“Miracle: Letters to the President,” a film directed by “Lee Jang-hoon,” was named the best film winner at the Far East Film Festival organized in Italy’s Udine on Saturday, following the audience poll. The festival organizers had described the South Korean-made film as the “ sweet-natured hymn to the power of dreams.”
The Chinese films bagged the second and third places, Li Ruijun directed “Return to Dust” and Xing Wenxiong directed “Too Cool to Kill,” The Black Dragon season ticket holders for the festival are said to have been voted for “Return to Dust,” while the users of the “movies” service had championed Korea’s “Kingmaker” by “Byun Sung-Hyun.”
The jurors appointed for the best debut film are said to have awarded the festival’s exclusive “White Mulberry” award to “Too Cool to Kill.” However, the Mulberry Award for the best screenplay had gone to Jojo Hideo’s “Love Nonetheless.”
If the order of the prizes had seemed like the return to the pre-COVID times, and so did the operation of the event, Udine’s 24th. After the wholly online edition in the year 2020 and the hybrid event back in the year 2021, the year 2022 edition had been largely operated as the conventional in-person event, which had then welcomed over 40,000 human spectators.
COVID controls had operated inside the two main cinemas, but they were no more restrictive than taking off of an airplane in Europe these days. And at the outdoor events, participants had gone all mask-free.
There was an evident useful re-introduction for many towards the in-person meetings, the crowds, and the parties, at the event held after the two-year isolation for the Asian film folk.