco) jury prize. The Inalco jury also recognized Da Fei’s “The Coffin Painter” (China).

The international jury accorded special mentions to Chung Mong-Hong’s Venice selection “The Falls” (Taiwan), Brillante Mendoza’s Busan Kim Ji Seok Award winner...

There is no denying that the infamous saying of modern technology being able to bring us together while also dividing us at the same time rings truer than ever in times of a worldwide pandemic. While the term “social distancing” has become increasingly popular in the present, the idea itself is nothing new as our technological gadgets, from cell phones to tablets and computers, have paved the way for an era of the disconnected. Even jobs today, with a few exceptions, make contact with people less necessary, especially since the majority of customers rather call or send an e-mail rather than attempting to solve an issue face-to-face. In her feature debut, director Hong Sung-eun explores this aspect of modern life, how technology forces us into a state of isolation and how we might welcome this development. At the same time, the story also deals with the apparitions and ghosts that...

France’s Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas kicks off Feb. 1 with a gala screening of Iranian auteur Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s 2001 Cannes winner “Kandahar” and will conclude on Feb. 8 with Kazakhstan filmmaker Yerlan Nurmukhambetov’s “The Horse Thieves. Roads of Time.”

The guest of honor at the festival’s 28th edition will be Japanese filmmaker Fukada Koji, who will be presented with an Honorary Cyclo at the opening ceremony. All 10 of Fukada’s features and four shorts will be presented at Vesoul, marking the first complete retrospective for the filmmaker. In all, 20 films from Japan will play at the festival, including Nakano Ryota’s “The Asadas” and Miyazaki Hayao’s “My Neighbor Totoro.”

The festival also pays tribute to Chinese master Xie Fei, whose masterpiece “Woman Sesame Oil Maker” won the Berlin Golden Bear in 1993.

This year, the international competition jury is presided over by Leila Hatami, Berlin Silver...

Leila Hatami, Iranian actress, silver bear in Berlin for A Separation by Ashgar Faradhi, an Iranian film with one million admissions in France, will be the president of the international Jury. The other members are: Suha Arraf, director (Palestine), Zig Dulay, director (Philippines), Yerlan Nurmukhambetov, director (Kazakhstan), Tran Bich Quan, distributor-producer (France).

Koji Fukada, the rising star of Japanese directors, will present all of his films in world premiere.

Both will receive a Cyclo d’or d’honneur for their entire career or their work during the opening ceremony on February 1, 2022.

Moshen Makhmalbaf, multi-award-winning Iranian director, and Atiq Rahimi, Afghan director, Goncourt Prize 2008, signatories of the appeal of July 29, 2021 “let’s save Afghan artists! », will present several films during the Afghan Day.

A tribute will be paid to filmmaker Marc Haaz, technical director of Fica, who died tragically, at the age of 33, on July 30, 2021.

The complete films of Xei Fei,...

“Aloners,” a critically-acclaimed debut feature about loneliness, is set to receive a theatrical release in North America in early 2022. All rights in the region were acquired by Film Movement.

The film, directed by South Korea’s Hong Sung-eun, reflects on the growing phenomenon of one-person households and tells a tale of an anti-social woman who is forced out of her shell.

It was produced by the Korean Academy of Film Arts and represented in international markets by M-Line Distribution. Film Movement plans a theatrical outing in North American theaters that will be followed by releases to all leading home entertainment and digital platforms.

The film made its first appearance at the Jeonju International Film Festival, where it won the Cgv Arthouse Award Distribution Support prize and the best actress prize for Gong Seung-yeon. Gong also won the Korean Association of Film Critics prize for best new actress in the central role.

Mexican director Joaquin del Paso’s coming-of-age drama “The Hole in the Fence,” set in an all-male religious camp in rural Mexico, scored the Cairo Film Festival’s top prize, the Golden Pyramid, on Sunday capping a vibrant 43rd edition of the preeminent Arab event, which was held in person despite the impending threat of the coronavirus Omicron variant.

Though there were some last minute cancellations, most international attendees made the trek to Cairo undeterred, including jury president Emir Kusturica, U.S. producer Lawrence Bender and Cannes topper Thierry Fremaux – dubbed the “King of the Croisette” by the master of ceremonies. The latter two were honored with lifetime achievement awards during the glitzy closing ceremony in Cairo’s opera house.

“Hole in the Fence,” which world premiered in Venice, is Del Paso’s second work after “Panamerican Machinery,” which had made a splash after launching from Berlin in 2016. “Hole” explores...

Turkish director Selman Nacar’s “Between Two Dawns,” a taut moral thriller exploring ethical and familial responsibilities over the course of one 24-hour period, took home the top honor at the 39th edition of the Torino Film Festival, which ran from Nov. 26 – Dec. 4.

Chaired by director Ildikó Enyedi, and made up of actor Alessandro Gassmann, composer Evgueni Galperine and sales exec Isabel Ivars, this year’s jury commended Nacar’s filmmaking, calling the winning title “a mature film, directed with intelligent sobriety, which reveals a new, big talent.” The prize came with a purse of €18,000.

No doubt glad to return to in-person, restriction free screenings after last year’s online only edition, the jury spread the love around, offering special jury prizes to both Omar El Zohairy’s “Feathers” and Amalia Ulman’s “El Planeta.” Ulman’s film also won the Fipresci prize. Acting honors went to South Korea’s Gong Seung-yeon,...

