The Reason a Hongdae University CD Graduate Was Invited to the Cannes Film Festival... "I Was Surprised Too" [Cannes★Interview]

*This content was translated by AI.

• Interview with Director Choi Won-jeong, whose short film "Bird's Rhapsody" was selected for La Cinéfondation at the 79th Cannes International Film Festival

"I was also surprised when I received the invitation."

Director Choi Won-jeong, a graduate of Hongik University's Department of Visual Design, has been invited to the Cannes International Film Festival. La Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival is a section that selects and invites short films from film students worldwide. Previously, only students from the Korean Academy of Film Arts and the Graduate School of Arts at the Korea National University of Arts had been invited and had the joy of winning awards.

Director Choi Won-jeong, born in 2002, was honored to have her graduation film "Bird's Rhapsody" selected and invited to Cannes.

Director Choi Won-jeong said, "I submitted several films for the festival as my graduation project, but the Cannes Film Festival was the one I expected the least. However, I was truly surprised when I received an invitation from Cannes. I am so grateful. I am honored to present my work not only to Koreans but to people around the world at the largest film festival in the world."

Director Choi explained, "When I reviewed the films selected for La Cinéfondation, it seemed they chose works with distinctive visuals and unique directing styles. When I received the phone call, they told me that the structure of the music I used was excellent and that my animation had a unique feel, different from common commercial animations, which they appreciated."

Director Choi continued, "I handled both the animation and music work entirely on my own. This is a work that reflects my personal taste. I worked completely alone, without any staff. This is my graduation project, and I submitted it because I wanted to show it to more people beyond the graduation exhibition. While it would be great to win an award, I am already so grateful just to be among the 19th selected films out of 2,000 submissions."

Director Choi said, "In the past, when working on assignments, I often explored philosophical themes, such as the cycle of the world or abstract, grand discourses. However, when conceptualizing my graduation project, I thought it would be better to make it more concrete, so I chose the theme of 'humanity' and produced the film. I drew inspiration from Paul Gauguin's painting 'Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?' and created the work based on that. It was an exploration of what it means to be human, and ultimately, I began the project with the keyword that humans are made of freedom and desire."

Director Choi Won-jeong said, "There was a gap between finishing my graduation project and receiving the Cannes Film Festival invitation. I had decided to get a job and prepared for it, even considering working at a company to earn money. However, after receiving the Cannes invitation, I gained the courage to think, 'Why not share my story a bit more?' I have work I want to do now—it could be a short film, a feature film, or perhaps not even a film, but something else related to life." He added, "Since I love animation, I plan to continue working on animation projects in the future."

This year, 2,750 works were submitted to the La Cinéfondation section of the Cannes Film Festival, and 19 films from 15 countries were selected. In addition to Director Choi Won-jeong, Director Jin Mi-song, a student in the MFA (Master of Fine Arts) film program at Columbia University, was also invited and won the second prize.

<© STARNEWS. All rights reserved. No reproduction or redistribution allowed.>

*This content was translated by AI.