Keywords: Korea, Film

The five critically acclaimed feature-length and numerous short films of Gina Kim have screened at many prestigious film festivals including Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, Buenos Aires, San Sebastian, Pusan, Deauville and Sundance, as well as MoMA, the Smithsonian and Centre Pompidou in Paris.

“Invisible Light” (2003), which won the Special Award at the 2004 Seoul Women’s Film Festival, has screened at more than 23 film festivals throughout the world. “Never Forever” (2007) was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Jury Prize at the Deauville American Film Festival that same year. Additionally, Kim was nominated for a prestigious Daejong Film Award (the South Korean equivalent of an Academy Award) in the best new director category.

Starring Vera Farmiga and Ha Jung-Woo, “Never Forever” was the first co-production between the United States and South Korea. It was released theatrically in the U.S., South Korea and France. Variety wrote: “Kim’s highly sensitive camera turns the film into a chamber-piece of hushed eroticism and surprising narrative grip,” while filmmaker Martin Scorsese said “Never Forever” was “a moving experience [in which] the performances are wonderful and touching, and the style...intense and very precise.”

Kim’s most recent film was “Final Recipe” (2013), a pioneering China-Korea co-production starring Michelle Yeoh and Henry Lau. The film was shot in Thailand, China and Korea with actors and crew from all over the world. The Hollywood Reporter said Kim “conjures a non-exotic piece out of a territory-trotting narrative, where every place is made to seem like home.” “Final Recipe” was the opening film in the 2014 Berlin Film Festival’s Culinary Cinema section. It will be released theatrically in 2015.

Between 2004-2007 and again from 2013-2014, Kim taught film production and theory classes in Harvard University’s Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, the first Asian woman to teach there. She has also served as a jury member at many film festivals and awards, including the Torino Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and Asian Pacific Screen Awards.

Kim received her bachelor of fine arts degree from Seoul National University and her master of fine arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts.