Canadian Premiere
Fresh from competing at the 72nd annual Berlin International Film Festival, audience favourite Hong Sangsoo returns to VIFF with his latest film.
Novelist Junhee (Lee Hyeyoung) is taking a break from writing, going on a daytrip to a small town to visit an old friend’s bookstore. Their reminiscing of years gone by turns into a discussion of a local public garden, one of the town’s must-see local attractions. It’s there on a leisurely stroll that Junhee has a chance encounter with a famous actress and a former colleague, a movie director. Suddenly, an aimless afternoon reignites an idea that Junhee has been ruminating for some time: what if she were to write and direct her own film?
Variety calls Hong Sangsoo’s 28th feature a “gently circuitous, conversation-driven charmer.” Shot almost entirely in black and white and featuring semi-improvised performances from a cast of Hong regulars, including Kim Minhee and Kwon Haehyo, The Novelist’s Film is an effortless and playful look at how a single day spent with friends, both old and new, can realign an artist’s purpose.
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, Berlin 2022
Media Partner
Hong Sangsoo
Lee Hyeyoung, Kim Minhee, Seo Younghwa, Park Miso, Kwon Haehyo, Cho Yunhee
South Korea
2022
In Korean with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Chef & the Daruma
The inventor of the California Roll, chef Hidekazu Tojo helped bring sushi to mainstream popularity through his renowned Vancouver restaurant, Tojo's. The Chef & the Daruma is a mouthwatering film touching on immigration, identity, and reinvention.
Rumours
Guy Maddin and the Johnson brothers are back with an audacious and fantastical political satire about a G7 meeting descending into supernatural chaos and disaster. Luckily Canada's PM (Roy Dupuis) is on hand to save the day...
All We Imagine as Light
What Wong Kar-wai did for Hong Kong, Payal Kapadia does for Mumbai: the Cannes Grand Prix winner is a romantic heartbreaker about three nurses at different stages of life. It's a future classic.
Let's Get Lost
One of the essential jazz films, this is an achingly tender record of jazz icon Chet Baker shortly before he died, still playing beautiful music and looking back on a life of might-have-beens. A love letter to a lost soul.
Bird
In Andrea Arnold's latest, 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) lives in a squat near the English seaside. Neglected by her chaotic father (Barry Keoghan), she pursues an adventure with a magnetic stranger named Bird (Franz Rogowski).
Credits
Executive Producer
Hong Sangsoo
Producer
Hong Sangsoo
Screenwriter
Hong Sangsoo
Cinematography
Hong Sangsoo
Editor
Hong Sangsoo
Original Music
Hong Sangsoo