YIM Soon-rye and HONG Kyeong-pyo Join Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences
Jul 12, 2019
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by Pierce Conran
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AMPAS Welcomes 9 New Korean Members
The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has swelled its ranks by adding 842 new members this year. Among the new roster of film industry professionals, who are now eligible to vote in the Academy Awards, are nine people from the Korean film industry, including YIM Soon-rye, who becomes the first female Korean director invited to join the group, and celebrated BURNING (2018) cinematographer HONG Kyeong-pyo (aka Alex HONG).
Following her debut Three Friends in 1996, YIM Soon-rye forged a career as the first major women filmmaker of modern Korean cinema and has remained a key figure in the industry until the present day, through films such as Waikiki Brothers (2001), Forever The Moment (2008) and last year’s Little Forest.
Also joining AMPAS is documentary filmmaker HONG Hyung-sook, who was a member of the Seoul Visual Collective in the 1980s before making her debut as a documentary filmmaker in the mid-1990s. Her most famous works are The Border City (2002) and The Border City 2 (2010). HONG’s latest work, Junha’s Planet, premiered at the Jeonju International Film Festival this year. Short animation film director JUNG Yu-mi, a festival regular through works such as Love Games (2013) and Dust Kid (2009), also joins the ranks.