Lee Sunghwan’s Short to Feature in XR Competition Section in Austin

The short film Ihyangjeong: Carving with Memories has been invited to take part in the XR (Extended Reality) Experience Competition at the forthcoming SXSW Film Festival. From director Lee Sunghwan, it is the only Korean film among this year’s SXSW selection.

Ihyangjeong: Carving with Memories focuses on a 300-year-old house named Ihyangjeong that has belonged to the director’s family for generations and has been designated as a national folklore cultural heritage. Lee explores questions of modernity, home and identity through the film.

Lee’s 16-minute film will have its world premiere at the Austin, Texas-based festival, where it will screen on three consecutive days from Sunday, March 13. During its development phase, the project was selected for the IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival) Forum in 2020.

Director Lee is a graduate of the Korea National University of Arts (K’Arts) who has made several short animated films that have been invited to festivals around the world. His award-winning 2011 work Ah screened at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival among others, while his more recent film The Cleaner was selected for the Melbourne International Animation Festival in 2018.

While Korean feature films seldom screen at SXSW (the last was Karaoke Crazies in 2016), animated shorts have had a strong run at the festival with eight invitations over the past seven years. Last year both KKUM and Poison screened at the festival.

This year’s SXSW Film Festival is scheduled to take place from March 11 to 20.