The 25th edition of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is about to kick off, and between 12-28 of November the audience will have the oportunity to watch a great number of films from Asia, strewn across festival’s various program sections, including all competition segments. We went through the complete program and counted no more or less than 69 films from the broader Asian region.

Quite surprising is the amount of competition titles in the main selection, with three world premieres, four international. Lu ZHang’s “Yanagawa” will have its European premiere at PÖFF.

Yerzhanov returns to Tallinn a year after he presented two films at the festival, the main competition title “Ulbolsyn” about a woman who comes to a Kazhak village to “steer trouble”, and the oddball comedy “Yellow Cat” screened in the Current Waves program. Kirill Sokolov is also back two years after the premiere of his critically acclaimed...

The international premiere of animated musical comedy “Sing 2” will open the upcoming Torino Film Festival, Italy’s preeminent event for young directors and indie fare, which will be honoring Monica Bellucci with a lifetime achievement award.

Director Garth Jennings will be on hand in Torino for the overseas festival bow of his sequel to 2016’s “Sing,” which follows a koala named Buster Moon, voiced by Matthew McConaughey, as he and his cast of performing animals prepare for their biggest concert yet in Redshore City, and must convince a reclusive rockstar (Bono) to join them.

Bellucci, besides coming to be celebrated and to hold a masterclass, will also be attending the fest to launch her latest film “The Girl in the Fountain,” directed by Italy’s Antongiulio Panizzi, in which she plays the iconic Anita Ekberg, a role for which she died her hair blonde.

Charlotte Gainsbourg will also be...

The Middle East premiere of caustic Spanish comedy “Official Competition” will open the Cairo Film Festival, which has assembled a rich roster of international titles for its upcoming 43rd edition, to be held in person Nov. 26-Dec. 5.

Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, who are co-directors of the colorful pic starring Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas — which turns on a billionaire businessman determined to bankroll a memorable movie — are expected, barring complications, to attend the regional launch of their Venice-premiering comedy.

Cairo, which is the grande dame of the Arab world’s cinema shindigs — and the only festival in the Middle East and North Africa region to be accorded category “A” status by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations in Paris (Fiapf) — has been subjected to some disruption lately caused by Saudi Arabia’s deep-pocketed Red Sea Festival.

The Red Sea Festival in May decided to move the dates for...

Youn Yuh-jung, who won the Oscar for best supporting actress in “Minari” earlier this year, will be the subject of a special focus this year at the London Korean Film Festival. The festival will be held as an in-person event Nov. 4-19, 2021.

Youn was this week named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2021.

The festival’s special focus on her will include the European premiere of a digitally restoration of Youn’s first role in 1970’s “Woman of Fire,” by iconic filmmaker Kim Ki-young. Also presented in a new 4K restoration and being shown for the first time outside of Korea, is “Angel, Become an Evil Woman,” also directed by Kim, and originally released in 1990.

The festival includes two of Youn’s more recent collaborations with director Im Sang-soo, screening his “A Good Lawyer’s Wife” and “The Housemaid,” which played in competition in Cannes in...

Does choosing to be alone truly mean we are better off? Hong Sung-eun, director of the thought-provoking melodramatic film “Aloners,” begs to differ. “We are all connected anyway, so a decent farewell is a mere act of courtesy to close out a chapter,” says Hong.

“Aloners” tells a story about Jina, a top-notched employee at a credit card company call center. She chooses a solitary lifestyle and avoids building relationships with the people around her until the death of her lonely neighbor pushes her to address these relationships one by one. While the theme of loneliness pulsates throughout the film, Jina’s outlook is juxtaposed against her father (played by Park Jeong-bak), her rookie coworker Sujin (Jung Da-eun) and her new neighbor Seonghun (Seo Hyun-woo). All serve as reminders of human connectivity, notably during arduous times.

Premiered at the 22nd Jeonju Intl. Film Festival, and sold by M-Line Distribution, “Aloners” scored two awards.

When Cannes announced it was going ahead in July, and pulled off a successful festival complete with red carpet glitz, it seemed the global film community breathed a sigh of relief. “Before Cannes, many producers were not so sure about submitting their films to the festival. But when Cannes announced and it went ahead, then, suddenly, there was a new festivals-are-back feeling and we saw a surge of submissions,” says Giovanna Fulvi, Asia selector for the Toronto Intl. Film Festival.

But if Toronto has been lucky enough to operate with a degree of normalcy — Canada reopens its borders to vaccinated visitors from Sept. 7 and the festival can host in-person screenings — many in the industry are worried about the direction and future of film festivals in Asia and that feature Asian fare.

Fulvi faced submissions from Asia that approached normal levels, but the number of available slots was slashed by budget...

The Academy (Afaa) revealed the nominees for the 15th Asian Film Awards today. Thirty-six films from eight Asian regions will compete for 16 awards. China’s One Second, South Korea’s The Book of Fish, India’s The Disciple, and two Japanese films, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Wife of a Spy, compete for this year’s “Best Film Award.”

Three Hong Kong films were nominated for this year’s Afa, including Drifting, directed by Jun Li, nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Actress. Limbo, directed by Cheang Pou-soi, was nominated for Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design and Best sound; Adam Wong’s The Way We Keep Dancing was nominated for Best Original Music.

The Afaa is honoured that legendary South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong will be this year’s Jury President. Lee was the lifetime award recipient at the 13th Asian Film Awards.He won the “Best...