Skip to main content
The Novelist's Film film image, director Hong Sangsoo

The Novelist's Film

So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa

This event has passed

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

Director

Hong Sangsoo

Cast

Lee Hyeyoung, Kim Minhee, Seo Younghwa, Park Miso, Kwon Haehyo, Cho Yunhee

Credits
Country of Origin

South Korea

Year

2022

Language

In Korean with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
92 min
Award Winners Drama

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Frankenstein

Dir. Guillermo del Toro
149 min

Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro might have been made for each other. The movie does not disappoint, a ripping yarn of grand adventure, spectacle, hubris, passion and XXL body parts, a tale of the fantastic that rings the imagination. Screening in 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989

Dir. Göran Hugo Olsson
240 min

Drawing on 30 years of television archives, Göran Hugo Olsson relates the early history of the state of Israel, as reported by Swedish filmmakers, politicians and journalists. "An astonishing, invaluable document." William Mullally, The National

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Ballad of a Small Player

Dir. Edward Berger
105 min

Colin Farrell stars in this noir film about a gambler running out of luck in Macau, from the director of Conclave and All Quiet on the Western Front. Tilda Swinton, Fala Chen and Deannie Yip costar.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Woman in the Dunes

Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara
147 min

Teshigahara's collaboration with novelist Kōbō Abe's is vividly strange, erotic and unsettling allegory about an amateur entymologist who is himself ensnared in a trap he only dimly understands. Screening in 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Checkpoint Zoo

Dir. Joshua Zeman
107 min

The amazing true story of the rescue of thousands of animals trapped on the frontline at an Ecopark when Russia invades Ukraine in 2022.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Predators

Dir. David Osit
96 min

"Punk'd for pedophiles." That's what Jimmy Kimmel called Chris Hansen's true crime/reality TV show, To Catch a Predator (2004-07). Two decades on, David Osit examines why the show made such an impact, for good or ill, and sits down with Hansen himself.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Credits

Executive Producer

Hong Sangsoo

Producer

Hong Sangsoo

Screenwriter

Hong Sangsoo

Cinematography

Hong Sangsoo

Editor

Hong Sangsoo

Original Music

Hong Sangsoo